Parapsychological Allusions in Damien Broderick’s Novel “Godplayers”

Contemporary fiction has long been a platform for the popularization of various ideological programs and movements, including transhumanism. A number of transhumanist writers, who have made their careers by artistically embodying the ideas of virtual reality, the digital universe, AI, and the Human Enhancement project, have firmly established themselves as successors to futuristic, science-fictional, and critical literature. Among these authors, Australian writer D. Broderick, who has published novels as well as short stories, is particularly notable for his combination of science fiction with a specific interpretation of psi phenomena (parapsychological literature). For example, while contemporary bestselling author Dan Brown is known for his mastery of combining art history and religious material into a quirky detective novel, Damien Broderick delves into complex, cutting-edge natural science research and esoteric theories of the existence of the Universe and humanity. His method combines fragments of scientific texts (a deep dive into the specific explanations of physical and mathematical theories of the origin of the Universe) with esoteric theories, numerology, and occult elements characteristic of many transhumanist gurus. This paper examines the parapsychological aspects of transhumanism using as a study material Broderick’s novel Godplayers, which has received high praise of the adherents of this movement.