Norgard Publishes Article

Amy Norgard, associate professor of classics, MAE Latin, recently published an article entitled "Artificial Life, Divinity, and Mythology in Star Trek" in the journal Religions for a special issue entitled "The Digital and the Divine: Cyber-Spirituality in Contemporary Science Fiction and Television."

In the article, Norgard demonstrates that the depiction of AI throughout "Star Trek" (androids, supercomputers, holograms) simulates divinity by sharing features associated with the immortal gods of ancient mythology (agelessness, superhuman powers), and how artificial-organic relations recapitulate the tensions between immortals and mortals from such works as the "Homeric Hymns" and the "Odyssey." Just as the seminal literary works of Homer, Hesiod and Ovid aim to define humanity relative to the divine, so too are modern sci-fi narratives about AI fertile ground for outlining what it means to be human, and what is decidedly not human. The article is open-access and available here.