Stefan Helmreich, Sophia Roosth, and Michele Friedner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691164809
- eISBN:
- 9781400873869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691164809.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines how scientists working on Artificial Life have understood their practices as situated historically. It first considers the practice of finding genealogies for Artificial Life, ...
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This chapter examines how scientists working on Artificial Life have understood their practices as situated historically. It first considers the practice of finding genealogies for Artificial Life, arguing that such a search for ancestors carries acute historiographical and epistemological dangers. It then comments on computer simulations that fashion the computer as a kind of fish tank into which users can peer to see artificial life forms swimming about. It also discusses a different realm of modeling, that of cognition in Artificial Intelligence. The chapter concludes by suggesting a mode of imagining history that it calls an underwater archaeology of knowledge. In an underwater archaeology of knowledge, representational artifacts become mixed in with portraits of the world, requiring new sorts of narrative disentangling and qualification.Less
This chapter examines how scientists working on Artificial Life have understood their practices as situated historically. It first considers the practice of finding genealogies for Artificial Life, arguing that such a search for ancestors carries acute historiographical and epistemological dangers. It then comments on computer simulations that fashion the computer as a kind of fish tank into which users can peer to see artificial life forms swimming about. It also discusses a different realm of modeling, that of cognition in Artificial Intelligence. The chapter concludes by suggesting a mode of imagining history that it calls an underwater archaeology of knowledge. In an underwater archaeology of knowledge, representational artifacts become mixed in with portraits of the world, requiring new sorts of narrative disentangling and qualification.
José Hernández-Orallo and Adolfo Plasencia
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036016
- eISBN:
- 9780262339308
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036016.003.0031
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
In this dialogue comprising seven widely diverse sections, José Hernández-Orallo, specialist in AI, reflects on a variety of topics surrounding Natural Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence (AI): ...
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In this dialogue comprising seven widely diverse sections, José Hernández-Orallo, specialist in AI, reflects on a variety of topics surrounding Natural Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence (AI): 1. On what is measurable in intelligence, and what its ingredients are; 2. On how to universally measure intelligence; 3. On the Turing test; 4. On compared intelligences and the IQ (Intelligence Quotient); 5. On the AI agents of software; 6. On whether the human condition, (and happiness), can be mathematized; 7. On the relationship between intelligence and humor; and, 8. Are there universal ingredients in what we call intelligence? Toward the end, he talks about the current science and technology debate on whether the evolution of AI and its latest most disturbing incarnations (e.g., lethal autonomous weapons) can become an existential threat for humans or not. His reflections are culminated with arguments concerning a real danger— that someone, or something, might modify the present natural distribution of intelligence in the planet, which could end up being controlled by a global oligopoly.Less
In this dialogue comprising seven widely diverse sections, José Hernández-Orallo, specialist in AI, reflects on a variety of topics surrounding Natural Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence (AI): 1. On what is measurable in intelligence, and what its ingredients are; 2. On how to universally measure intelligence; 3. On the Turing test; 4. On compared intelligences and the IQ (Intelligence Quotient); 5. On the AI agents of software; 6. On whether the human condition, (and happiness), can be mathematized; 7. On the relationship between intelligence and humor; and, 8. Are there universal ingredients in what we call intelligence? Toward the end, he talks about the current science and technology debate on whether the evolution of AI and its latest most disturbing incarnations (e.g., lethal autonomous weapons) can become an existential threat for humans or not. His reflections are culminated with arguments concerning a real danger— that someone, or something, might modify the present natural distribution of intelligence in the planet, which could end up being controlled by a global oligopoly.
David Bates
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226720807
- eISBN:
- 9780226720838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226720838.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter questions the underlying assumptions of both classic Artificial Intelligence, founded in the analogy between the brain and the digital computer, and the newer tradition that construes ...
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This chapter questions the underlying assumptions of both classic Artificial Intelligence, founded in the analogy between the brain and the digital computer, and the newer tradition that construes the mind as an emergent property of interacting, distributed, parallel processes. It specifically explores Gestalt psychology and its brief engagement with cybernetics to suggest that was perhaps a missed opportunitt, and additionally examines John von Neumann's influential automata theory. The structure of insight helped explain the complex, nonmechanical behavior of living, acting organisms. For von Neumann, the creative plasticity of the nervous system served only to highlight the rather simplistic, and inferior, mechanical structure of the early computers, something he was of course well positioned to notice. His terse conclusion was that the logical structures involved in nervous system activity must “differ considerably” from the ones that are familiar in logic and mathematics.Less
This chapter questions the underlying assumptions of both classic Artificial Intelligence, founded in the analogy between the brain and the digital computer, and the newer tradition that construes the mind as an emergent property of interacting, distributed, parallel processes. It specifically explores Gestalt psychology and its brief engagement with cybernetics to suggest that was perhaps a missed opportunitt, and additionally examines John von Neumann's influential automata theory. The structure of insight helped explain the complex, nonmechanical behavior of living, acting organisms. For von Neumann, the creative plasticity of the nervous system served only to highlight the rather simplistic, and inferior, mechanical structure of the early computers, something he was of course well positioned to notice. His terse conclusion was that the logical structures involved in nervous system activity must “differ considerably” from the ones that are familiar in logic and mathematics.
Arlindo Oliveira
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262036030
- eISBN:
- 9780262338394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036030.003.0005
- Subject:
- Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
This chapter addresses the question of whether a computer can become intelligent and how to test for that possibility. It introduces the idea of the Turing test, a test developed to determine, in an ...
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This chapter addresses the question of whether a computer can become intelligent and how to test for that possibility. It introduces the idea of the Turing test, a test developed to determine, in an unbiased way, whether a program running in a computer is, or is not, intelligent. The development of artificial intelligence led, in time, to many applications of computers that are not possible using “non-intelligent” programs. One important area in artificial intelligence is machine learning, the technology that makes possible that computers learn, from existing data, in ways similar to the ways humans learn. A number of approach to perform machine learning is addressed in this chapter, including neural networks, decision trees and Bayesian learning. The chapter concludes by arguing that the brain is, in reality, a very sophisticated statistical machine aimed at improving the chances of survival of its owner.Less
This chapter addresses the question of whether a computer can become intelligent and how to test for that possibility. It introduces the idea of the Turing test, a test developed to determine, in an unbiased way, whether a program running in a computer is, or is not, intelligent. The development of artificial intelligence led, in time, to many applications of computers that are not possible using “non-intelligent” programs. One important area in artificial intelligence is machine learning, the technology that makes possible that computers learn, from existing data, in ways similar to the ways humans learn. A number of approach to perform machine learning is addressed in this chapter, including neural networks, decision trees and Bayesian learning. The chapter concludes by arguing that the brain is, in reality, a very sophisticated statistical machine aimed at improving the chances of survival of its owner.
Carolyn Jess-Cooke
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748626038
- eISBN:
- 9780748670895
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748626038.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter compares the sequel's memory-making registers with what Dominick LaCapra has called ‘secondary memory’. Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence: A. I. is explored to address the ...
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This chapter compares the sequel's memory-making registers with what Dominick LaCapra has called ‘secondary memory’. Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence: A. I. is explored to address the sequel's more complex registers of memory, repetition, erasure and history in three major contexts: cultural memory, the psychological development of memory and virtual memory. It persistently raises a number of psychoanalytic discourses and responses. Sequelisation in A. I. is a dominating feature of post-global warming, post-apocalyptic America. It then considers A. I. as a means by which a fuller understanding of both sequelisation and the Real can be obtained. The notion of the sequel organises the film's presentation of historical repetition. The repetition of the Real appears in David's case to create every experience and urge as a repetition of the ‘thing itself’, which is essentially himself. The sequel appears to problematise the experience, or memory, of the original.Less
This chapter compares the sequel's memory-making registers with what Dominick LaCapra has called ‘secondary memory’. Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence: A. I. is explored to address the sequel's more complex registers of memory, repetition, erasure and history in three major contexts: cultural memory, the psychological development of memory and virtual memory. It persistently raises a number of psychoanalytic discourses and responses. Sequelisation in A. I. is a dominating feature of post-global warming, post-apocalyptic America. It then considers A. I. as a means by which a fuller understanding of both sequelisation and the Real can be obtained. The notion of the sequel organises the film's presentation of historical repetition. The repetition of the Real appears in David's case to create every experience and urge as a repetition of the ‘thing itself’, which is essentially himself. The sequel appears to problematise the experience, or memory, of the original.
Joseph McBride
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604738360
- eISBN:
- 9781604738377
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604738360.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Until the first edition of this book was published in 1997, much about Steven Spielberg’s personality and the forces that shaped it had remained enigmatic, in large part because of his tendency to ...
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Until the first edition of this book was published in 1997, much about Steven Spielberg’s personality and the forces that shaped it had remained enigmatic, in large part because of his tendency to obscure and mythologize his own past. But this full-scale, in-depth biography of Spielberg reveals hidden dimensions of the filmmaker’s personality and shows how deeply personal even his most commercial work has been. This new edition adds four chapters to Spielberg’s life story, chronicling his extraordinarily active and creative period from 1997 to the present, a period in which he has balanced his executive duties as one of the partners in the film studio DreamWorks SKG with a remarkable string of films as a director. Spielberg’s ambitious recent work—including Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, A. I. Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, The Terminal, and Munich—has continually expanded his range both stylistically and in terms of adventurous, often controversial, subject matter. The previous edition of this book brought about a reevaluation of the great filmmaker’s life and work by those who viewed him as merely a facile entertainer. This new edition guides readers through the mature artistry of Spielberg’s later period, in which he has managed, against considerable odds, to run a successful studio while maintaining and enlarging his high artistic standards as one of America’s most thoughtful, sophisticated, and popular filmmakers.Less
Until the first edition of this book was published in 1997, much about Steven Spielberg’s personality and the forces that shaped it had remained enigmatic, in large part because of his tendency to obscure and mythologize his own past. But this full-scale, in-depth biography of Spielberg reveals hidden dimensions of the filmmaker’s personality and shows how deeply personal even his most commercial work has been. This new edition adds four chapters to Spielberg’s life story, chronicling his extraordinarily active and creative period from 1997 to the present, a period in which he has balanced his executive duties as one of the partners in the film studio DreamWorks SKG with a remarkable string of films as a director. Spielberg’s ambitious recent work—including Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, A. I. Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, The Terminal, and Munich—has continually expanded his range both stylistically and in terms of adventurous, often controversial, subject matter. The previous edition of this book brought about a reevaluation of the great filmmaker’s life and work by those who viewed him as merely a facile entertainer. This new edition guides readers through the mature artistry of Spielberg’s later period, in which he has managed, against considerable odds, to run a successful studio while maintaining and enlarging his high artistic standards as one of America’s most thoughtful, sophisticated, and popular filmmakers.
Arlindo Oliveira
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262036030
- eISBN:
- 9780262338394
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036030.001.0001
- Subject:
- Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
This book addresses the connections between computers, life, evolution, brains, and minds. Digital computers are recent and have changed our society. However, they represent just the latest way to ...
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This book addresses the connections between computers, life, evolution, brains, and minds. Digital computers are recent and have changed our society. However, they represent just the latest way to process information, using algorithms to create order out of chaos. Before computers, the job of processing information was done by living organisms, which are nothing more than complex information processing devices, shaped by billions of years of evolution. The most advanced of these information processing devices is the human brain. Brains enable humans to process information in a way unparalleled by any other species, living or extinct, or by any existing machine. They provide humans with intelligence, consciousness and, some believe, even with a soul. Brains also enabled humans to develop science and technology to a point where it is possible to design computers with a power comparable to that of the human brain. Machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies will one day make it possible to create intelligent machines and computational biology will one day enable us to model, simulate, and understand biological systems and even complete brains, with unprecedented levels of detail. From these efforts, new minds will eventually emerge, minds that will emanate from the execution of programs running in powerful computers. These digital minds may one day rival our own, become our partners, and replace humans in many tasks. They may usher in a technological singularity, may make humans obsolete or even a threatened species. They make us super-humans or demi-gods.Less
This book addresses the connections between computers, life, evolution, brains, and minds. Digital computers are recent and have changed our society. However, they represent just the latest way to process information, using algorithms to create order out of chaos. Before computers, the job of processing information was done by living organisms, which are nothing more than complex information processing devices, shaped by billions of years of evolution. The most advanced of these information processing devices is the human brain. Brains enable humans to process information in a way unparalleled by any other species, living or extinct, or by any existing machine. They provide humans with intelligence, consciousness and, some believe, even with a soul. Brains also enabled humans to develop science and technology to a point where it is possible to design computers with a power comparable to that of the human brain. Machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies will one day make it possible to create intelligent machines and computational biology will one day enable us to model, simulate, and understand biological systems and even complete brains, with unprecedented levels of detail. From these efforts, new minds will eventually emerge, minds that will emanate from the execution of programs running in powerful computers. These digital minds may one day rival our own, become our partners, and replace humans in many tasks. They may usher in a technological singularity, may make humans obsolete or even a threatened species. They make us super-humans or demi-gods.
Mahesh K. Joshi and J.R. Klein
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198827481
- eISBN:
- 9780191866388
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198827481.003.0018
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
New technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, machine intelligence, and the Internet of Things are seeing repetitive tasks move away from humans to machines. Humans cannot become machines, ...
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New technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, machine intelligence, and the Internet of Things are seeing repetitive tasks move away from humans to machines. Humans cannot become machines, but machines can become more human-like. The traditional model of educating workers for the workforce is fast becoming irrelevant. There is a massive need for the retooling of human workers. Humans need to be trained to remain focused in a society which is constantly getting bombarded with information. The two basic elements of physical and mental capacity are slowly being taken over by machines and artificial intelligence. This changes the fundamental role of the global workforce.Less
New technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, machine intelligence, and the Internet of Things are seeing repetitive tasks move away from humans to machines. Humans cannot become machines, but machines can become more human-like. The traditional model of educating workers for the workforce is fast becoming irrelevant. There is a massive need for the retooling of human workers. Humans need to be trained to remain focused in a society which is constantly getting bombarded with information. The two basic elements of physical and mental capacity are slowly being taken over by machines and artificial intelligence. This changes the fundamental role of the global workforce.
marcia santana fernandes
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199735365
- eISBN:
- 9780190267520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199735365.003.0058
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter uses the film Artificial Intelligence (2002) to set the stage for a discussion of the ethics of emerging technologies. The film focuses on an 11-year-old artificial boy, David (Haley ...
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This chapter uses the film Artificial Intelligence (2002) to set the stage for a discussion of the ethics of emerging technologies. The film focuses on an 11-year-old artificial boy, David (Haley Joel Osment), who was created to give love without demands: he would need no food, no rest, no love in return. The film addresses questions such as: What is our responsibility toward our own creations? How can society deal with enhancement technologies applied to the human body? The chapter reflects on these topics from a bioethical standpoint, and argues that responsibility and humility should guide medical activity, as illustrated in parts of the Hippocratic Oath. Emerging technologies and their applications to health care should not be subjected to wholesale legislative limitations, regardless of context or culture. Law-making must be interdisciplinary, intimately involved in the discussion of and reflection on bioethical issues, in order to deal with their complexity as well as their social aspects and peculiarities.Less
This chapter uses the film Artificial Intelligence (2002) to set the stage for a discussion of the ethics of emerging technologies. The film focuses on an 11-year-old artificial boy, David (Haley Joel Osment), who was created to give love without demands: he would need no food, no rest, no love in return. The film addresses questions such as: What is our responsibility toward our own creations? How can society deal with enhancement technologies applied to the human body? The chapter reflects on these topics from a bioethical standpoint, and argues that responsibility and humility should guide medical activity, as illustrated in parts of the Hippocratic Oath. Emerging technologies and their applications to health care should not be subjected to wholesale legislative limitations, regardless of context or culture. Law-making must be interdisciplinary, intimately involved in the discussion of and reflection on bioethical issues, in order to deal with their complexity as well as their social aspects and peculiarities.
Brian P. McLaughlin and David Rose
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198815259
- eISBN:
- 9780191853012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198815259.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
One reason it matters whether phenomenally conscious robots will soon be forthcoming is that such robots would have moral rights. The view that they are on the horizon often rests on a certain ...
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One reason it matters whether phenomenally conscious robots will soon be forthcoming is that such robots would have moral rights. The view that they are on the horizon often rests on a certain philosophical view about consciousness, one called “nomological behaviorism” in this chapter. The view entails that, as a matter of nomological necessity, if a robot had exactly the same patterns of dispositions to peripheral behavior as a phenomenally conscious being, then the robot would be phenomenally conscious. The chapter experimentally investigates whether the folk think that certain (hypothetical) robots made of silicon and steel would have the same conscious states as certain familiar biological beings with the same patterns of dispositions to peripheral behavior as the robots. The findings provide evidence that the folk largely reject the view that silicon-based robots would have the sensations that they, the folk, attribute to the biological beings in question.Less
One reason it matters whether phenomenally conscious robots will soon be forthcoming is that such robots would have moral rights. The view that they are on the horizon often rests on a certain philosophical view about consciousness, one called “nomological behaviorism” in this chapter. The view entails that, as a matter of nomological necessity, if a robot had exactly the same patterns of dispositions to peripheral behavior as a phenomenally conscious being, then the robot would be phenomenally conscious. The chapter experimentally investigates whether the folk think that certain (hypothetical) robots made of silicon and steel would have the same conscious states as certain familiar biological beings with the same patterns of dispositions to peripheral behavior as the robots. The findings provide evidence that the folk largely reject the view that silicon-based robots would have the sensations that they, the folk, attribute to the biological beings in question.
Gwyneth Jones
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780853237839
- eISBN:
- 9781786945389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853237839.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This essay is the first in the book’s Science, Fiction and Reality section. It was originally a paper read at a conference held at the University of Teesside in April 1995 and was later published in ...
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This essay is the first in the book’s Science, Fiction and Reality section. It was originally a paper read at a conference held at the University of Teesside in April 1995 and was later published in The Governance of Cyberspace. The essay talks about the evolution of science fiction and how it’s easy to spot when it has been overtaken by the development of technology; specifically in computers, artificial intelligence, robotics, and cybernetics. In her discussion of technology and cyberspace, Jones alludes to the possibility of consciousness, self-awareness and freedom of information, and makes reference to the science fiction novels of William Gibson and Pat Cadigan.Less
This essay is the first in the book’s Science, Fiction and Reality section. It was originally a paper read at a conference held at the University of Teesside in April 1995 and was later published in The Governance of Cyberspace. The essay talks about the evolution of science fiction and how it’s easy to spot when it has been overtaken by the development of technology; specifically in computers, artificial intelligence, robotics, and cybernetics. In her discussion of technology and cyberspace, Jones alludes to the possibility of consciousness, self-awareness and freedom of information, and makes reference to the science fiction novels of William Gibson and Pat Cadigan.
Benjamin H. Bratton
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029575
- eISBN:
- 9780262330183
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029575.003.0011
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
The concluding chapter, The Black Stack, draws out the tangled implications of The Stack as a challenge to design and to geopolitical thought, one to be achieved and/or resisted. The figure of “The ...
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The concluding chapter, The Black Stack, draws out the tangled implications of The Stack as a challenge to design and to geopolitical thought, one to be achieved and/or resisted. The figure of “The Black Stack” stands for the Stack-to-come that we know will arrive but which we cannot possibly recognize in advance. As a global platform, The Stack may represent an epochal closure of the planet under an absolutist regime of algorithmic capital, and/or the fragility of its totality may also bring radical breaks, as its universalism produces unexpected new cosmopolitan positions. What may at first appear as the apotheosis of The Stack’s worst tendencies may, in the long run, prove to be the basis of a far-better geopolitics. Design must be attentive to the role that these reversals play in how new technologies produce new accidents, and how accidents in turn produce new technologies.Less
The concluding chapter, The Black Stack, draws out the tangled implications of The Stack as a challenge to design and to geopolitical thought, one to be achieved and/or resisted. The figure of “The Black Stack” stands for the Stack-to-come that we know will arrive but which we cannot possibly recognize in advance. As a global platform, The Stack may represent an epochal closure of the planet under an absolutist regime of algorithmic capital, and/or the fragility of its totality may also bring radical breaks, as its universalism produces unexpected new cosmopolitan positions. What may at first appear as the apotheosis of The Stack’s worst tendencies may, in the long run, prove to be the basis of a far-better geopolitics. Design must be attentive to the role that these reversals play in how new technologies produce new accidents, and how accidents in turn produce new technologies.
Antonio Torralba and Adolfo Plasencia
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036016
- eISBN:
- 9780262339308
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036016.003.0027
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
Antonio Torralba, member of MIT CSAIL, opens the dialogue by describing the research he performs in the field of computer vision and related artificial intelligence (AI). He also compares the ...
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Antonio Torralba, member of MIT CSAIL, opens the dialogue by describing the research he performs in the field of computer vision and related artificial intelligence (AI). He also compares the conceptual differences and the context of the early days of artificial intelligence—where hardly any image recording devices existed—with the present situation, in which an enormous amount of data is available. Next, through the use of examples, he talks about the huge complexity faced by research in computer vision to get computers and machines to understand the meanings of what they “see” in the scenes, and the objects they contain, by means of digital cameras. As he explains afterward, the challenge of this complexity for computer vision processing is particularly noticeable in settings involving robots, or driverless cars, where it makes no sense to develop vision systems that can see if they cannot learn. Later he argues why today’s computer systems have to learn “to see” because if there is no learning process, for example machine learning, they will never be able to make autonomous decisions.Less
Antonio Torralba, member of MIT CSAIL, opens the dialogue by describing the research he performs in the field of computer vision and related artificial intelligence (AI). He also compares the conceptual differences and the context of the early days of artificial intelligence—where hardly any image recording devices existed—with the present situation, in which an enormous amount of data is available. Next, through the use of examples, he talks about the huge complexity faced by research in computer vision to get computers and machines to understand the meanings of what they “see” in the scenes, and the objects they contain, by means of digital cameras. As he explains afterward, the challenge of this complexity for computer vision processing is particularly noticeable in settings involving robots, or driverless cars, where it makes no sense to develop vision systems that can see if they cannot learn. Later he argues why today’s computer systems have to learn “to see” because if there is no learning process, for example machine learning, they will never be able to make autonomous decisions.
Peter Szendy
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823264803
- eISBN:
- 9780823266845
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823264803.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter first considers the cinematic tropes of freezing and an off-screen voice present in The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2004), and Quintet (Robert Altman, 1979). It ...
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This chapter first considers the cinematic tropes of freezing and an off-screen voice present in The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2004), and Quintet (Robert Altman, 1979). It then turns to Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001), which utilizes the same tropes as it unfurls into a large-scale narrative. It also discusses how certain shots are impossible to declare living or dead. Simply frozen or definitively extinguished, numbed yet potentially mobile or petrified forever as bas-reliefs, they seem to tremble with cold as they hesitate between the life and death of their movement. They are in a sense living-dead, that is to say spectral through their filmic movement (and not through what they show). The exemplary ones are the ones from the beginning of Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011).Less
This chapter first considers the cinematic tropes of freezing and an off-screen voice present in The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2004), and Quintet (Robert Altman, 1979). It then turns to Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001), which utilizes the same tropes as it unfurls into a large-scale narrative. It also discusses how certain shots are impossible to declare living or dead. Simply frozen or definitively extinguished, numbed yet potentially mobile or petrified forever as bas-reliefs, they seem to tremble with cold as they hesitate between the life and death of their movement. They are in a sense living-dead, that is to say spectral through their filmic movement (and not through what they show). The exemplary ones are the ones from the beginning of Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011).
Alistair Brown
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526122162
- eISBN:
- 9781526138767
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526122162.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
In evaluating the interplay of biological and social interpretations of the incest taboo, most literary commentaries have used fiction to show how notions of incest have changed historically through ...
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In evaluating the interplay of biological and social interpretations of the incest taboo, most literary commentaries have used fiction to show how notions of incest have changed historically through the variable of culture; in these accounts, the biological body remains a constant, whilst society adapts its parameters for what counts as incest. However, science fiction introduces material embodiment itself as a variable, as it hypothesises bodies that can be altered (e.g. through genetics) or even eliminated (e.g. through virtualising the mind via a computer). Through comparing three science fiction novels, this chapter evaluates whether such changing types of embodiment will also change the way in which society approaches the incest taboo, or even remove it entirely.Less
In evaluating the interplay of biological and social interpretations of the incest taboo, most literary commentaries have used fiction to show how notions of incest have changed historically through the variable of culture; in these accounts, the biological body remains a constant, whilst society adapts its parameters for what counts as incest. However, science fiction introduces material embodiment itself as a variable, as it hypothesises bodies that can be altered (e.g. through genetics) or even eliminated (e.g. through virtualising the mind via a computer). Through comparing three science fiction novels, this chapter evaluates whether such changing types of embodiment will also change the way in which society approaches the incest taboo, or even remove it entirely.
John Danaher
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036689
- eISBN:
- 9780262341981
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036689.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Introduces the issues and arguments of the book. Sets the stage for the arguments that follow by addressing preliminary questions: What are sex robots? Do any exist right now? Why should we care ...
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Introduces the issues and arguments of the book. Sets the stage for the arguments that follow by addressing preliminary questions: What are sex robots? Do any exist right now? Why should we care about their creation? Sex robots are coming. They are robots with humanlike touch, movement, and intelligence that are designed and/or used for sexual purposes. Their creation raises important philosophical, social, and ethical questions for users and the broader society.Less
Introduces the issues and arguments of the book. Sets the stage for the arguments that follow by addressing preliminary questions: What are sex robots? Do any exist right now? Why should we care about their creation? Sex robots are coming. They are robots with humanlike touch, movement, and intelligence that are designed and/or used for sexual purposes. Their creation raises important philosophical, social, and ethical questions for users and the broader society.
John Harris
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198707592
- eISBN:
- 9780191822001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198707592.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
When considering the further evolution of our species, or for that matter the creation of new species of creatures or of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for existing or future people, it is often ...
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When considering the further evolution of our species, or for that matter the creation of new species of creatures or of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for existing or future people, it is often assumed that where humans are concerned, those to be enhanced will be and will remain human persons like themselves. Moreover they tend to assume that those people will remain essentially themselves, even in the relevant enhanced state. In short that the modifications in powers and capacities will happen to “us” or those we currently happen to think of as “us”. Where we think about the creation of machines or robots with AI we tend to assume that they will remain at our service, literally machines we own and direct, like computers or lawn mowers, and not become persons in their own right. This final chapter considers a possible mechanical rather than organic future for creatures like us.Less
When considering the further evolution of our species, or for that matter the creation of new species of creatures or of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for existing or future people, it is often assumed that where humans are concerned, those to be enhanced will be and will remain human persons like themselves. Moreover they tend to assume that those people will remain essentially themselves, even in the relevant enhanced state. In short that the modifications in powers and capacities will happen to “us” or those we currently happen to think of as “us”. Where we think about the creation of machines or robots with AI we tend to assume that they will remain at our service, literally machines we own and direct, like computers or lawn mowers, and not become persons in their own right. This final chapter considers a possible mechanical rather than organic future for creatures like us.
Andy Miah
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262035477
- eISBN:
- 9780262343114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035477.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This chapter considers how digital technology has altered the world of elite athletic performance and what this means for the future of sports. It explores how digital technology has become a ...
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This chapter considers how digital technology has altered the world of elite athletic performance and what this means for the future of sports. It explores how digital technology has become a pervasive—and legal—form of performance enhancement, along with having become a ubiquitous presence in an athlete’s life. It discusses how
digital technologies have altered training methods and how they transform the fairness of sports, while also considering how this has influenced the work of those officials who oversee the smooth running of sports. Moreover, it discusses how knowledge arising from digitization is shaping an athlete’s experience of sport, which includes their presence within social media. The chapter also argues for the virtualization of physicality within a range of sport forms, both elite and non-elite.Less
This chapter considers how digital technology has altered the world of elite athletic performance and what this means for the future of sports. It explores how digital technology has become a pervasive—and legal—form of performance enhancement, along with having become a ubiquitous presence in an athlete’s life. It discusses how
digital technologies have altered training methods and how they transform the fairness of sports, while also considering how this has influenced the work of those officials who oversee the smooth running of sports. Moreover, it discusses how knowledge arising from digitization is shaping an athlete’s experience of sport, which includes their presence within social media. The chapter also argues for the virtualization of physicality within a range of sport forms, both elite and non-elite.
Bernardo Cuenca Grau and Adolfo Plasencia
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036016
- eISBN:
- 9780262339308
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036016.003.0015
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
In this dialogue, Bernardo Cuenca Grau, a computer scientist at the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, begins by explaining his research in technology based on ontologies and ...
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In this dialogue, Bernardo Cuenca Grau, a computer scientist at the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, begins by explaining his research in technology based on ontologies and knowledge representation, somewhere between mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. He goes on to argue why we need to represent knowledge in a way that it can be processed by a computer and therefore enable automated reasoning of this knowledge using artificial intelligence. Later he explains how his investigation probes the limits of mathematics to find the most appropriate languages for developing practical applications. For example, the large-scale processing of structured information linked to comprehensive health systems. Bernardo is supportive of collective tools such as Wikipedia. He also discusses why in his opinion the success of a scientific or technological idea depends very much on luck, and why the semantic web has not been defined. Furthermore, he argues why bureaucracy confuses process with progress.Less
In this dialogue, Bernardo Cuenca Grau, a computer scientist at the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, begins by explaining his research in technology based on ontologies and knowledge representation, somewhere between mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. He goes on to argue why we need to represent knowledge in a way that it can be processed by a computer and therefore enable automated reasoning of this knowledge using artificial intelligence. Later he explains how his investigation probes the limits of mathematics to find the most appropriate languages for developing practical applications. For example, the large-scale processing of structured information linked to comprehensive health systems. Bernardo is supportive of collective tools such as Wikipedia. He also discusses why in his opinion the success of a scientific or technological idea depends very much on luck, and why the semantic web has not been defined. Furthermore, he argues why bureaucracy confuses process with progress.
Gwyneth Jones
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780853237839
- eISBN:
- 9781786945389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853237839.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter was originally read at a postgraduate conference called Looking at the Future, held at the University of Sussex in May 1994. The main body of the essay focuses on the difference in the ...
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This chapter was originally read at a postgraduate conference called Looking at the Future, held at the University of Sussex in May 1994. The main body of the essay focuses on the difference in the description used to define the physical body compared to the language used when describing human consciousness, and analyses what it means for the genre now that cyberspace isn’t mere science fiction anymore.Less
This chapter was originally read at a postgraduate conference called Looking at the Future, held at the University of Sussex in May 1994. The main body of the essay focuses on the difference in the description used to define the physical body compared to the language used when describing human consciousness, and analyses what it means for the genre now that cyberspace isn’t mere science fiction anymore.
