Paper short abstract:

Michal Daliot-Bul analyses the innovativeness and political implications of the idea of chemically-produced people in a 1882 Japanese political novel, and then explores the ramification of this science fiction tale on the popular narrative on the acceptance of artificial life in Japan.

Paper long abstract:

The obscure Japanese pro-anarchism political novel Senman muryō hoshi sekai ryokō, ichi mei, sekaizō (Voyage to Innumerable Star Worlds or A Store House of Worlds) was authored by the similarly obscure Nukina Shunichi, and self-published in 1882. In this novel, the protagonist travels to three different star-worlds where the local human civilizations are in different developmental stages, representing the past, near-future and far future of the earthly human civilization. The near-future star-world is a technology-driven, materialistically prosperous yet corrupt capitalist world. Among the many fabulous technological inventions in this world, there is a plan to systematically replace all naturally born humans with chemically-produced persons. The chemically-produced persons are the apex of technology, and a much-improved version of their naturally-born source of inspiration. And yet, notwithstanding their many merits and the plan to put them in the highest governmental positions, according to the grand scheme devised by chemists and the government, they will be no more than enslaved beings who could be disassembled at any time into the chemical components from which they were produced. As I will show, the point of the story is not to present an anthropocentric world view in which humans are afraid from replicas who will replace them―although this is also implied. Rather, the author uses the story to demonstrate how the combination of technology and capitalism reduces everything, including humans, to their use value. Contrary to the zeitgeist among Meiji elite, the author criticizes the adverse corrupting effect of science and technology in the civilizing process.