从《假人》的复制主题看自由与自主选择

Duplication in "The Dummy" :Freedom and Free Choice

在苏珊·桑塔格的短篇小说《假人》中,主人公希望通过复制自我而获得自由,用复制的假人代替自己参与社会生活,自己则退隐到社会的最底层,成为一个隐形人,从而逃避现代城市生活所带来的焦虑。然而,假人也有自主选择和追求自由的权利,其机械人工智能的自由诉求催生了另一轮的复制。两个假人的道路实则是主人公有可能过上的不同生活,但在自我审视中,他并没有踏上真正的自由之路,这也是桑塔格这篇寓言式故事的一个反讽。

In Susan Sontag＇s short story ＂The Dummy＂ , the protagonist attempts to free himself from the anxiety that he suffers from the modem city life by creating a dummy to replace himself in every social activity while he retires into the lower-class one and becomes almost invisible. However, the dummy also has the right of free choice to pursue his own freedom and his artificial intelligence calls for the duplication of the other dummy. The ways the two dummies live actually represent the possible choices the protagonist may make, but on reflection, he does not choose to live an active life. This is an irony with which Sontag endows her parable-like story.