Jennifer Haley’s The Nether: Transhumanism in the Post-Internet World

Abstract

The Nether is a science fiction play written by American playwright Jennifer Haley. The play dramatizes a techno-futuristic image of life as humans become increasingly immersed in the virtual world after the Internet transforms into a technologically advanced sphere called the Nether. This article proposes that The Nether confuses what it means to be real in a world obsessed with digitization and contributes to the transhumanist discourse regarding the ethical and moral ramifications of transcending the human condition in a post-Internet environment. The article also investigates Haley’s utilization of realistic virtuality to perform the transhuman on stage.