Dystopia: Mirror or Myth?

Prologue

An introduction by Hazel Tan, Ting Xiao, Allison Hoe, Valerie Tan and Sharlene Lim.


More to Autodale Than Meets the Eye
Hazel Tan

Through Autodale: The Animated Series by Dead Sound, the differences between our expectations and our knowledge of human behaviours are explored. In the face of power discrepancy, one would expect revolutions to occur and prevail. However, in this text, she postulates that when such power discrepancy is excessive, there would, in turn, be a lack of desire for change as it is accepted these revolutions are insufficient to bridge this gap and would ultimately fail. This leads to a passive and submissive powerless populace that contradicts our liberal values of freedom. 


The Inconsistent Picture of Racism Painted by Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Ting Xiao

The portrayal of racism in Mankind Divided appears to be realistic and coherent on the surface, but a deeper look reveals that it mixes two different narratives of discrimination that ultimately fails to create a consistent picture of black racism.


The Human Ethics of Care: A Leverage Over Superhumans in Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Allison Hoe 

Facing inertia to act for the general societal good, but taking drastic action once your loved ones are becoming personally affected by societal conditions seems like an expected human tendency. However, this article appreciates how practising caring ethics has become so rare in the artificially-augmented society of Uglies that it becomes the key destabilising force of the superhuman Specials and the dystopian society which they are ordained to preserve.


Mortal Engines: Is It the Ship or the Captain?
Valerie Tan 

At first glance, the film Mortal Engines seems to be criticising capitalism as a political, social and economic system. However, upon deeper analysis, the film presents how human greed distorts the implementation of capitalism and hence suggest that the underlying cause of societal chaos is human greed.


Pointing Fingers at the Grain:
An Examination of Human Responsibility in
“The Entire History of You”

Sharlene Lim 

In a society where the use of transhuman technology is ubiquitous, who is to blame when dysfunction begin to surface in this society: humans or transhuman technology? This article will explore how the human insecurity of not being omniscient causes an overreliance on transhuman technology within Black Mirror’s “The Entire History of You”, which culminates in the destruction of interpersonal relationships.