Envisioning the Future: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Dan Brown’s Origin

Abstract

This paper offers a succinct analysis of the potential outcomes of the ascent of artificial intelligence software, as shown in Origin by Dan Brown. Through qualitative research, this paper discusses the portrayal of AI in Dan Brown’s Origin. The emergence of today’s technical innovations, such as the Internet, mobile phones, and artificial intelligence programs like Siri, Alexa, Gemini, and Cortana, would have been written off as mistakes a century ago. This is the extent of human progress in the current world. However, it is questionable if the inventors are holding the reins firmly enough since they build machines that are far superior to humans and each one is better than the last. According to the novel, it is both plausible and conceivable that humans may soon mix or merge with technology to become a sophisticated, interdependent, and networked posthuman species. Through a critical posthumanist reading of Dan Brown’s Origin, this paper examines and analyses the fictional possibility of humans in their symbiosis, intra-action, and trans-corporeality with the technium, that is, engagement and fusion with the modern technologies that alter humans’ subjectivity and identity evolving to become posthuman beings. This study also lays the foundation for further research on the posthumanist reading of Dan Brown’s works.