Science Fiction and Ontologies of Leadership

Abstract

The role of leadership in science fiction receives a particular analysis which is based on what can be termed transhumanist novels published in Italy between 2008 and 2013. The main purpose of this study is to answer the following question: What happens to (the nature of) leadership in a technologically-driven society? Four novels form the backbone of the description of futuristic leadership. The four conclusions drawn from this analysis regarding the nature of leadership in a technologically-driven society point to a much greater need for leadership studies to pay attention to technological advances (and the philosophical underpinnings of, specifically, transhumanism). The impact of nano-bio-technology affecting the role of leaders, followers, goals, alignment, commitment has ontological repercussions on the manner in which (augmented and unaugmented) humans deal with each other. If early augmented humans/cyborgs and any other sentient beings are in fact comparable to Giambattista Vico’s brutes, and if his corsi e ricorsi (ebbs and flows) of human history can apply to non-human, sentient beings’ history, then the work is cut out for all disciplines, but especially for those which deal with ontologies of leadership.

Keywords

• Science Fiction
• Ontology
• Leadership
• Giambattista Vico
• Transhumanism