Chris Danta is mapping the literary history of evolution & AI

‘I think literary writers offer some of the most sensitive and profound reflections on the human-nonhuman relation,’ says Professor Chris Danta.

Professor of Literature at the Australian National University’s (ANU) School of Cybernetics, Chris Danta FAHA has previously held the position of president at the Australasian Association for Literature and was appointed a Fellow of the Academy in 2024.

‘My work deals with how humans define themselves in relation to the nonhuman—particularly the environment, other animals and machines.’

Danta’s current project, Future Fables: Literature, Evolution and Artificial Intelligence, details the history of evolution and artificial intelligence in literature and explores how writers continue to shape the Western relationship and understanding of machines and AI.

Professor Chris Danta currently researches at the School of Cybernetics at ANU, and describes himself as a literary anthropologist interested in what it means to be human by drawing on other knowledge systems such as religion and science through literature.

‘This project identifies the late nineteenth-century as one origin of our current fear in the West of artificial intelligence taking over as the dominant species on Earth,’ he explains.

‘Just when Charles Darwin was popularising the theory of evolution, the English writers Samuel Butler and George Eliot were speculating about the possibility of machine evolution and writing fictions in which machines were projected to evolve and take over from humans as the dominant species on the planet.’

Danta’s project is focussed on how writers ‘biologise machines by presenting them as living and evolving organisms.’ He is interested how authors—such as Philip K. Dick, Stanisław Lem, Jeff VanderMeer, Ted Chiang and Bo-Young Kim—philosophize through their literature.

‘I’m discovering two things in the Future Fables project. One: that underlying the Western scientific fear of machines taking over is the animistic idea that all things, including machines, are alive and, two: that machines form a kind of living environment of the human that we use to understand ourselves.’

Tackling the threat of the ‘AI takeover’

The relationship between artificial intelligence and humans has at times, been rocky; think HAL-9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov, or recent concerns about generative AI products such as ChatGPT.

Fears of AI ‘taking over’ is not a new phenomenon, and Professor Danta says the Future Fables project aims to alleviate some of the anxieties surrounding the future of artificial intelligence, by contextualising it within a long, literary history.

‘When something apparently new like ChatGPT emerges people often jump to narrow and dystopian conclusions about how this novelty will transform society,’ says Professor Danta.

‘I think it is always important to remember that technology does not replace humans but that humans understand themselves in relation to and socialise with technology—just as they do with nonhuman animals and the environment.’

Intersecting the humanities and technology

The intersection between science and the humanities, Danta says, is imperative to understanding our current and future relationship with technology.

‘It’s important that conversations about the use and implications of AI-enabled technologies like ChatGPT involve experts from as many different disciplines as possible. The humanities have so much to contribute to these conversations because their object of analysis is the human.’

‘Cybernetics is all about getting different disciplinary perspectives on complex social problems. The humanities have much to contribute to the cybernetic discussions we are having in many places in the world about the effects and possible futures of technologies.’

What science fiction can teach us about our human reality

Not all AI is presented as hostile in science fiction. In the Star Wars franchise C3PO, and his companion, R2D2, are benevolent sentient companions who aid the rebellion.

Science fiction’s relationship with the wider public and academic community continues to evolve, and its cultural impact is cosmic. The literature continues to expand; but the genre has also found home on the screen. In 2024, the second instalment of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Hubert’s Dune was released. The film, aptly titled Dune: Part Two, grossed just under $716 million at the box office. As Bronwen Neil FAHA wrote, ‘Dune fictionalised the moral and environmental issues we’re grappling with sixty years later’.

Danta welcomes the growing interest in the genre and is keen to continue his research into how the literature can be used to better understand the human-nonhuman relationship.

‘I think science fiction is starting to get the respect it deserves in literary studies,’ says Danta.

‘Many people comment today that the present is science fictional. This is a recognition not just that literature has helped shape the present, but also that reading and writing literature can help us understand the future.’

‘We’re now starting to appreciate how these fantastic genres can help us understand things like climate change and the emergence of AI that confront us with scenarios that would previously have been dismissed as fantastical.’

‘I’m also excited by what literary studies can contribute to current debates about technology and the future of society. Moving to the School of Cybernetics at the ANU enables me to bring the perspective and insights of literary studies to a multidisciplinary discussion about the future of society.’

For more information about Professor Danta’s Future Fables project visit the School of Cybernetics’ website.

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