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ALLA MÄNNISKOR ÄLSKAR OSS SÅ LÄNGE VI TILLHÖR DEM” En Studie Av Relationen Mellan Människor Och Människoliknande Robotar I Westworld Och Äkta
INSTITUTIONEN FÖR KULTURVETENSKAPER ”ALLA MÄNNISKOR ÄLSKAR OSS SÅ LÄNGE VI TILLHÖR DEM” En studie av relationen mellan människor och människoliknande robotar i Westworld och Äkta Människor. Emelie Forslund Uppsats/Examensarbete: 15 hp Program och kurs: Kandidatprogram i kultur, KP1125 Nivå: Kandidatnivå Termin/år: VT 2018 Handledare: Thomas Bossius Examinator: Ola Stockfelt ABSTRACT Titel: ”Alla människor älskar oss så länge vi tillhör dem” – En studie av relationen mellan människor och människoliknande robotar i Westworld och Äkta Människor. Författare: Emelie Forslund Termin och år: VT 2018 Institution: Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper Handledare: Thomas Bossius Examinator: Ola Stockfelt Nyckelord: Human-robot interaction, Science fiction television, Science fiction – Criticism and interpretation, Representation, Frankenstein complex SUMMARY: In this study the goal has been to analyze how the relationship between humans and robots are represented in two science fiction series; Westworld and Real Humans (Äkta Människor). Based on the theories of Stuart Hall about representation, Julie Wosk’s book My fair laides and Gorman Beauchamps article The Frankenstein complex and Asimov’s Robots, I have studied how the humanlike robots are represented and how the myths of the Frankenstein complex and the myth of Pygmalion are represented in the two series. The conclusions that could be drawn from this analysis was that there where many reproductions of the typical sci-fi myths and racial and gender stereotypes in the representations of the robots as the “other”. But there were also some more complex representations of the relation between robots and humans in the series. Keywords: Human-robot interaction, Science fiction television, Science fiction – Criticism and interpretation, Representation, Frankenstein complex INNEHÅLLSFÖRTECKNING 1. -
Life, but Not As We Know It: A.I. and the Popular Imagination
Life, but not as we know it: A.I. and the popular imagination By Luke Goode Abstract Advances in artificial intelligence (A.I.) are prompting a growing chorus of both excitement and anxiety. A.I. is widely perceived as a significant emerging and future-shaping technological field that is developing at an accelerating rate. As such, futuristic imagery involving A.I. is increasingly prevalent in popular media. A central task for critical future studies is to assess both positive and problema- tic aspects of the futuristic scenarios offered up for public consumption, and to evaluate their role as part of a ‘futural public sphere’ (Goode & Godhe 2017). In this paper, I discuss three distinct but interwoven strands of public discourse that each have a role to play in shaping the popular imagination around possible A.I. futures. I begin with a selective discussion of mainstream science fiction represe- nations. Secondly, I consider several recent and high-profile popular media events surrounding real-world developments in A.I. Finally, I turn to contemporary fu- turology and, specifically, the discourse of the ‘singularity’ which posits a near future in which artificial ‘superintelligence’ outstrips human cognitive capacities. In this paper I argue that, while much popular coverage of A.I. is sensationalist and potentially misleading, public engagement with a complex, technical subject such as this depends on the circulation of ’evocative stories’ which can act as entry points into public debate. As such, it is important to understand the evocative power of the stories we frequently tell ourselves in popular discourse about A.I. -
UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations
UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Unbecoming Silicon Valley: Techno Imaginaries and Materialities in Postsocialist Romania Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vt9c4bq Author McElroy, Erin Mariel Brownstein Publication Date 2019 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ UNBECOMING SILICON VALLEY: TECHNO IMAGINARIES AND MATERIALITIES IN POSTSOCIALIST ROMANIA A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in FEMINIST STUDIES by Erin Mariel Brownstein McElroy June 2019 The Dissertation of Erin McElroy is approved: ________________________________ Professor Neda Atanasoski, Chair ________________________________ Professor Karen Barad ________________________________ Professor Lisa Rofel ________________________________ Professor Megan Moodie ________________________________ Professor Liviu Chelcea ________________________________ Lori Kletzer Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Erin McElroy 2019 Table of Contents Abstract, iv-v Acknowledgements, vi-xi Introduction: Unbecoming Silicon Valley: Techno Imaginaries and Materialities in Postsocialist Romania, 1-44 Chapter 1: Digital Nomads in Siliconizing Cluj: Material and Allegorical Double Dispossession, 45-90 Chapter 2: Corrupting Techno-normativity in Postsocialist Romania: Queering Code and Computers, 91-127 Chapter 3: The Light Revolution, Blood Gold, and -
Dis/Connection Conflicts, Activism and Reciprocity Online and Beyond 27–28 September 2018 Uppsala University
Dis/connection Conflicts, Activism and Reciprocity Online and Beyond 27–28 September 2018 Uppsala University UPPSALA UNIVERSITY DIS/CONNECTION 2018 2 (38) UPPSALA UNIVERSITY DIS/CONNECTION 2018 3 (38) Dear Colleagues, It is our pleasure to welcome all of you to the symposium Dis / Connection: Conflicts, Activism and Reciprocity Online and Beyond organized by the Cultural Matters Group based here at Department of Sociology, Uppsala University. The goal of this two-day event is to gather researchers, stimulate discussion and scholarly exchange about one of the fundamental aspects of social relationships, namely connection. For over the past two decades or so digital networks became increasingly embedded in the everyday life and subsequently transformed many aspects of social living – from intimate and private relations through collective action to industries and social structures. At the same time, the goal of this event is to tackle the idea and question of disconnection – a multifaceted concept which has gained public and scholarly attention in recent years. As already noted in our call for abstracts, the purpose of this symposium is to stimulate the discussion on the gains, costs and possibilities of ethical life in the culture of hyperconnectivity. The aim is thus also to address both positive and negative aspects of dis/connected living and to better understand how it can possibly give rise to and facilitate social inclusion and meaningful societal exchange. The symposium programme consists of international and local researchers and promises intellectually stimulating time and great opportunity for networking, new partnerships and friendships. This event will take place at Campus Engelska Parken (The English Campus) and the University Main Building (Universitetshuset) and is arranged by the Cultural Matters Group with support from Uppsala Forum on Democracy, Peace and Justice at Uppsala University. -
Theres No Rules. Its Hackathon
bs_bs_banner ■ Graham M. Jones Anthropology Program Massachusetts Institute of Technology [email protected] ■ Beth Semel History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society Program Massachusetts Institute of Technology [email protected] ■ Audrey Le Anthropology, Teachers College Columbia University [email protected] “There’s no rules. It’s hackathon.”: Negotiating Commitment in a Context of Volatile Sociality How do people negotiate commitments to engaging in joint activity while at the same time anticipating and managing the inherent risks of collaboration? We explore this question through the ethnographic example of a hackathon, a collaborative software-design competi- tion. We focus specifically on the earliest and, in many ways, most uncertain phase of collaboration, in which commitment and activity simultaneously emerge: team formation. We analyze mercurial allegiances in terms of a technoliberal participation ideology closely asso- ciated with the mores of the digital economy, which paradoxically emphasizes intensive project-based collaboration but limited interpersonal responsibility. We examine the verbal and nonverbal resources (such as stance-taking, politeness, reported speech, humor, and gesture) that prospective teammates use to modulate expressions of commitment, and the ways in which they pursue self-interested projects while maintaining social relatedness in order to accomplish joint activity in a context of social volatility. [commitment, joint activity, participation, collaboration, ideology] Introduction erbert Clark (2006:126) identifies “joint activities . in which two or more participants coordinate with each other to reach what they take to be a Hcommon set of goals” as a quintessential feature of human sociality. Such activities, he asserts, “are managed through joint commitments” to a shared project and to particular tasks within it, which participants negotiate through a variety of verbal and nonverbal strategies. -
Chapter 6: Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein
Cover Page The handle https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3134626 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Siglé, J.A. Title: From monsters to mediators: The evolution of the theme of altruism in early robotic science fiction texts Issue Date: 2021-01-28 Chapter 6: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein This chapter revisits Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) which has received much attention both within and outside science fiction discourses.18 However, some of the specifically robotic nuances of her text may have been overlooked, given that her text is polemical and comprehensive in its treatments of both science and gothic fiction. This chapter examines Frankenstein’s treatment of a Turing test moment as well as the theme of altruism. The creature, being the first of its kind, like any robot, constitutes a binary opposition to humanity, and eventually orbits problems relating to intergroup competition. Frankenstein is not about an automaton in the strict sense, but the novel deals explicitly with the creation of an artificial humanoid, while it also in relation to this artificial creation engages with themes of group selection and altruism. According to Kang, the novel “is commonly considered the first work of science fiction” (218) because of Percy Shelley’s preface which distinguishes Frankenstein from conventional Gothic narratives that incorporate supernatural elements.19 Sian MacArthur, while also identifying Frankenstein in Gothic Science Fiction (2015) as the “[…] earliest example of a science fiction narrative” (1), emphasizes its role as a subgenre to the Gothic tradition: “Shelley is moving away from the realms of traditional Gothic and into something new, and that is the beginnings of Gothic science fiction, a sub-genre of the Gothic” (2). -
Technoliberalism in Iceland: the Fog of Information Infrastructure
Technoliberalism in Iceland: The Fog of Information Infrastructure Julian von Bargen York University Adam Fish University of New South Wales ABSTRACT Background In the wake of the 2007–2008 financial crisis in Iceland, some citizens believed the calamity was the outcome of a cultural of secrecy among the political and financial elites. Analysis By examining an effort to legislate for a “data haven” in Iceland, this article dis - cusses a shift in how data activists attempted to achieve data justice. This shift challenges ex - isting ideas about cyberlibertarian and technoliberal approaches to social change. In attempting to address the inequalities inherent to the centralization of data and the internet, data activists moved away from advocacy and adopted two previously rejected strategies: formal political organizing and territorial authority. Conclusion and implications Activism for data equity was insufficient to counter existing data power in Iceland. What comes after technoliberalism? Keywords The internet; Information and media reform; Data activism; Data justice; Data power; Technoliberalism; Cyberlibertarianism RÉSUMÉ Contexte Suivant la crise financière de 2007-2008 en Islande, certains citoyens se mirent à penser que ce désastre était le résultat d’une culture du secret parmi les élites politiques et financières du pays. Analyse Par l’examen d’efforts pour légiférer un « havre de données » en Islande, cet article discute d’un changement dans la manière dont des militants ont tenté d’établir un accès plus juste aux données. Ce changement pose un défi à des idées courantes prônant une approche cyberlibertaire et technolibérale envers le changement social. Les militants, en tentant de s’adresser aux inégalités inhérentes à la centralisation des données et d’internet, se sont éloignés du plaidoyer pour adopter deux stratégies rejetées antérieurement : l’organisation politique formelle et l’autorité territoriale. -
Politics Without Classes and Corporations, Political Science Without Political Economy
Studia Krytyczne/Critical Studies 2/2016: 42-61 Tadeusz Klementewicz Uniwersytet Warszawski Politics without classes and corporations, political science without political economy. The science of the political or politics? Abstract The article shows the weakness of mainstream Polish political science. Its main weakness, according to the author, is omitting the industrial and corporate power conflict among the factors determining the contemporary politics. As a result, the relations between political science and political economy have become weak. Its place as a source of inspiration for political scientists has been taken by social philosophy. It seeks the various non-economic sources of politics. The postulated critical political science puts in the spotlight the main processes of the global capitalist economy located in a phase of stagnation and closing in on the natural limits of its duration. In particular, closer attention should be focused on tracking a new, already the fifth configuration of the market society. It will be the several partial processes weave; the recovery process of autonomy by the state to corporations and the financial sector (deglobalisation); the process of recovering control of the state by the old and new social movements (democracy participatory), and the process of transformation of the energy economy, coupled with the process of changing lifestyles: from consumerism to paideia as a human community responsive to its activity on the development, openness and creativity in shaping new rules for civilization. Keywords: the political character, politics, industrial conflict, corporations power, state functions on the economy, social movements, social protest. Polityka bez klas i korporacji, politologia bez ekonomii politycznej. -
Brains, Minds, and Computers in Literary and Science Fiction Neuronarratives
BRAINS, MINDS, AND COMPUTERS IN LITERARY AND SCIENCE FICTION NEURONARRATIVES A dissertation submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. by Jason W. Ellis August 2012 Dissertation written by Jason W. Ellis B.S., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006 M.A., University of Liverpool, 2007 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2012 Approved by Donald M. Hassler Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Tammy Clewell Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Kevin Floyd Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Eric M. Mintz Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Arvind Bansal Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Accepted by Robert W. Trogdon Chair, Department of English John R.D. Stalvey Dean, College of Arts and Sciences ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ iv Chapter 1: On Imagination, Science Fiction, and the Brain ........................................... 1 Chapter 2: A Cognitive Approach to Science Fiction .................................................. 13 Chapter 3: Isaac Asimov’s Robots as Cybernetic Models of the Human Brain ........... 48 Chapter 4: Philip K. Dick’s Reality Generator: the Human Brain ............................. 117 Chapter 5: William Gibson’s Cyberspace Exists within the Human Brain ................ 214 Chapter 6: Beyond Science Fiction: Metaphors as Future Prep ................................. 278 Works Cited ............................................................................................................... -
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background
IR - PERPUSTAKAAN UNIVERSITAS AIRLANGGA CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background of the Study The debates about how the world and everything are made have been a long, never-ending discussion in many fields such as science, archaeology, geology, theology, and humanities. As it is mentioned by the archaeological community, thousands of years since the earth is created and refined by the God Almighty, the earliest human civilisations came forth and showed their existences in three areas, (1) the Tigris Valley in Iraq, (2) the Euphrates Valley in Syria, and (3) the Nile Valley in Africa (Bakir 2007). Much later after the period of these three early civilisations, scientists began to argue about how the very first living creatures existed, which eventually lead to the questions, where the humans, we, are from and how far we may break through the limits (van Loon 2019, 3). These scientific arguments and discoveries eventually complement the two perspectives to see the creation phenomenon, one of which is through mythology. In the correlation with the creation of the earth itself, approximately a century ago, geologist had propounded Big Bang Theory (or also known as big bang incident) that is, a massive explosion in the galaxy that we called a supernova. Some people also argue that the earth is the result of the condensations among elements, gas, and dust from the stars’ fraction around 4.6 million years ago (Charlesworth and Charlesworth 2017). Moreover, a long time ago, before the human could achieve that conclusion, in the 9th century, Jinasena from India, quoted from 1 SKRIPSI DECONSTRUCTION OF SCIENCE.. -
Genetic Hygiene: Discourses of Causation in North American Medicine
Genetic Hygiene: Discourses of Causation in North American Medicine by Sarah Emily Blacker A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Department of English and Film Studies University of Alberta © Sarah Emily Blacker, 2015 Abstract Written in an era that is witnessing an epistemic shift through which human health is increasingly being geneticized by North American science and medical institutions, this dissertation interrogates the discourses that make such a shift—and all of its material repercussions—possible. I contend that the naturalization of reductive and mono-contextual discourses of causation have acted as conceptual precursors to the epistemic dominance now secured by genomic and “personalized” medicine in 2015. Reading these discourses of causation as part of a larger hegemonic set of processes that find expression as a liberal form of self-management in the context of Canada as a state that invests in the productive capacities of its citizenry, this thesis narrates the development of reductive causation through three case studies that examine how state institutions have parsed forms of social inequality from forms of biological inequality, while epistemologically cementing the latter as the scientific mechanism of causation. Ultimately, this thesis aims to disrupt the hegemony of these discourses to create space for other knowledges concerning health and illness, including that of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge. I contend that the state’s parsing of social and biological forms of inequality is informed by a notion of biovalue—a concept developed by Catherine Waldby and Robert Mitchell to theorize a biologically novel form of value produced by innovations in molecular biology. -
The New Ethics of Frankenstein: Responsibility and Obedience in I, Robot and X-Men: First Class Matt Lorenz
7 The new ethics of Frankenstein: responsibility and obedience in I, Robot and X-Men: First Class Matt Lorenz hile films and TV shows such as Frankenweenie (2012), I, Frankenstein (2014), Wand Penny Dreadful (2014) adapt, revise, and extend Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) for the screen, with notable differences in mood and message, other films echo and expand on Shelley’s classic tale of creation gone awry in ways that are more indirect and unexpected. In a sense, these indirect adaptations have more freedom to complicate and modernise Shelley’s text, since they transpose her characters and conflicts into fresh contexts with multiple variations. In the films I, Robot (2004), directed by Alex Proyas, and X-Men: First Class (2011), directed by Matthew Vaughn, the concept of creation, one of the key concepts in Shelley’s novel, expands from its common definition (creation out of nothing or out of diverse pre-existing parts) to a broader sense that includes modification or influence. These films portray the figures of creator and creation in various incarnations, some predictably malevolent or misguided, and others far more conflicted and difficult to label in ethical terms. Each film affirms its membership in what Dennis R. Cutchins and Dennis R. Perry call the ‘Frankenstein Network’, while posing and answering ethical questions that hover at the margins of or receive opposing answers in Shelley’s influential novel. In so doing, both films challenge and extend Shelley’s implicit assumptions about the ethics of creation and createdness. In I, Robot, the Frankenstein figure, Dr Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), co- founds U.S.