Digital Necromancy and the Fictional Imaginary: Speculative Probes into Deathbots and the Neoliberal Afterlife

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Using speculative fiction as a cultural probe, this essay critiques “deathbots” as extensions of late neoliberal capitalism. By examining Black Mirror, Upload, and The Final Cut, I make the case that these stories demonstrate a colonization of grief where the dead become extractable data for profit and the bereaved become dependent users. The essay draws on Homi Bhabha’s concept of mimicry and Sherry Turkle’s “ELIZA effect” to show how artificial intelligence simulacra trap mourners in loops of sycophantic affirmation that interfere with real grief. These technologies, I argue, foster a “crisis of narration,” the inability to achieve the temporal closure necessary to mark an end to grief and transform the raw data of loss into shared meaning. Ultimately, digital afterlives foster emotional stasis rather than healing, necessitating a critical recovery of memory and communal rituals in an era of algorithmic intimacy.