Thinking Monstrosity in Western and Global Literatures and Creative Media explores humanity’s ambivalence toward non-human and hybrid intelligence through representations of thinking monstrosity across diverse genres, cultures, and historical contexts. It investigates how the idea of monstrosity shapes our shifting perceptions of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and brain-computer interfaces. This study interrogates cross-cultural dynamics between human and non-human intelligences, addressing ontological, epistemological, aesthetic, and ethical dilemmas. It considers non-human entities capable of cognition and humans with artificially or magically altered cognitive functions, challenging assumptions about consciousness and identity. A timely intervention in the debates about intelligence's future, this book bridges past and present to reveal the dynamics shaping our attitudes toward intelligence beyond traditional human boundaries. By tracing the genealogy of thinking monstrosity, it offers crucial insights into how historical anxieties continue to inform contemporary responses to technological advancement and cognitive transcendence.
