Utopia, determinismo tecnologico, ingegneria sociale: la dianetica tra scienza e fantascienza

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Campo DC	Valore
dc.contributor.author	Argenio Giulio
dc.title	Utopia, determinismo tecnologico, ingegneria sociale: la dianetica tra scienza e fantascienza
dc.type	Journal Article
dc.language.iso	it
dc.identifier.uri	http://doi.org/10.14277/AnnOc/2499-1562/2019/01/031
dc.description.abstract	In May 1950 L. R. Hubbard published in a science fiction magazine “Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science”, which would later form the basis of Scientology. Emerging from the technocratic mindset typically associated with the periodical, the article considered the human brain as a computer in need of rewiring, giving birth to a peculiar kind of utopian thinking whose aim was not the creation of a ‘new man’, but the return to an original perfection of the mind. Through an examination of this text and its context, I propose to investigate the relationship between engineering culture and literary fictions, trying to understand how the mind-computer analogy shaped the vision of a regenerated society.
dc.relation.ispartof	Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 53 \| December 2019
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing
dc.date.issued	2019-11-27
dc.dateAccepted	2019-03-21
dc.dateSubmitted	2019-05-27
dc.identifier.issn	2499-2232
dc.identifier.eissn	2499-1562
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subject	Science fiction
dc.subject	Technological utopianism
dc.subject	Human mind
dc.subject	Technocratic culture
dc.subject	History

Research Article

Utopia, determinismo tecnologico, ingegneria sociale: la dianetica tra scienza e fantascienza

open access peer reviewed

Giulio Argenio Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia; Università degli Studi di Padova, Italia; Università degli S

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abstract

In May 1950 L. R. Hubbard published in a science fiction magazine “Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science”, which would later form the basis of Scientology. Emerging from the technocratic mindset typically associated with the periodical, the article considered the human brain as a computer in need of rewiring, giving birth to a peculiar kind of utopian thinking whose aim was not the creation of a ‘new man’, but the return to an original perfection of the mind. Through an examination of this text and its context, I propose to investigate the relationship between engineering culture and literary fictions, trying to understand how the mind-computer analogy shaped the vision of a regenerated society.

Keywords: Science fiction. Technological utopianism. Human mind. Technocratic culture. History.

Language: it

Submitted: March 21, 2019
Accepted: May 27, 2019
Published: Nov. 27, 2019

permalink: http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOc/2499-1562/2019/01/031

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License