Virtualization of Pregnancy: Game and Reality

Abstract

Technology is changing human life in every possible way. However, bearing a child came under their influence only in the 20th century, which, together with the changing role of women in society, led to a rethinking of the phenomenon of pregnancy. The article considers how the development of reproductive technologies and their promotion paved the way for the separation of motherhood from bearing children, which began to be understood as a technical process. An analysis of the representation of pregnancy in computer games was also carried out, an emphasis was placed on the desire to ignore or reduce the process of bearing a child, both on the part of the creators of the game and the players. Despite the fact that raising a baby outside the body of a future mother becomes possible due to progress in the field of biomedical technologies justification for this phenomenon is largely due to the increasing virtuality of existence. Introduced in 2022, the EctoLife project integrates the latest reproductive and digital technologies, preparing society to accept virtual play pregnancy, where the baby is raised in an artificial capsule. In a digital society, it is natural to ask for a controlled pregnancy, which occupies a strictly defined place in life, like a capsule in the corner of a room, or in smartphone application, which you can turn to when there is a desire to remember the future baby. As a result, the technical finally replaces the natural: childbearing is built into the technocratic process with unpredictable consequences.