Abstract:

The mirror motif of the“Narcissus”myth (self-other) and the duel motif of the“Thanatos”myth (life-death) together reveal the power dynamics underpinning human-machine relations both on and off screen. With the rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (AI), the AI figure has progressively extended from an“imaginative Other”within the screen to an“alternative Other”in the form of algorithms outside it. This collapse of the dual“mirror thresholds”has led to the merging of the formerly parallel“mirror-world”and“real world.”In today’s reality, we also enact a mythic creation of fact—thereby drawing ourselves into this

ontological game of being-in-the-world. As the created“Artificial Intelligence”escapes the screen’s Edenic enclosure, an ultra-modern“Myth of Garden”softly emerges through the logic of“substituted labor.”Though

differing in form, both the myth of garden and the myth of duel, by virtue of their urgent real-world relevance, compel us to confront the duel-motif of Thanatos head-on.

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