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The Ethical Transformation of Human–Machine Relations from a Posthumanism Perspective ― Focusing on <The Wandering Earth II>

  • The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China
  • Abbr : JSLCKC
  • 2025, (78), pp.293~323
  • DOI : 10.16874/jslckc.2025..78.011
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Study on Chinese Languge and Culture
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature
  • Received : October 10, 2025
  • Accepted : November 20, 2025
  • Published : November 30, 2025

Niu Yilin 1 kim Young Mi 2

1세종대학교 공연·영상·애니메이션학과
2세종대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study explores the ethical transformation emerging in the human–machine relationship within the posthumanist era, focusing on the film <The Wandering Earth II>(2023). As artificial intelligence and mind-uploading technologies continue to evolve, posthumanist imaginations of the future depicted in science fiction cinema are increasingly approaching a realizable reality. <The Wandering Earth II>(2023), grounded in the notion of a community of shared future for humankind, weaves together three intersecting narrative threads. human to human, human to machine, and human with machine hybrid relations to present an SF narrative infused with posthumanist ethical reflections. From the perspective of human ethics, the film problematizes the meaning of human morality when confronted with disaster and death, as represented through the tension between the ‘The Moving Mountain Project’ and ‘The Digital Life Project’, as well as through the act of mind uploading at the brink of death. On the level of machine ethics, machines are portrayed as manipulated entities, subordinated to human commands and algorithmic design, thereby exhibiting ethical constraints and behavioral limitations during task execution. However, with the advent of artificial intelligence, this obedient hierarchy is disrupted, giving rise to a conflict between machine controlled machines and human controlled machines. In terms of human with machine ethics, when a human consciousness is uploaded and integrated with artificial intelligence, the human mind becomes a variable within the domain of AI. Through these three ethical dimensions,human ethics, machine ethics, and human with machine ethics. <The Wandering Earth II>(2023) explores the ethical possibilities inherent in human with machine relations. This examination not only provokes a reconsideration of the evolving dynamics between humans and machines but also expands the ethical boundaries of their relationship within the framework of posthumanism.

Citation status

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