ALAN AYCKBOURN’ÜN TRANSHÜMANİZMİ VE POSTHUMAN DURUMUNU KEŞFİ: HENCEFORWARD (ŞİMDİDEN SONRA)

Abstract

One of the finest and most prolific writers and directors in England, Alan Ayckbourn walks the line between humor and despair in his plays while emphasizing people from the middle class and addressing issues with the family unit and marital difficulties that may or may not arise in society. The purpose of this research is to provide an explanation of the ‘post-human condition’ by focusing on transhumanist theory and the post-human scenario in the play Henceforward (1987), which was dramatized by Ayckbourn with a gloomy outlook on the future. In the context of transhumanism, which represents the transition from humanism to post-humanism, in Ayckbourn's Henceforward, Jerome is addicted to technology but lost his productivity and falls into a void due to his wife's abandonment having an isolated life in a shelter equipped with technological tools, but hopelessly tries to produce something but he fails. In addition to the character of Jerome, who is trying to regain his family in desperation by trying to create, a woman Android (NAN 300F), which is the creation of modern man and is programmed to take care of a baby, takes part in the main action of the study. The second part of this research examines the post-human nature of the characters as well as their behavior patterns, focusing on how the man-made and human-like robots interact and communicate with actual humans. Considering the plot of the play, the study examines whether the humanmachine conflict is possible in the foreseeable mechanical future, whether real humans or man-made androids with artificial intelligence will dominate each other in the near future, and whether human-designed and human-like machines are acceptable for the future of humanity.