GAL 51 - Post-human Precursor - page 1

GET A LIFE!
EPISODE 51: POST-HUMAN PRECURSOR

STORY FOLDER < PAGE 1 > NEXT

Art by Heitor Fraga YouTube - Instagram - Twitter - Facebook

Story & lettering by Franco Villa

English edits by Joe Teanby

Edits by Cristian Di Biase & Luca Salvadei


NOTES

The modern concept of "transhumanism", which is a mainstream theme in the Silicon Valley  (among the Californian Technolibertarians), was explored decades ago by writers such as Alfredo Castelli, who featured it in his Martin Mystère series, since the cornerstone episode known as "Operazione Dorian Gray" (I giorni dell'incubo (Martin Mystere nn. 62-63-64), even though in that case the man who devised the futuristic tech of a mind-interfacing and mind-rewriting biological computer , was only interested in making money out of his own invention, without considering the impact it could have on human society.

Bitcoin is the complicated, intangible virtual currency which recently has been quite popular in the news (but this webcomic was scripted a couple of years ago, when this virtual currency was not famous yet).
Its unbreakable (?) encryption looks like the ideal foundation for ensuring the uniqueness of a sentient mind houses in the world wide web.

Panel 3 hosts a background image featuring the robotic threat of Gort, based on a poster of the movie  The Day Earth Stood Still (1951).

The sociological fear of being replaced by robots (especially at the workplace) is a reference to the works of sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov (for instance his novel "The Caves of Steel").