Artificial Intelligence in Science Fiction Body, Mind, Soul-The 'Cyborg Effect': Artificial Intelligence in Science Fiction
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A Very Short History of Cyberpunk
A Very Short History of Cyberpunk Marcus Janni Pivato Many people seem to think that William Gibson invented The cyberpunk genre in 1984, but in fact the cyberpunk aesthetic was alive well before Neuromancer (1984). For example, in my opinion, Ridley Scott's 1982 movie, Blade Runner, captures the quintessence of the cyberpunk aesthetic: a juxtaposition of high technology with social decay as a troubling allegory of the relationship between humanity and machines ---in particular, artificially intelligent machines. I believe the aesthetic of the movie originates from Scott's own vision, because I didn't really find it in the Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), upon which the movie is (very loosely) based. Neuromancer made a big splash not because it was the "first" cyberpunk novel, but rather, because it perfectly captured the Zeitgeist of anxiety and wonder that prevailed at the dawning of the present era of globalized economics, digital telecommunications, and exponential technological progress --things which we now take for granted but which, in the early 1980s were still new and frightening. For example, Gibson's novels exhibit a fascination with the "Japanification" of Western culture --then a major concern, but now a forgotten and laughable anxiety. This is also visible in the futuristic Los Angeles of Scott’s Blade Runner. Another early cyberpunk author is K.W. Jeter, whose imaginative and disturbing novels Dr. Adder (1984) and The Glass Hammer (1985) exemplify the dark underside of the genre. Some people also identify Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling as progenitors of cyberpunk. -
Citizen Cyborg.” Citizen a Groundbreaking Work of Social Commentary, Citizen Cyborg Artificial Intelligence, Nanotechnology, and Genetic Engineering —DR
hughes (continued from front flap) $26.95 US ADVANCE PRAISE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE NANOTECHNOLOGY GENETIC ENGINEERING MEDICAL ETHICS INVITRO FERTILIZATION STEM-CELL RESEARCH $37.95 CAN citizen LIFE EXTENSION GENETIC PATENTS HUMAN GENETIC ENGINEERING CLONING SEX SELECTION ASSISTED SUICIDE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE human genetic engineering, sex selection, drugs, and assisted In the next fifty years, life spans will extend well beyond a century. suicide—and concludes with a concrete political agenda for pro- cyborg Our senses and cognition will be enhanced. We will have greater technology progressives, including expanding and deepening control over our emotions and memory. Our bodies and brains “A challenging and provocative look at the intersection of human self-modification and human rights, reforming genetic patent laws, and providing SOCIETIES MUST RESPOND TO THE REDESIGNED HUMAN OF FUTURE WHY DEMOCRATIC will be surrounded by and merged with computer power. The limits political governance. Everyone wondering how society will be able to handle the coming citizen everyone with healthcare and a basic guaranteed income. of the human body will be transcended, as technologies such as possibilities of A.I. and genomics should read Citizen Cyborg.” citizen A groundbreaking work of social commentary, Citizen Cyborg artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering —DR. GREGORY STOCK, author of Redesigning Humans illuminates the technologies that are pushing the boundaries of converge and accelerate. With them, we will redesign ourselves and humanness—and the debate that may determine the future of the our children into varieties of posthumanity. “A powerful indictment of the anti-rationalist attitudes that are dominating our national human race itself. -
Neuro Informatics 2020
Neuro Informatics 2019 September 1-2 Warsaw, Poland PROGRAM BOOK What is INCF? About INCF INCF is an international organization launched in 2005, following a proposal from the Global Science Forum of the OECD to establish international coordination and collaborative informatics infrastructure for neuroscience. INCF is hosted by Karolinska Institutet and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. INCF currently has Governing and Associate Nodes spanning 4 continents, with an extended network comprising organizations, individual researchers, industry, and publishers. INCF promotes the implementation of neuroinformatics and aims to advance data reuse and reproducibility in global brain research by: • developing and endorsing community standards and best practices • leading the development and provision of training and educational resources in neuroinformatics • promoting open science and the sharing of data and other resources • partnering with international stakeholders to promote neuroinformatics at global, national and local levels • engaging scientific, clinical, technical, industry, and funding partners in colla- borative, community-driven projects INCF supports the FAIR (Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable) principles, and strives to implement them across all deliverables and activities. Learn more: incf.org neuroinformatics2019.org 2 Welcome Welcome to the 12th INCF Congress in Warsaw! It makes me very happy that a decade after the 2nd INCF Congress in Plzen, Czech Republic took place, for the second time in Central Europe, the meeting comes to Warsaw. The global neuroinformatics scenery has changed dramatically over these years. With the European Human Brain Project, the US BRAIN Initiative, Japanese Brain/ MINDS initiative, and many others world-wide, neuroinformatics is alive more than ever, responding to the demands set forth by the modern brain studies. -
The Fundamental Articles of I.AM Cyborg Law
Beijing Law Review, 2020, 11, 911-946 https://www.scirp.org/journal/blr ISSN Online: 2159-4635 ISSN Print: 2159-4627 The Fundamental Articles of I.AM Cyborg Law Stephen Castell CASTELL Consulting, Witham, UK How to cite this paper: Castell, S. (2020). Abstract The Fundamental Articles of I.AM Cyborg Law. Beijing Law Review, 11, 911-946. Author Isaac Asimov first fictionally proposed the “Three Laws of Robotics” https://doi.org/10.4236/blr.2020.114055 in 1942. The word “cyborg” appeared in 1960, describing imagined beings with both artificial and biological parts. My own 1973 neologisms, “neural Received: November 2, 2020 plug compatibility”, and “softwiring” predicted the computer software-driven Accepted: December 15, 2020 Published: December 18, 2020 future evolution of man-machine neural interconnection and synthesis. To- day, Human-AI Brain Interface cyborg experiments and “brain-hacking” de- Copyright © 2020 by author(s) and vices are being trialed. The growth also of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven Scientific Research Publishing Inc. Data Analytics software and increasing instances of “Government by Algo- This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International rithm” have revealed these advances as being largely unregulated, with insuf- License (CC BY 4.0). ficient legal frameworks. In a recent article, I noted that, with automation of http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ legal processes and judicial decision-making being increasingly discussed, Open Access RoboJudge has all but already arrived; and I discerned also the cautionary Castell’s Second Dictum: “You cannot construct an algorithm that will relia- bly decide whether or not any algorithm is ethical”. -
THESIS ANXIETIES and ARTIFICIAL WOMEN: DISASSEMBLING the POP CULTURE GYNOID Submitted by Carly Fabian Department of Communicati
THESIS ANXIETIES AND ARTIFICIAL WOMEN: DISASSEMBLING THE POP CULTURE GYNOID Submitted by Carly Fabian Department of Communication Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Fall 2018 Master’s Committee: Advisor: Katie L. Gibson Kit Hughes Kristina Quynn Copyright by Carly Leilani Fabian 2018 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT ANXIETIES AND ARTIFICIAL WOMEN: DISASSEMBLING THE POP CULTURE GYNOID This thesis analyzes the cultural meanings of the feminine-presenting robot, or gynoid, in three popular sci-fi texts: The Stepford Wives (1975), Ex Machina (2013), and Westworld (2017). Centralizing a critical feminist rhetorical approach, this thesis outlines the symbolic meaning of gynoids as representing cultural anxieties about women and technology historically and in each case study. This thesis draws from rhetorical analyses of media, sci-fi studies, and previously articulated meanings of the gynoid in order to discern how each text interacts with the gendered and technological concerns it presents. The author assesses how the text equips—or fails to equip—the public audience with motives for addressing those concerns. Prior to analysis, each chapter synthesizes popular and scholarly criticisms of the film or series and interacts with their temporal contexts. Each chapter unearths a unique interaction with the meanings of gynoid: The Stepford Wives performs necrophilic fetishism to alleviate anxieties about the Women’s Liberation Movement; Ex Machina redirects technological anxieties towards the surveilling practices of tech industries, simultaneously punishing exploitive masculine fantasies; Westworld utilizes fantasies and anxieties cyclically in order to maximize its serial potential and appeal to impulses of its viewership, ultimately prescribing a rhetorical placebo. -
The Cyborg Prophecy: Reading Between Isaac Asimov's Lines
The Cyborg Prophecy: Reading between Isaac Asimov’s Lines Rudrani Gangopadhyay Jadavpur University, Kolkata Abstract: Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto” describes the Cyborg as a conjunction of technology and discourse. It argues that a prosthesis becomes a cyborg element when it is integrated with the identity of an individual, and a cyborg is created by the almost symbiotic union of robotic and organic elements. Isaac Asimov, in his short story “The Bicentennial Man” for example, narrates the story of such a remarkable union of robotic and human parts and asserts, at the end, that the resultant system is, essentially, human. A cyborg, therefore, is ‘meta-human’, being somewhat enhanced (by the use of technology) in certain ways in comparison to a human being. There isa mass cyborgization of the global population taking place today. The kind of blurring of boundaries between exogenous and endogenous parts within the system of a human being that one had, so far, only come across in science fiction, is fast coming to life. The obvious example of prosthetics aside, gadgets like cellphone headsets, touchscreen phones and similar electronic devices have been rendered extensions of the human system, merging seamlessly with the organic identities and consequently, making cyborgs out of everyone. The relevance of literature featuring cyborgs, which have, in a way, acted as prophecies for human civilization, therefore cannot be emphasized enough. This paper explores the cyborg identity in select works of Isaac Asimov and reflect on the fast occurring cyborgization of the (meta-)human race in reality. Keywords: Science Fiction, Isaac Asimov, Cyborg, Cybernetics, Body Studies Donna Haraway, in the famous “Cyborg Manifesto,” describes a cyborg as a conjunction of technology and discourse (Haraway 149). -
Mirrorshade Women: Feminism and Cyberpunk
Mirrorshade Women: Feminism and Cyberpunk at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century Carlen Lavigne McGill University, Montréal Department of Art History and Communication Studies February 2008 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Studies © Carlen Lavigne 2008 2 Abstract This study analyzes works of cyberpunk literature written between 1981 and 2005, and positions women’s cyberpunk as part of a larger cultural discussion of feminist issues. It traces the origins of the genre, reviews critical reactions, and subsequently outlines the ways in which women’s cyberpunk altered genre conventions in order to advance specifically feminist points of view. Novels are examined within their historical contexts; their content is compared to broader trends and controversies within contemporary feminism, and their themes are revealed to be visible reflections of feminist discourse at the end of the twentieth century. The study will ultimately make a case for the treatment of feminist cyberpunk as a unique vehicle for the examination of contemporary women’s issues, and for the analysis of feminist science fiction as a complex source of political ideas. Cette étude fait l’analyse d’ouvrages de littérature cyberpunk écrits entre 1981 et 2005, et situe la littérature féminine cyberpunk dans le contexte d’une discussion culturelle plus vaste des questions féministes. Elle établit les origines du genre, analyse les réactions culturelles et, par la suite, donne un aperçu des différentes manières dont la littérature féminine cyberpunk a transformé les usages du genre afin de promouvoir en particulier le point de vue féministe. -
118 Reviews of Books Does, the Book Is a Pleasure. He Roots It in Feminist, Race, and Sf Scholarship, Just As He Grounds Butler
118 Reviews of Books does, the book is a pleasure. He roots it in feminist, race, and sf scholarship, just as he grounds Butler in black American women’s writing traditions and sf tropes. Moreover, he stays focused on his literary argument and doesn’t get lost in the weeds of debates about agency, humanism, and the problematic legacy of the Enlightenment. Ultimately, Of Bodies, Communities, and Voices is indispensable for any Butler scholar, primarily because of the ways he connects so many of her work’s central concerns without reducing its complexity or variety. It will function more as a source of research than pedagogy, except maybe in upper-level classes centered on Butler. I recommend it not only to scholars of Butler but sf in general, especially in terms of afrofuturism, posthumanism, or any of Bast’s focal points (agency, bodies, community, voice). Biopunk SF in Liquid Modernity. Lars Schmeink. Biopunk Dystopias: Genetic Engineering, Society and Science Fiction. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016. 288 pp. ISBN 978-1-78-138376-6. £75 hc. Reviewed by D. Harlan Wilson Biopunk is among the more recent sf subgenres to emerge from the virtual citadel of 1980s cyberpunk. There have been others—most prominently steampunk, but also splatterpunk, nanopunk, dieselpunk, bugpunk, even elfpunk and monkpunk—but biopunk narratives are perhaps the first truly authentic descendant of the cyberpunks, featuring gritty dystopian settings, beat characters, corporate terrorism, techno-pathology, and body invasion. Instead of hacking computers, however, biopunks hack DNA and operate in worlds where the processes and products of genetic engineering are brought to bear by various forms of mad scientism. -
Intelligence Without Reason
Intelligence Without Reason Rodney A. Brooks MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab 545 Technology Square Cambridge, MA 02139, USA Abstract certain modus operandi over the years, which includes a particular set of conventions on how the inputs and out- Computers and Thought are the two categories puts to thought and reasoning are to be handled (e.g., that together define Artificial Intelligence as a the subfield of knowledge representation), and the sorts discipline. It is generally accepted that work in of things that thought and reasoning do (e.g,, planning, Artificial Intelligence over the last thirty years problem solving, etc.). 1 will argue that these conven has had a strong influence on aspects of com- tions cannot account for large aspects of what goes into puter architectures. In this paper we also make intelligence. Furthermore, without those aspects the va the converse claim; that the state of computer lidity of the traditional Artificial Intelligence approaches architecture has been a strong influence on our comes into question. I will also argue that much of the models of thought. The Von Neumann model of landmark work on thought has been influenced by the computation has lead Artificial Intelligence in technological constraints of the available computers, and particular directions. Intelligence in biological thereafter these consequences have often mistakenly be systems is completely different. Recent work in come enshrined as principles, long after the original im behavior-based Artificial Intelligence has pro petus has disappeared. duced new models of intelligence that are much closer in spirit to biological systems. The non- From an evolutionary stance, human level intelligence Von Neumann computational models they use did not suddenly leap onto the scene. -
Neurorobotics Lecture
Neurorobotics An introduction Marc-Oliver Gewaltig In this lecture you’ll learn 1. What is Neurorobotics 2. Examples of simple neurorobots 1. attraction and avoidance 2. reflexes vs. learned behavior 3. The sensory-motor loop 4. Learning in neurorobotics 1. unsupervised learning for sensory representations 2. reinforcement learning for action learning What is Neurorobotics Neurorobotics, is the combined study of neuroscience, robotics, and artificial intelligence. It is the science and technology of embodied autonomous neural systems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurorobotics Neurorobotics: Embodied in silico neuroscience Spinal Cord Reconstructed Reflexes spinal cord/ CDPs brain models Embodiment and virtual environments Musculo-skeletal system – compliant actuators and mechanics Starting simple: Valentino Braitenberg’s Vehicles Valentino Braitenberg (1926-2011) Braitenberg, V. (1984). Vehicles: Experiments in Photo: Alfred Wegener, commons.wikimedia.org synthetic psychology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Vehicle 1 1 Vehicle 2a 1 2a Vehicle 2b 1 2a 2b Vehicle 3 1 2a 2b 3 Vehicle 3 1 2a 2b 3 Exercise How will vehicle 3 move? Generalizing the Braitenberg vehicle Exercise Using weights in {-1,+1}, which weight configurations implement the vehicles 2a, 2b, and 2c? speed light Biological and Non-biological bodies Sensors: cameras, microphones, etc Artificial brain with neurons Servo motors with wheels Biological and Non-biological bodies Sensors: cameras, microphones, etc encode Artificial brain with neurons Servo motors with wheels Biological and Non-biological bodies Sensors: cameras, microphones, etc encode Artificial brain with neurons Servo motors with wheels decode Perception Action Vision Behaviors Hearing Smell Action Central pattern generators Touch Perception Reflexes Temperature Vestibular Muscle contraction Proprioception Perception Short-term Long-term Action memory memory Drives & Working Vision Cognitive Motivation memory control Action Behaviors Sensor Reward & selection Hearing fusion punish. -
A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist
Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist- Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991), pp.149-181. AN IRONIC DREAM OF A COMMON LANGUAGE FOR WOMEN IN THE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT This chapter is an effort to build an ironic political myth faithful to feminism, socialism, and materialism. Perhaps more faithful as blasphemy is faithful, than as reverent worship and identification. Blasphemy has always seemed to require taking things very seriously. I know no better stance to adopt from within the secular-religious, evangelical traditions of United States politics, including the politics of socialist feminism. Blasphemy protects one from the moral majority within, while still insisting on the need for community. Blasphemy is not apostasy. Irony is about contradictions that do not resolve into larger wholes, even dialectically, about the tension of holding incompatible things together because both or all are necessary and true. Irony is about humour and serious play. It is also a rhetorical strategy and a political method, one I would like to see more honoured within socialist-feminism. At the centre of my ironic faith, my blasphemy, is the image of the cyborg. A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction. Social reality is lived social relations, our most important political construction, a world-changing fiction. The international women's movements have constructed 'women's experience', as well as uncovered or discovered this crucial collective object. This experience is a fiction and fact of the most crucial, political kind. -
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).