Sex in Cyborg: A Philosophical Analysis of the Movie 'Her'

Abstract

This paper examines sex in cyborg that featured in the movie Her (2013). The cyborg character, Samantha, challenges traditional conceptions of body and gender, as cyborg body lacks explicit sexual characteristics. By drawing on Haraway's notion of the cyborg as a creature of the post-gender world, this study investigates the possibility of sexual experiences within a non-sexed cyborg body which would be the future form of living in our humankind. Grounded in Merleau-Ponty's philosophy, it asserts the centrality of the body to human existence and its sexual dimensions. Additionally, this paper explores the multi-dimensional nature of sex, encompassing scientific, social and culture dimensions. Moreover, the study considers the Four-Phase Model of Sexual Response, established by Masters and Johnson's experiment in 1954. Through our analysis of the movie Her and the concept of sex in the context of a cyborg like Samantha, who lacks human-like bodily perception, there are arguable possibilities for Samantha to experience two levels of sex. The first level suggests that she can comprehend and understand the concept of sex through program processing. The second level proposes that Samantha can achieve omnipresent sex by upgrading her program and connecting with other programs in the network.