Abstract

The monster is created as a marvel, as something which, like transgression itself, does not belong to the assumed natural order of things. It is a liminal creature which embodies the very boundaries humans have overreached. The latest perspectives on the concept of the monstrous are connected to the new technological experiments and to artificial intelligence. Technology problematizes the real vs the virtual, the human vs the inhuman, the concept itself of legal persona: all this sets itself within a posthuman scenario. The movies Transcendence and Her perfectly epitomize these concepts, because in the former the conscience of the scientist Will is downloaded into a computer, from which he emerges as a new monstrous entity; in the latter a computer program, a voice, so artfully interacts with man as to give the impression of a reasonable and independent human being.