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.
Tok Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496825087
- eISBN:
- 9781496825131
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496825087.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
Artificial intelligence programs have increasingly entered public discourse in many diverse and overlapping ways. The various artificial intelligences are connected to our biologically based ones ...
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Artificial intelligence programs have increasingly entered public discourse in many diverse and overlapping ways. The various artificial intelligences are connected to our biologically based ones largely (though not solely) via the cyber network, which itself increasingly draws our species into its communicative framework. In this new, mediated, cyborg realm of culture there are no non-human animals, or plants, or any other natural forms of intelligence, but that does not mean we are all alone. Rather, there are new voices in our shared agora, now, and their voices do not necessarily attend to our own. This chapter explores the cultural overlaps of human and artificial intelligences online.Less
Artificial intelligence programs have increasingly entered public discourse in many diverse and overlapping ways. The various artificial intelligences are connected to our biologically based ones largely (though not solely) via the cyber network, which itself increasingly draws our species into its communicative framework. In this new, mediated, cyborg realm of culture there are no non-human animals, or plants, or any other natural forms of intelligence, but that does not mean we are all alone. Rather, there are new voices in our shared agora, now, and their voices do not necessarily attend to our own. This chapter explores the cultural overlaps of human and artificial intelligences online.
Stephen Muggleton and Nicholas Chater (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- August 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198862536
- eISBN:
- 9780191895333
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198862536.001.0001
- Subject:
- Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
In recent years there has been increasing excitement concerning the potential of Artificial Intelligence to transform human society. This book addresses the leading edge of research in this area. The ...
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In recent years there has been increasing excitement concerning the potential of Artificial Intelligence to transform human society. This book addresses the leading edge of research in this area. The research described aims to address present incompatibilities of Human and Machine reasoning and learning approaches. According to the influential US funding agency DARPA (originator of the Internet and Self-Driving Cars) this new area represents the Third Wave of Artificial Intelligence (3AI, 2020s–2030s), and is being actively investigated in the US, Europe and China. The EPSRC’s UK network on Human-Like Computing (HLC) was one of the first internationally to initiate and support research specifically in this area. Starting activities in 2018, the network represents around sixty leading UK groups Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Scientists involved in the development of the inter-disciplinary area of HLC. The research of network groups aims to address key unsolved problems at the interface between Psychology and Computer Science. The chapters of this book have been authored by a mixture of these UK and other international specialists based on recent workshops and discussions at the Machine Intelligence 20 and 21 workshops (2016,2019) and the Third Wave Artificial Intelligence workshop (2019). Some of the key questions addressed by the Human-Like Computing programme include how AI systems might 1) explain their decisions effectively, 2) interact with human beings in natural language, 3) learn from small numbers of examples and 4) learn with minimal supervision. Solving such fundamental problems involves new foundational research in both the Psychology of perception and interaction as well as the development of novel algorithmic approaches in Artificial Intelligence.Less
In recent years there has been increasing excitement concerning the potential of Artificial Intelligence to transform human society. This book addresses the leading edge of research in this area. The research described aims to address present incompatibilities of Human and Machine reasoning and learning approaches. According to the influential US funding agency DARPA (originator of the Internet and Self-Driving Cars) this new area represents the Third Wave of Artificial Intelligence (3AI, 2020s–2030s), and is being actively investigated in the US, Europe and China. The EPSRC’s UK network on Human-Like Computing (HLC) was one of the first internationally to initiate and support research specifically in this area. Starting activities in 2018, the network represents around sixty leading UK groups Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Scientists involved in the development of the inter-disciplinary area of HLC. The research of network groups aims to address key unsolved problems at the interface between Psychology and Computer Science. The chapters of this book have been authored by a mixture of these UK and other international specialists based on recent workshops and discussions at the Machine Intelligence 20 and 21 workshops (2016,2019) and the Third Wave Artificial Intelligence workshop (2019). Some of the key questions addressed by the Human-Like Computing programme include how AI systems might 1) explain their decisions effectively, 2) interact with human beings in natural language, 3) learn from small numbers of examples and 4) learn with minimal supervision. Solving such fundamental problems involves new foundational research in both the Psychology of perception and interaction as well as the development of novel algorithmic approaches in Artificial Intelligence.
Anton Korinek, Martin Schindler, and Joseph E. Stiglitz
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780192846938
- eISBN:
- 9780191939372
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780192846938.003.0005
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
Advances in artificial intelligence and automation have the potential to be labor-saving and to increase inequality and poverty around the globe. They also give rise to winner-takes-all dynamics that ...
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Advances in artificial intelligence and automation have the potential to be labor-saving and to increase inequality and poverty around the globe. They also give rise to winner-takes-all dynamics that advantage highly skilled individuals and countries that are at the forefront of technological progress. This chapter analyzes the economic forces behind these developments and delineate economic policies to mitigate the adverse effects while leveraging the potential gains from technological advances. It also proposes domestic policy measures and reforms to the global system of governance that make the benefits of advances in artificial intelligence more inclusive.Less
Advances in artificial intelligence and automation have the potential to be labor-saving and to increase inequality and poverty around the globe. They also give rise to winner-takes-all dynamics that advantage highly skilled individuals and countries that are at the forefront of technological progress. This chapter analyzes the economic forces behind these developments and delineate economic policies to mitigate the adverse effects while leveraging the potential gains from technological advances. It also proposes domestic policy measures and reforms to the global system of governance that make the benefits of advances in artificial intelligence more inclusive.
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.
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.
James A. Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- February 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199357789
- eISBN:
- 9780190675264
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199357789.003.0016
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
Is ambiguity unavoidable? It is found in vision and everywhere in language. Semantic nets for disambiguation are realized in George Miller’s WordNet, a practical project helping disambiguate search ...
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Is ambiguity unavoidable? It is found in vision and everywhere in language. Semantic nets for disambiguation are realized in George Miller’s WordNet, a practical project helping disambiguate search strings using contextual disambiguation. Simple association using traditional passive memory is boring compared to complex association using active memory with multiple associative links active at the same time to perform a clearly defined task. A “mixer” is used to recognize items from a list, and generalization of the mixer is used for disambiguation. The chapter also discusses artificial intelligence, both its origins and currently ignored questions: Are biological intelligence and machine intelligence the same thing? Can digital computers really mimic in digital software a largely analog brain? The important question is not why machines are becoming so smart but why humans are still so good. Artificial intelligence is missing something important probably based on hardware differences.Less
Is ambiguity unavoidable? It is found in vision and everywhere in language. Semantic nets for disambiguation are realized in George Miller’s WordNet, a practical project helping disambiguate search strings using contextual disambiguation. Simple association using traditional passive memory is boring compared to complex association using active memory with multiple associative links active at the same time to perform a clearly defined task. A “mixer” is used to recognize items from a list, and generalization of the mixer is used for disambiguation. The chapter also discusses artificial intelligence, both its origins and currently ignored questions: Are biological intelligence and machine intelligence the same thing? Can digital computers really mimic in digital software a largely analog brain? The important question is not why machines are becoming so smart but why humans are still so good. Artificial intelligence is missing something important probably based on hardware differences.
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.
Lynda Hardman
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198853022
- eISBN:
- 9780191887420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198853022.003.0013
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management, Political Economy
Chapter 13 gives an impression of the development of the relatively young AI and computer science fields in Europe and China and how the current situation has developed over the past twenty years, ...
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Chapter 13 gives an impression of the development of the relatively young AI and computer science fields in Europe and China and how the current situation has developed over the past twenty years, where European and Chinese researchers are equal colleagues on an international stage and where diplomatic relations between the USA and China on the international stage have consequences felt directly by European AI researchers in their labs. In what ways are AI researchers in China and Europe competitors with each other, for example in terms of the global shortage of trained AI researchers and practitioners? At the same time, the AI research community collaborates globally, so how can we ensure that the field continues to benefit from open international collaboration?Less
Chapter 13 gives an impression of the development of the relatively young AI and computer science fields in Europe and China and how the current situation has developed over the past twenty years, where European and Chinese researchers are equal colleagues on an international stage and where diplomatic relations between the USA and China on the international stage have consequences felt directly by European AI researchers in their labs. In what ways are AI researchers in China and Europe competitors with each other, for example in terms of the global shortage of trained AI researchers and practitioners? At the same time, the AI research community collaborates globally, so how can we ensure that the field continues to benefit from open international collaboration?
Joshua Grimm
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781800348301
- eISBN:
- 9781800850941
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781800348301.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The evolution of artificial intelligence in science fiction film has showcased an array of technological marvels, and yet each reflects the era in which the films were made, be it what the device ...
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The evolution of artificial intelligence in science fiction film has showcased an array of technological marvels, and yet each reflects the era in which the films were made, be it what the device looks like, the extent of its power, or the ethical/moral issues surrounding its existence. Ex Machina is no different, with the development of AI firmly embedded in the tech industry. Caleb’s entire purpose for being at Nathan’s compound is to determine whether Nathan has, in fact, created artificial intelligence or if Ava is simply imitating human interactions. This is called the Turing Test, which has been around for nearly 70 years, and it has been rigorously debated for almost its entire existence. Ex Machina pushes this debate by accepting and challenging key assumptions of the Turing Test while positing its own: The role affection/attraction/love might play in the entire process. As such, by considering these emotional components (as expressed toward the creation rather than from it) grounds the discussion in terms of morality and soul, something previous films have treated more as a by-product of artificial intelligence.Less
The evolution of artificial intelligence in science fiction film has showcased an array of technological marvels, and yet each reflects the era in which the films were made, be it what the device looks like, the extent of its power, or the ethical/moral issues surrounding its existence. Ex Machina is no different, with the development of AI firmly embedded in the tech industry. Caleb’s entire purpose for being at Nathan’s compound is to determine whether Nathan has, in fact, created artificial intelligence or if Ava is simply imitating human interactions. This is called the Turing Test, which has been around for nearly 70 years, and it has been rigorously debated for almost its entire existence. Ex Machina pushes this debate by accepting and challenging key assumptions of the Turing Test while positing its own: The role affection/attraction/love might play in the entire process. As such, by considering these emotional components (as expressed toward the creation rather than from it) grounds the discussion in terms of morality and soul, something previous films have treated more as a by-product of artificial intelligence.
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.
Paul Nemitz and Matthias Pfeffer
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- October 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197616093
- eISBN:
- 9780197616130
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197616093.003.0016
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter talks about the concentration of power in the hands of the GAFAM, which became possible because of the Internet and software that remained largely unregulated. It cites the infant ...
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This chapter talks about the concentration of power in the hands of the GAFAM, which became possible because of the Internet and software that remained largely unregulated. It cites the infant industry argument as a classic neo-liberal dispute that any legal regulation would stand in the way of innovation. It also elaborates how the current generation are faced with similar arguments with the new technological leaps and irreversible accumulations of power that will make the corporations even more powerful. The chapter points out that future technologies such as, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Quantum Computing, must be considered in the context of the concentration of economic and technological power. It emphasizes the need for regulating AI that requires an anticipatory understanding of the potential of this new technology and a holistic view of the business models of all digital technologies.Less
This chapter talks about the concentration of power in the hands of the GAFAM, which became possible because of the Internet and software that remained largely unregulated. It cites the infant industry argument as a classic neo-liberal dispute that any legal regulation would stand in the way of innovation. It also elaborates how the current generation are faced with similar arguments with the new technological leaps and irreversible accumulations of power that will make the corporations even more powerful. The chapter points out that future technologies such as, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Quantum Computing, must be considered in the context of the concentration of economic and technological power. It emphasizes the need for regulating AI that requires an anticipatory understanding of the potential of this new technology and a holistic view of the business models of all digital technologies.
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).
Simone Natale
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190080365
- eISBN:
- 9780190080402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190080365.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter focuses on ELIZA, the first chatbot program, developed in the 1960s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Joseph Weizenbaum to engage in written conversations with users of the ...
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This chapter focuses on ELIZA, the first chatbot program, developed in the 1960s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Joseph Weizenbaum to engage in written conversations with users of the MAC time-sharing system. The program’s alleged capacity for conversation attracted the attention of audiences in the United States and the world, and Weizenbaum’s book Computer Power and Human Reasons (1976) drew readers from well outside his discipline of computer science. In the process, the program presented AI in ways that sharply contrasted with the vision of human-machine symbiosis that dominated approaches to human-computer interaction at the time. Drawing on Weizenbaum’s writings, computer science literature, and journalistic reports, the chapter argues that the impact of this alternative vision was not without consequence, informing the development of critical approaches to digital media as well as of actual technologies and pragmatic strategies in AI research.Less
This chapter focuses on ELIZA, the first chatbot program, developed in the 1960s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Joseph Weizenbaum to engage in written conversations with users of the MAC time-sharing system. The program’s alleged capacity for conversation attracted the attention of audiences in the United States and the world, and Weizenbaum’s book Computer Power and Human Reasons (1976) drew readers from well outside his discipline of computer science. In the process, the program presented AI in ways that sharply contrasted with the vision of human-machine symbiosis that dominated approaches to human-computer interaction at the time. Drawing on Weizenbaum’s writings, computer science literature, and journalistic reports, the chapter argues that the impact of this alternative vision was not without consequence, informing the development of critical approaches to digital media as well as of actual technologies and pragmatic strategies in AI research.
Christopher Coker
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197602737
- eISBN:
- 9780197610909
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197602737.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Conflict Politics and Policy
What are humanity’s biological origins? What are the mechanisms, including culture, that continue to drive it? What is the history that has allowed it to evolve over time? And what are its functions ...
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What are humanity’s biological origins? What are the mechanisms, including culture, that continue to drive it? What is the history that has allowed it to evolve over time? And what are its functions – how does it survive and thrive by exploiting the features that define us as a species? These are the four questions of the ‘Tinbergen Method’ for explaining animal behavior, developed by the prize-winning Dutch ethologist Nico Tinbergen. The book contends that applying this method to war – which is unique to humans – can help us better understand why conflict is so resilient. The author explores these four questions in both past and present, and looks at our post – human future, assessing how far scientific advances in gene- editing, robotics and AI systems will de- center human agency. From the ancient Greeks to Artificial Intelligence (AI) the book is an exploration of humankind’s propensity to warfare and its behavioral underpinnings. What it offers are new ways of thinking about our species’ unique and deadly preoccupation.Less
What are humanity’s biological origins? What are the mechanisms, including culture, that continue to drive it? What is the history that has allowed it to evolve over time? And what are its functions – how does it survive and thrive by exploiting the features that define us as a species? These are the four questions of the ‘Tinbergen Method’ for explaining animal behavior, developed by the prize-winning Dutch ethologist Nico Tinbergen. The book contends that applying this method to war – which is unique to humans – can help us better understand why conflict is so resilient. The author explores these four questions in both past and present, and looks at our post – human future, assessing how far scientific advances in gene- editing, robotics and AI systems will de- center human agency. From the ancient Greeks to Artificial Intelligence (AI) the book is an exploration of humankind’s propensity to warfare and its behavioral underpinnings. What it offers are new ways of thinking about our species’ unique and deadly preoccupation.
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.
Kenneth Payne
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780197611692
- eISBN:
- 9780197632956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197611692.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to change warfare dramatically. That’s true of tactics, especially the weapons used in battle, but it’s also true of strategy, the larger puzzle in warfare ...
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Artificial Intelligence has the potential to change warfare dramatically. That’s true of tactics, especially the weapons used in battle, but it’s also true of strategy, the larger puzzle in warfare that requires understanding and creative thinking. Plenty of observers are concerned about the implications, and some want to ban ‘killer robots’. That seems unlikely – they are too useful, and it’s too easy to evade a ban. Instead we should craft our own ‘rules for warbots’.Less
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to change warfare dramatically. That’s true of tactics, especially the weapons used in battle, but it’s also true of strategy, the larger puzzle in warfare that requires understanding and creative thinking. Plenty of observers are concerned about the implications, and some want to ban ‘killer robots’. That seems unlikely – they are too useful, and it’s too easy to evade a ban. Instead we should craft our own ‘rules for warbots’.
Barbara Maria Stafford
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226630489
- eISBN:
- 9780226630656
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226630656.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Imagine these essays as cross-disciplinary field trips exploring the inscrutable digital networks and ineffable Big Data characterizing our uncertain times. Taken together, they trace a dark thread ...
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Imagine these essays as cross-disciplinary field trips exploring the inscrutable digital networks and ineffable Big Data characterizing our uncertain times. Taken together, they trace a dark thread running through the bright techno-utopian rhetoric on AI, Alternative Realities, gene editing, cognitive enhancement. Addressing opaque inventions and ambiguous concepts—involving the technological, the theological, the neurological, the cultural—this book questions whether key contemporary arts and sciences have embraced a misunderstood “romantic” ideal of creativity without constraint or forethought, one resulting in enigmatic productions that are incomprehensible to a non-expert public. Seeking to fill a practical as well as a philosophical gap, these reflections ask, among other things, what are the ethical repercussions of the laboratory sciences becoming increasingly speculative or aestheticized while the experimental BioArts and computational New Media risk losing the qualitative self in the fathomless coding sciences. As an ensemble, then, these essays trace an arc from jewelry to robotics, painting to textiles, the chromatics of passion to projected displays. They demonstrate how artists shape cognizability by configuring shadowy experiences for which there are no ready words or numbers.Less
Imagine these essays as cross-disciplinary field trips exploring the inscrutable digital networks and ineffable Big Data characterizing our uncertain times. Taken together, they trace a dark thread running through the bright techno-utopian rhetoric on AI, Alternative Realities, gene editing, cognitive enhancement. Addressing opaque inventions and ambiguous concepts—involving the technological, the theological, the neurological, the cultural—this book questions whether key contemporary arts and sciences have embraced a misunderstood “romantic” ideal of creativity without constraint or forethought, one resulting in enigmatic productions that are incomprehensible to a non-expert public. Seeking to fill a practical as well as a philosophical gap, these reflections ask, among other things, what are the ethical repercussions of the laboratory sciences becoming increasingly speculative or aestheticized while the experimental BioArts and computational New Media risk losing the qualitative self in the fathomless coding sciences. As an ensemble, then, these essays trace an arc from jewelry to robotics, painting to textiles, the chromatics of passion to projected displays. They demonstrate how artists shape cognizability by configuring shadowy experiences for which there are no ready words or numbers.
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.
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.
