Full Description
Master-Narrative Transitions from the Vikings to Artificial Intelligence: How Fiction Helps Communities Adapt to a Changing World examines how societies survive and transform when their foundational stories begin to collapse. By tracing a millennium of cultural evolution in the Nordic region, it explores the mechanisms through which communities move from one master-narrative to another.
Propelled by artificial intelligence, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is challenging the humanist master-narratives that have structured meaning throughout the modern era. In their place, emerging dataist beliefs appear increasingly adaptive to tomorrow's environment, reshaping how individuals and institutions understand progress. Yet, such transitions come with the highest possible stakes.
Drawing on selected works of fiction alongside cultural analysis, the book offers both historical insight and contemporary agency. It ultimately asks what kind of beliefs can sustain social cohesion in the age of AI, and what new societies might emerge if we choose our narratives wisely.
Contents
Chapter 1. Bridging the Narrative Abyss
Chapter 2. The Nordic Master-Narrative
Chapter 3. Christianity: From Kinship Societies to Feudalism
Chapter 4. The Black Death: Acceleration Toward Humanism
Chapter 5. The Reformation: From Theism to Religious Humanism
Chapter 6. The Pastoral Enlightenment: A Nordic Secular Humanism
Chapter 7. Feminism: Writing Women into the Master-Narrative
Chapter 8. Modernity: A Plea from the Urban Poor
Chapter 9. Secular Lutheranism: Narrative Continuity Informs Poverty Relief
Chapter 10. Humanism: A Nordic Negotiation Between Creeds
Chapter 11. Indigeneity: Embodied Assimilation and Sámi Revitalization
Chapter 12. Social Democracy: Adapting Through the Gales of Modernity
Chapter 13. Postmodernism: Countering the Neoliberal Threat
Chapter 14. Posthumanism: Algorithmic Universality as a Nordic Dataism
Chapter 15. Overcoming the Gloom of a Collapsing Story
