The eight-legged confidant: Narrativizing octopuses and non-human aging.

This article follows an increased interest in the octopus in both popular science and fiction. Octopuses have long held fascination and are commonly tied to processes of aging: Even though their life expectancy tends to be lower than that of humans, they are often framed as "old", not only by appearing as mythical creatures from an unknown past but also by appearing wise and intelligent. Whereas the octopus has been framed as Other, prominently by inspiring the aesthetics of alien life forms, recent examples have underlined the possibility of inter-species contact and communication. This article traces these moments of contact and investigates the role of aging in such fictional encounters. By focusing on two recent examples, Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures (2022) and Gina Chung's Sea Change (2023), it illustrates the ways that contemporary fiction narratively links the octopus to older age and discusses forms of non-human aging.

Fiction references as framing devices in extended reality news discourse.

This article examines fiction references in news coverage of extended reality. Based on a mixed methods analysis of 977 news articles from UK mainstream mass media outlets, this study found that fiction references were frequently used as framing devices within the news articles, with a focus on two franchises: The Matrix original trilogy (1999-2003) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994). These references were utilised in the following three key ways: claiming fiction is becoming real; as a tool to improve readers' understanding of extended reality; and, to a limited degree, to create dystopic visions of extended reality. Ultimately, this article shows that, despite the dystopic representations of extended reality in fiction, fiction references have primarily been used to portray extended reality as advanced and high-quality. This supports extended reality adoption and the commercial interests of technology companies, raising questions as to whether journalists prioritise the interests of their readers when creating such news.

Modular Ontologies for Genetically Modified People and their Bioethical Implications.

Participants in the long-running bioethical debate over human germline genetic modification (HGGM) tend to imagine future people abstractly and on the basis of conventionalized characteristics familiar from science fiction, such as intelligence, disease resistance and height. In order to distinguish these from scientifically meaningful terms like "phenotype" and "trait," this article proposes the term "persemes" to describe the units of difference for hypothetical people. In the HGGM debate, persemes are frequently conceptualized as similar, modular entities, like building blocks to be assembled into genetically modified people. They are discussed as though they each would be chosen individually without affecting other persemes and as though they existed as components within future people rather than being imposed through social context. This modular conceptual framework appears to influence bioethical approaches to HGGM by reinforcing the idea of human capacities as natural primary goods subject to distributive justice and supporting the use of objective list theories of well-being. As a result, assumptions of modularity may limit the ability of stakeholders with other perspectives to present them in the HGGM debate. This article examines the historical trends behind the modular framework for genetically modified people, its likely psychological basis, and its philosophical ramifications.

Precog visions: Predicting the future with the Minority Report sociotechnical imaginary.

The 2002 film Minority Report regularly appears in tech press articles asking whether it 'predicted the future'. When such publications invoke the film as having 'predicted the future' or 'come true', what social and political claims are being made? How has Minority Report become a discursive tool for imagining, constructing, and criticizing sociotechnical worlds? In this paper, we evaluate the worldbuilding process and real-world trajectories of three technologies 'from' Minority Report, as refracted through the lens of tech journalism: gestural interfaces, targeted advertising, and predictive policing. We argue that science fiction does more than represent technologies; it participates in their social construction. Some technologies imagined in Minority Report operate as 'diegetic prototypes', and the journalistic witnessing public takes them up in complex ways, interpreting, misinterpreting, and remixing the technologies depicted in the film. We further argue that it is not only technologies that move between film and reality in this process, but entire sociotechnical imaginaries. We find that in tech beat interpretations of Minority Report, the interfaces between bodies and technologies reflect a Silicon Valley sociotechnical imaginary of disembodied cyborg subjects and deracialized surveillance that materially and discursively shapes how technologies depicted in the film are developed and received.

Specificity of the short-story task for autism diagnosis when controlling for depression.

Securing an accurate autism-spectrum-condition diagnosis, particularly among women, remains challenging for autistic adults. Building upon previous research highlighting the short-story task (SST) as a promising tool for detecting fiction-based mentalizing difficulties in autistic adults, this study expands its scope. We investigated the SST's discriminative capacity across three distinct groups: autistic individuals (n = 32), nonautistic individuals without mental health problems (n = 32), and nonautistic individuals with clinical depression (n = 30). All three groups differed significantly from each other in their SST mentalizing score with the nonautistic group having the highest scores, the nonautistic but depressed group having medium scores and the autistic group showing the lowest scores. Receiver operator curve (ROC) analysis reaffirmed the SST's efficacy as a discriminator. Moreover, a linear regression analysis identified the SST mentalizing score, the SST comprehension score, and the number of books read per month as significant predictors of autism-spectrum-condition diagnosis. These findings bolster the SST's potential as a valuable adjunct in autism diagnostics, highlighting its discriminatory ability across diverse samples.

What if Hitler had won WWII and met Kennedy in 1964? Perception and evaluation of counterfactual historical fiction.

Introduction: This study investigates the cognitive processing and perception of counterfactual historical fiction and its effects on readers' receptivity to fascism, superstitious beliefs, and satisfaction with the present state of politics. Counterfactual historical fiction presents alternative realities where history diverges from the official historiography, such as in Robert Harris' novel Fatherland, which depicts a counterfactual world where Hitler won WWII. It was hypothesized that reading this genre incurs additional cognitive costs and is perceived with less realism and more aesthetic appreciation compared to historical fiction. Methods: Seventy-four subjects were divided into two groups and presented with two versions of paragraphs from Fatherland. An experimental group read the original version, describing a counterfactual reality where Hitler is still alive in 1964 (counterfactual historical fiction). A control group read a manipulated version, where events are made plausible by being backdated to 1941 (historical fiction). The study employed a triangulation of methods, utilizing online eye tracking and self-report questionnaires with 7-point Likert scale measurements. Results: The results indicate that counterfactual historical fiction is associated with increased cognitive demands at the first point of divergence, i.e., the first linguistic cue indicating counterfactuality. This genre also induced less perceived realism of history (factuality) and more surprise. Both versions of the text impacted readers by decreasing agreement with fascism, reducing superstitious beliefs, and enhancing their positive evaluation of the current political situation. Discussion: The study reveals the cognitive processing of counterfactual historical fiction, highlighting the need for revising current theoretical assumptions. Additionally, the positive impact on readers' attitudes and beliefs may underscore literature's potential role in fostering critical thinking, pro-social behavior, and satisfaction. Further research is suggested for subsequent empirical validation.

Freud in Bulgaria: Psychoanalysis, Literature, Translation: An Experience with the Singular.

This contribution considers a monthly seminar, Literature and Psychoanalysis, that has been taking place at Sofia University (Sofia, Bulgaria) since 2017. Three of the seminar's founders reflect on the transferences between literature and psychoanalysis, and on the ways in which literature and psychoanalysis can meaningfully converse. The exchange also touches on the fate of Freud's textual legacy in communist and post-communist Bulgaria.

Beyond trans* medicalisation: hapticality and the art of crafting trans*masculine identities in Ali Smith's How to be both (2014).

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented rise in trans* representation in literature, with works of fictions that go from critically acclaimed best sellers like Torrey Peters' Detransition Baby (2021) to Booker-Prize winner postcolonial-centred study of non-binary characters in Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other (2019). In this blossoming context of exploring trans* voices, Ali Smith's How to be both (2014) breaks the mould in its defiance of traditional representations of transivity, usually grounded on medico-legal discourses. Following the precept of transnormativity as well as the theories of hapticality of Jeanne Vaccaro and Laura Marks, which respectively explore the possibilities of trans* identity perceived as a collective process of crafting and the potential found in a haptical approach to the visual, I hereby discuss Smith's representation of trans*masculine identity outside the regime of medicine. Pivoting around Smith's conceptualisation of 'the painter self', an original reinterpretation of trans* identity as expressed and crafted through the arts and the feeling of touch, I offer an analysis of the continual process of becoming of trans* Renaissance character Francescho del Cossa. Moreover, I offer analyses on the impact others may have on one's own trans* identity, with an interest on the trans* joy that comes from acceptance and on the role of arts to outgrow the pain that comes from rejection. Finally, I examine the role of the visual in the artistic representation of transivity, where Smith defies the limits of time, portraying trans* identity as the true never-ending process.

From Ostalgie To Ostodium. The Anti-Communist Novel in Post-1989 East-Central Europe1.

This study seeks to theorize the post-communist anti-communist novel as a distinct and productive genre in East-Central European literatures, which we describe - in polemic with the better-known ostalgie - as a narrative of ostodium. We argue that anti-communist fiction became a cohesive genre in post-communism owing to its rigid view of the past, which was kept alive and significant, while simultaneously being antagonized, even after communism had collapsed. To that end, we explain how the anti-communist mindset assumed by intellectuals from the region during communism (which had then been branded as 'anti-politics') maintained monopoly over post-communist cultural production, and merged with ascending post-communist neoliberalism that promoted an anti-statist public mythology. We further outline the shifting shapes in which the ideological bias of the post-communist anti-communist novel was conveyed, and draw distinctions from proximate genres, such as the political novel, le roman á la thèse and historiographic metafiction. One crucial argument in this respect regards the postmodern entanglements of the post-communist anti-communist novel: in maintaining an univocal rejection of the communist metanarrative, they took on a stronger political thèse than in Western postmodernism, but also enhanced postmodernism's anti-realist drive by failing to provide an understanding of the post-communist present.

Representation of aided AAC in contemporary young adult fiction.

The current study explored both the extent to which representation of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) exists in young adult literature, as well as qualitative characteristics of that representation. A systematic search of multiple databases was conducted using standardized keywords and inclusion criteria. Descriptive statistics and literary content analysis were employed in order to analyze quantitative and qualitative information about each of the 32 novels that fit inclusion criteria. Results indicated that, while representation of AAC in young adult fiction largely aligned with existing statistics regarding types of AAC devices used, stories often differed from current information about the most common etiologies of AAC users. Analyses of character development revealed most featured AAC-using characters were multidimensional and expressed positive attitudes regarding their devices, although some characters also expressed frustration. These results indicated that representation of AAC in young adult literature was sparse. However, the representation that did exist at least partially reflected reality and may represent a positive portrayal of AAC use and users.

Impact of spy fiction on cognition: a case study.

Reading spy fiction has imprinted its traces on the thinking patterns of the readers that encourage them to consider it as a real event in their life. This case study is about a 37 year old woman, referred by a senior clinical psychologist with complaints of having the feeling of being monitored through a device and hearing the voices of the people. The brief therapeutic plan was based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy which focused on developing insight, identifying cognitive errors, and enhancing her socialisation skills. This case report holds its implications to drift the attention of the readers and clinicians toward the issue of consuming content that may potentially have an impact on its reader's mental health.

Autobiographical phenomenology of memories of fiction.

Most autobiographical memories are based on real-life experiences, but memories of fiction have many similarities to real-life autobiographical memories. However, the phenomenological nature of this similarity, the potential differences between media types, and the role of individual differences need further investigation. Based on previous findings, we expected differences between media types on emotional intensity, sensory vividness, and confidence about the recall. To provide insight into these issues, we collected one real-life autobiographical memory and one memory of fiction (book, film, or video game) from 291 participants. We asked them to rate their memories phenomenologically. The participants also provided information regarding their motivations for engaging with fictional stories. Our results show phenomenological differences in several dimensions between media types and differences in the similarity of media types to real-life memories. While absorption seems to be a good predictor for immersion, escapism tendency is a motivation to engage with fiction frequently.

Presentation of pharmacological content in crime novels between 1890 and 2023.

As there is lack of research on how drugs are presented in crime literature, we read nearly 25,000 pages of crime literature written between 1890 and 2023 to provide an overview on the pharmacological content in this genre. Correct presentation of pharmacological information decreased over time. Misconceptions about certain substances, especially narcotics and anesthetics appear in many of the analyzed examples. Also, in comparison with crime TV series, books are inferior in providing the reader with additional information and pharmacological plausibility. This especially applies for the newer books which contained less additional information than the older ones. In contrast, some books educate their readers. Newer books show a greater variety of substances also introducing recently developed drugs or new ways of application. On the contrary, older books stick to a small selection of well-known substances during that time, especially metals like arsenic and toxins like strychnine. Gender involvement in poisoning is not realistically presented in the novels. Male victims are overrepresented compared to reality. Also, the etiology is commonly presented incorrectly. Poisoning by accident or for suicidal purposes are rarely presented in the novels, despite their significance in reality. Overall, crime novels educate but also misinform their readers. We discuss the consequences of our findings for the individual reader and public health.

A meta-narrative review of choose-your-own-adventure style patient case activities in pharmacy education.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this review was to characterize the methods of delivery and assessment of Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA)-style activities in pharmacy education. A secondary objective was to utilize available data to determine best practices for educators interested in developing similar activities. METHODS: A meta-narrative approach according to the guidance of the RAMESES standards was used for this review. A broad literature search was conducted using PubMed and Embase. Studies published on the use of a CYOA-style patient case format in pharmacy education were identified and appraised individually for their relevance. RESULTS: Thirteen studies from the pharmacy education literature were included in the review. Activities were delivered for 25 unique topics, largely in small groups during class via patient simulation or interactive data collection software. Overall, students have a positive perception of CYOA-style activities, with positive results regarding knowledge development and student engagement. The most commonly reported challenge to implementing CYOA-style patient case activities was the up-front time commitment to develop activities. IMPLICATIONS: This review provides a snapshot of the small but expanding body of literature on CYOA-style patient case activities in pharmacy education. CYOA-style activities are recommended for expanded use in pharmacy education as the preponderance of studies that assessed knowledge development showed significant improvement in knowledge after participation in CYOA-style activities. Additionally, students have a positive perception of CYOA-style activities and reported that they were enjoyable, improved their confidence, and helped them learn course material.

Pathways to democratized healthcare: Envisioning human-centered AI-as-a-service for customized diagnosis and rehabilitation.

The ongoing digital revolution in the healthcare sector, emphasized by bodies like the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is paving the way for a shift towards person-centric healthcare models. These models consider individual needs, turning patients from passive recipients to active participants. A key factor in this shift is Artificial Intelligence (AI), which has the capacity to revolutionize healthcare delivery due to its ability to personalize it. With the rise of software in healthcare and the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), a surge of digital data is being produced. This data, alongside improvements in AI's explainability, is facilitating the spread of person-centric healthcare models, aiming at improving health management and patient experience. This paper outlines a human-centered methodology for the development of an AI-as-a-service platform with the goal of broadening access to personalized healthcare. This approach places humans at its core, aiming to augment, not replace, human capabilities and integrate in current processes. The primary research question guiding this study is: "How can Human-Centered AI principles be considered when designing an AI-as-a-service platform that democratizes access to personalized healthcare?" This informed both our research direction and investigation. Our approach involves a design fiction methodology, engaging clinicians from different domains to gather their perspectives on how AI can meet their needs by envisioning potential future scenarios and addressing possible ethical and social challenges. Additionally, we incorporate Meta-Design principles, investigating opportunities for users to modify the AI system based on their experiences. This promotes a platform that evolves with the user and considers many different perspectives.

On the Lookout for a Crack: Disruptive Becomings in Karoline Georges's Novel Under the Stone.

Informed by medical science and biotechnology, Karoline Georges's novel Under the Stone offers a reflection on suffering bodies and imagines responses to an overwhelming sense of fear and passivity that embodied trauma and the world's many crises can create. In line with the editors' reclaiming of the milieu for the medical humanities, I draw on Deleuze and Guattari's geophilosophy and Sara Ahmed's notions of stranger and encounter for reading the novel's spatialization of oppressive power dynamics and its imagination of subversive emergence. I also complicate the literary text's discourse on space and body by relying on wonder studies to examine further its alternative forms of careful attunement enacted through the protagonist's affective and disembodied awakening, the latter fueled by his escape from "the incessant movement of automatic components that delineat[e] [his] presence in the world" (Georges 2016, 61). Happening from and because of the Tower's milieu, this escape becomes a mitigating force to physical, affective, and social struggles. I thus contend that Georges's text provides thought-provoking material about the functions and effects of art for addressing the dangers and promises of bioethics, body sovereignty, and life protection.

The Altruism Requirement as Moral Fiction.

It is widely agreed that living kidney donation is permitted but living kidney sales are not. Call this the Received View. One way to support the Received View is to appeal to a particular understanding of the conditions under which living kidney transplantation is permissible. It is often claimed that donors must act altruistically, without the expectation of payment and for the sake of another. Call this the Altruism Requirement. On the conventional interpretation, the Altruism Requirement is a moral fact. It states a legitimate constraint on permissible transplantation and is accepted on the basis of cogent argument. The present paper offers an alternative interpretation. I suggest the Altruism Requirement is a moral fiction-a kind of motivated falsehood. It is false that transplantation requires altruism. But the Requirement serves a purpose. Accepting it allows kidney donation but not kidney sale. It, in short, rationalizes the Received View.

Buffering effect of fiction on negative emotions: engagement with negatively valenced fiction decreases the intensity of negative emotions.

Previous research has investigated how the context of perception affects emotional response. This study investigated how engagement with perceived fictional content vs perceived everyday-life content affects the way people experience negative emotions. Four studies with an experimental design tested how engagement with perceived fictional content vs perceived everyday life content affects the intensity of negative emotional response to negative emotional content, the motivation to decrease negative emotions, and cognitive reappraisal. Participants were presented with negatively valenced images and were asked to imagine either that they were witnessing them, or that a bystander was witnessing them, or that they were viewing a movie including these scenes. After the manipulation, all participants observed a different set of negatively valenced images or a set of negatively valenced videos and reported their emotional response. We found that the intensity of negative emotions and motivation to decrease them was lower among participants in the fiction condition compared to participants in the everyday life condition. Although perspective-taking had a similar effect on negative emotions, fiction condition was more successful in decreasing negative emotions. This might indicate that fiction plays a buffering role in decreasing the negative emotions people experience when facing negative emotional content.

Feminist retroviruses to white Sharia: Gender "science fan fiction" on 4Chan.

This article demonstrates-based on an interpretive discourse analysis of three types of memes (Rabid Feminists, Women's Bodies, Policy Ideas) and secondary thread discourse on 4chan's "Politically Incorrect" discussion board-two key findings: (1) the existence of a gendered hate based scientific discourse, "science fan fiction," in online spaces and (2) how gender "science fan fiction" is an outcome of the male supremacist cosmology, by producing and justifying resentment against white women as being both inherently untrustworthy (politically, sexually, intellectually) and dangerous. This perspective-which combines hatred and distrust of women with white nationalist anxieties about demographic shifts, racial integrity, and sexuality-then motivates misogynist policy ideas including total domination of women or their removal. 4chan users employ this discourse to "scientifically" substantiate claims of white male supremacy, the fundamental untrustworthiness of white women, and to argue white women's inherent threat to white male supremacist goals.

'I Am they.' Non-Binary Representation in Television Fiction as a Manifestation of Social Conceptions.

This qualitative research uses a case study to observe non-binary representation in TV fiction. The Dan character from the Spanish series HIT (RTVE, 2020-present), who is the first openly non-binary character in Spanish TV fiction, is analyzed through the lens of Queer Media Studies. The research applies a combination of content and discourse analysis. Qualitative content categories include a character's visibility, identity, relevance, embodiment, and social interaction. Discourse analysis categories include character's construction, lexicalization, propositional framing, and focus. Results show that Dan's non-binary depiction revolves around three significant axes: dualism, confusion, and exceptional talent. These axes frame social attitudes toward non-binary people and are composed by a set of features identified in Dan's case which also informs society's mind-sets. These traits are proposed as an analytical-theoretical tool for further analyses of non-binary representation in different cultural contexts. The outcomes of this research may inform audiovisual industries, regulations and academia, and are useful to consolidate non-binary media studies.