Cyborgs, Ethics, and The Matrix

“Cyborgs, Ethics and The Matrix is a wonderfully sharp and insightful book on the massively popular The Matrix franchise and its intersections with crucial debates about gender, sex, trans-, and — really — who gets to count as human. Compellingly written, this book is of interest to fans of the franchise and those of us who care about those different from ourselves.” – Steen Ledet Christiansen, Associate Professor of English at Aalborg University, Denmark

"Like the franchise itself, Gibson's book is at once deeply philosophical and yet exceptionally accessible, making it a necessary read for academic and general audiences alike.” - Liz W Faber, Assistant Professor of English & Communication at Dean College, USA

The Matrix (Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski 1999) has permeated our cultural consciousness for two decades, working its way into such common parlance as “a glitch in the Matrix,” and the idea of taking the Red Pill.  With the release of the fourth movie, The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski 2021), and the confirmation of the franchise being a metaphor for gender transition, this book examines how the entire franchise contributes to the discourse on sex and gender, and how it has been instrumental in propelling the creation of new types of cyborg technology.  This book centers on the main philosophical theme of The Matrix, know thyself, and relate it to the quest for authenticity which creates our identities—be they human, or human “enough”—as we move through the world. 

 Dr. Rebecca Gibson is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University, specializing in biological anthropology. Her published works include Desire in the Age of Robots and AI: An Investigation in Science Fiction and Fact (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and The Corseted Skeleton: A Bioarchaeology of Binding (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).