Caietele Echinox, vol. 26, 2014: Possible Worlds: Fantasy, Science-Fiction Rodica-Gabriela Chira 345

About SF and Fantasy through Artificial Intelligence

ABSTRACT Preliminaries Set in a rather remote future, Steven Spiel- berg’s film Artificial Intelligence (2001) The distinction between the human be- tells the story of a childlike android named ing and the machine has constituted for David programmed with the ability to love. centuries the major concern of all those pre- Having as starting point a SF short story, occupied by androids. All these creations namely Brian Aldiss’ Super-Toys Last All have the same idea as a starting point: simu- Summer Long (1969) and a novel for chil- lating life through art, science or magic in dren, Carlo Collodi’s Adventures of Pino- order to understand what makes of us hu- cchio (1883), Ian Watson, a British science- man beings. But A.I.: Artificial Intelligence1 fiction writer, created a very interesting screen goes even further by asking what constitutes script. The movie marks the continuity of the boundary between humans, non-humans the specific need human beings have for and post-humans. stories as well as for love. It thus proves to The notion of artificial intelligence be a combination between hard SF and fan- goes back to the 18th century, more exactly tasy. Our paper would mainly underline to the year 1796 with Wolfgang von Kem- some changes in fiction about possible and pelen’s “Chess Player”. The starting point impossible worlds throughout time with an for the development of modern artificial in- accent on the balance between natural and telligence was given by Alan Turing’s ex- artificial. periment. This mathematician and cryptog- KEYWORDS rapher did, in 1950, an experiment through a Artificial Intelligence; Hard SF; Fantasy; mimicry game. Two participants, a human Science; Love. being and a computer, placed in two differ- ent rooms, out of the examiner’s sight are RODICA-GABRIELA CHIRA supposed to answer questions in writing, 1 Decembrie 1918 University, Alba Iulia, their answers appearing on a screen. The Romania computer succeeds if his answers cannot be [email protected] distinguished from those of the human be- ing. Turing imagined that by the year 2000 the computer’s achievements would rise at about 30%. Up to 2001, the first laboratory Rodica-Gabriela Chira 346 of artificial intelligence o- said to him: “‘This is one of the world’s pened in 1950 at the Massa- great stories. Would you write a short syn- chusetts Institute of Technolo- opsis of it I can show to people?’ I was gy (MIT), had created “Cog” and “Kismet”, rehired for a week to write 20 pages. I the last one with a face closer to the humans faxed, I disked. ‘It’s great,’ said Stanley, be- and capable of telling the difference be- fore uttering the fatal words: ‘I might just tween animate and inanimate objects, dis- tinker with it a little...’”. The movie “was to tinction humans are about to disregard when be a picaresque robot version of Pinocchio, speaking of androids; it also put on the spinning off from the Aldiss story, but the market “My Real Baby Doll”, an electronic plotine had bogged down – global warming doll capable of acting in many respects like was flooding New York and an ice age had a baby. The remaining problem is that of set in a thousand years ahead”7. The film creating emotions in a computer for if the was finally achieved by Steven Spielberg in computer is declared human, the human be- 2001. ing can be assimilated to a lifeless object as These specifications are important for Gaby Wood tells us in “Edison’s Eve”2. my approach. They show from the very be- Hans Moravec, chief scientist of See- ginning to which extent intertextuality and grid Corporation, adjunct faculty in the Ro- multidisciplinarity are involved. Intertextu- botics Institute of Carnegie Mellon Univer- ality because we have several literary texts sity, assumes that by 2050 we would have going from fantasy to science-fiction where “The fourth robot generation and its succes- science has an important role, multidisci- sors, with human perceptual and motor abil- plinarity by the merging of literary and sci- ities and superior reasoning powers” which entific texts into a film, a metafilm in fact. “could replace human beings in every es- A metafilm about the specific need human sential task”3. In principle, our society could beings of all civilizations have for stories as continue to operate increasingly well with- well as for love. out us, with machines running the compa- The followed steps start with intertex- nies and doing the research as well as per- tuality which implies the understanding of forming the productive work”. Moravec’s the film plot, continue with multidiscipli- book, Mind Children. The Future of Robot narity through which the film will find a and Human Intelligence (1988)4, was re- place in the usual classifications of the gen- commended by Stanley Kubrick in 1990, re, and finishes through a reflection on hu- together with Carlo Collodi’s The Adven- man existence with its capital challenges. tures of Pinnochio (1883) and Brian Aldiss’ Super-Toys Last All Summer Long (1969)5 to the English SF writer Ian Watson for the writing of a screen script; as Watson con- fesses in his recollections of the collabora- tion6, the A.I. script was enhanced then a- bandoned, even lost, then taken up again until the heart attack that ended Kubrik’s life in 1999. Nevertheless, I. Watson de- clared: “But we all feel AI represented the tremendous movie that it was Stanley’s main and enduring ambition to make”. Be- cause, after losing Watson’s screen script he About SF and Fantasy through Artificial Intelligence world, a viable solution e- 347 The intricacies of intertextuality merges, that of creating, through a new behavioral intelligent It would take many pages to resume unit with a new neuron sequencing technol- each of the stories that have inspired Ian ogy, a mecha child capable of love, a sub- Watson’ screen script, slightly modified af- stitute for a human child. The first idea bor- ter by Steven Spielberg. I chose to resume rowed from Brian Aldiss’ short story Super the film by trying to underline the sources Toys Last all Summer Long is introduced. of inspiration when necessary. Questions on reciprocity are unavoidable: The film suggestively begins with the “Could humans love him back?”; “In the image of ocean waves accompanied by a beginning didn’t God create Adam to love voice, like the one of a story teller (equiv- him?”, underlining the most important chal- alent of the narrator in a novel), locating the lenge of the film: the discussion on the story in a hard-edged future after the disap- boundary between reason and emotions. pearance of some parts of the Earth as a The next image, located twenty months consequence of global warming: ice caps later, presents Monica and Henry Swinton have melted and the resulting rise of the in their car, going to the hospital where ocean waters has drowned all the coastal Martin, their unique son, had been cryogen- cities of the world. Amsterdam, Venice, New ically frozen five years before in order to be York were thus submerged. People were o- kept alive until a cure for his sickness would bliged to adapt to new life conditions. The be found. An interesting connection be- next image projects us in a scientific reun- tween mecha and orga women is created in ion taking place at Cybertronics, New Jer- the passage from one scene to the other: sey. The subject of discussion, directed and after having her head opened, the first one mediated by Professor Allan Hobby, is turn- opens her makeup box trying to mend the ing around the possibility to create an an- damage in her looks; the same operation is droid capable of love. The android is called followed by Monica next to her husband in mecha (term invented by the Japanese)8, in the car. At the hospital, while Henry is talk- order to differentiate it from the orga, or- ing to the doctor, Monica is reading Robin ganic creatures. Professor Hobby evokes the of Sherwood to her encapsulated boy. birth of the notion of artificial intelligence Everyday life scenes follow. Monica and the 1796’s Chess Player. Sheila, a mecha doesn’t have a job, most of her activities woman serves as a proof of the scientific develop at home. To help her fight against evolution. It seems that Hans Moravec’s depression, Cybertronics decides to offer previsions are accomplished: Sheila looks the family the first mecha child, David, an human from head to toe. Through simply eleven years old boy (played by Haley Joel pressing different buttons the professor Osment). Logical fiery debates on the sub- leads us to the image of a complex mechan- ject: how could a machine ever replace a ism covered by artificial skin. A mecha is human being? But David proves to be so not emotionally sensitive touched; if some- perfect in its “built” that Monica finally one hurts it/ (him?), the response is a phys- goes from hesitations to the decision of ical sensation. The mecha lover models can keeping him. She then has to carefully press only work on the activation of senses having a button on David’s head in order to intro- as an effect the creation of pleasure in the duce a code, an “imprinting protocol”, while senses, not a neuronal flashback, “a kind of the mecha child is looking at her all the subconscious”. Since this in an overpopulated time. The words she pronounces are: Rodica-Gabriela Chira 348 “Cyrus, Socrates, Particle, Dis- Monica, like a careful mother, is holding his ciple, Hurricane, Dolphin, Tu- hand imagining he is a real boy. David is lip, Monica, David, Monica.” then supposed to cut a hair lock of her The child utters for the first time the “mag- mother’s in her sleep; Henry becomes wor- ic” words: “You’re my Mummy”. Love for- ried. On Martin’s birthday party, several ever irresistible coming from the child boys are invited and incited to discover the which would be destroyed when the parents difference between orgas and mechas asking don’t want him anymore. David to pee or checking if he feels pain or In this part of the film, the short story not. Attempting to save himself, David’s and the screen script intermingle. David al- arms get stuck around Martin’s chest and ready exists when Aldiss’ story opens on an they both fall in the swimming pool, putting indefinite future where almost everything is the real boy’s life in danger. artificial, he is only five years old and al- The film meets Collodi’s novel when, ready playing with Teddy, the robobear, he as a vengeful gesture, Martin asks Monica is already writing on sheets of paper un- to read it to both of them. Its effect on finished declarations of love to his mother. David is unexpected though. In his mind, But while the SF writer’s Monica shows the idea that if he were real his mummy quite little interest in her artificial son and would really love him becomes the impulse joyfully receives the news that her demand for all the rest of his adventures. His pres- of conceiving a child has been accepted, ence in the family being assumed as danger- Spielberg’s Monica feels impressed by the ous (if he was created to love he would also incessant attempts David makes to show his know how to hate), Henry decides the mecha affection. The David child has much in has to leave and Monica submits without to- common from this point of view with Col- tally agreeing though. When Monica aban- lodi’s Pinochio: he makes all kinds of funny dons him in the woods, a curious place be- mistakes in his attempt to learn from human longing to Cybertronics (while Henry Swin- actions: he uses a whole bottle of perfume ton’s workplace in Supertoys Last all Sum- in order to smell like his mother, he appears mer Long is called Synthank), David de- in front of her unexpectedly, etc. He even clares his love, asks if this is a game and has a sense of humor. The news Monica expects his mother to come back for him. gets in A.I. while David is present, concerns When Monica denies, offering him some her son’s cure and return home. We will not money and advising him to “Stay away see her dependent on alcohol as in the sec- from other people, only mecha are safe.”, ond short story of the Aldiss series, namely “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the Supertoys When Winter Comes, after her world”, David’s words are touching: “If child’s death and after being disappointed Pinnochio became a real boy, I can become with David’s not growing at all. On the con- a real boy… Can I come home if I become a trary, our A.I. Monica seems very impressed real boy?” (min. 50) by David and needy of his affection, a deep- During the two other thirds of the film, er affection than the one coming from her David has to face the world, with Teddy by own son, rather selfish and demanding. his side, like Pinnochio with his ABC. The Martin sees in David a mere toy, a doll course of events is different in Supertoys meant to replace Teddy. He becomes rather When Winter Comes. Her own child being cruel and vengeful. The mecha child doesn’t dead, living in the company of David with eat, but Martin provokes him to eat spinach his Teddy and of Jules, a mecha serving and David’s interior needs to be cleaned. man of an aged look, dissatisfied with her About SF and Fantasy through Artificial Intelligence “son’s” not growing and endlessly repeating gather on the pile of thrown 349 the same games, endlessly watching the same away mechanisms trying to stories, with her husband’s almost con- find an arm or a jaw which tinuous absence from home, Monica be- would fit into their missing parts alludes to comes alcoholic. Jules’ destruction through the Throwaway town from Supertoys in falling down the stairs, with the head com- Other Seasons, a place where Aldiss’ David pletely smashed, wakens her sorrow. In an gets after the fatal accident: with “old mod- attempt to comfort her, David says: “It els of automatics, robots, androids and other doesn’t matter, Mummy… He’s only an an- machines that had ceased to be useful to droid… You can soon buy us another, busy mankind”10. In the movie, the sentence Mummy”. “And what do you think you are! “Moon on the rise” represents a big danger You’re only an android yourself.” comes the (min. 62-70). That moon is nothing else but answer. This is a truth David is incapable to some kind of a flying balloon from which face. In his room, he opens Teddy’s “tummy humans check the consistency of the “fau- […] investigating the complex mechanism na”. Once detected as “cold”, the frightened of its interior” and discovers he was nothing robots are haunted by other functional and but a machine. He then acts randomly, strik- dreadful looking machines. A mecha nanny, ing by accident “the house’s control centre with “good references”, protects David and wrenching it from the wall”. Everything is sings to him a lullaby song in French (“Do, destroyed, Monica dies. Bending over her do, l’enfant do/ L’enfant dormira bien vite/ dead body, David says: “I am human Mum- Une chanson douce que me chantait ma- my. I love you and I feel sad just like real man”). David himself is caught, thrown in a people, so I must be human… Mustn’t I?”9 cage and led to the “Flesh Fair – Celebra- Let us return to A.I.’s David. While he tion of Life”, some kind of a circus (evoking is advancing with Teddy into the woods, the to a certain extent Pinocchio’s passage from film moves to another scene, the one where the Country of Playthings to the circus as a Gigolo Joe, the Mecha lover android does donkey11) where the delight of human be- his job: “Once you’ve had a lover robot ings is to joyfully assist at their cruel and in- you’ll never want a real man again” he says ventive destruction. The fear of being out- to frightened Patricia. The spectator will numbered by the machines is great, the eter- surely smile at Joe’s turning his own head to nal panem et circenses demonstration in an- the right in order to let some music play, at other space and time is easily observed. modifying his look in the left hand’s palm, Mechas don’t plea for their lives just like in then at his finding the suitable words for the Roman arenas, they die with dignity, al- every woman to whom his services are of- so because they are supposed to be unemo- fered. A well-known client of certain hotels, tional. “Hey Joe, what do you know?” is accused When a few buckets of acid are to be of having killed a woman he was seeing dropped on both David and Joe, our hero more often and who was in fact killed by cries out showing fear, like a real boy. The her jealous husband. In his attempt to es- result is a riot, the two are set free and leave cape, Gigolo Joe rushes out of the apartment arriving in the same woods again. Gigolo building and cuts off his registration tag to Joe then leads his friend in a journey “to- avoid detection by the police, then arrives in wards the moon”, to Rouge city (“All roads the same woods and meets David. lead to Rouge”), a Mecca of adult entertain- The scene in which, by night, the al- ment that rivals Las Vegas and Disneyland. most dismantled human-shaped robots A knowledgeable computer representation Rodica-Gabriela Chira 350 of Einstein, called Dr. Know, In the cartoon series (1980), placed in 2030’ answering in 4D, in a child- Tokyo, Dr. Tenma, a very pragmatic applied like atmosphere reminding a scientist and minister of science, desperately small cinema room, accepts to give seven wants to build a special android. He ne- answers, in function of the money David glects Tobio, his own son who dies in an inserts (“Nothing costs more than infor- accident not before asking his father to give mation”, Joe will remark). Like a character the future android his physical aspect. As- in a fairy tale, maybe like the cricket or oth- tro Boy is very intelligent and powerful but er natural elements in Pinocchio’s adven- also as clumsy as a child. In A.I., David tures, Dr. Know tells them that the Blue seems to be the copy of Professor Hobby’s Fairy can be found “at the end of the world son. The scientist really seems touched and where the lions weep”. Joe explains this emotionally involved in his experiment. He must be a place called Man-hattan, as many explains to David that his mothers and mechas have gone there and never came fathers are anxious to talk to him, to listen back. David’s desire is so strong that, when to him and tell him what’s in store for him the police try to catch Joe, he takes the con- next. Numberless Davids are hanging in the trols of an amphibicopter, manages to re- Synthanks laboratories where Henry leads lease his friend from the clutches of the of- his son in Aldiss’ last short story, after los- ficer and they both get to Man-hattan, ing his job: through the flooded New York City where they find the Cybertronics building on He confronted a thousand Davids. All which statues of lions sit weeping water looking alike. All dressed alike. All from their eyes. standing alert and alike. All silent, star- David feels like his wish will come ing ahead. A thousand replicas of him- true, but the first “person” he meets when self. Unliving. the doors open is another David: “I’m Da- For the first time David really under- vid.”/ “You’re not.”/ “Yes, I’m David”. An- stood. ger vanquishes and the second David is des- This was what he was. A product. Only troyed by the first in spite of his friendly a product. His mouth fell open. He behavior. We thus come to the end of the froze. He could not move. The gyro- second third of the film. Everything was scope ceased within him. He fell back- intelligently and mechanically directed, Dr. wards to the floor. Know’s answers were in fact Professor Hobby’s (“I am the Blue Fairy”) who is A.I.’s David also wants to die. He about to offer scientific explanations from throws himself into the water but Joe fishes the perspective of a scientist whose intellec- him back. Then he deeply submerges again tual but also emotional satisfaction have with Teddy in the amphibicopter. They pilot reached the core. David has the physical the vehicle and find themselves in the rem- aspect of Professor Hobby’s son. Photos re- nants of the Coney Island amusement park presenting mostly father and son are on his right to the park’s Fairytale Land within a desk. This aspect of the film directs us Pinocchio themed area. Here, among differ- towards another cinematographic achieve- ent objects recalling Collodi’s famous book, ment owing a lot to Collodi’s novel, namely stands the plaster statue of the Blue Fairy. A to Astroboy, a Japanese manga series (from nearby Ferris wheel collapses and the am- 1952-1968) later turned into an animated phibicopter is trapped right in front of the series (1980)12 and even into a film (2003). statue. This cage may refer to the whale’s About SF and Fantasy through Artificial Intelligence belly where Pinocchio gets in search of his His clothes had been re- 351 father. David starts praying: “Blue Fairy, newed from stock, his please make me into a real boy! Please face had been properly make me real, please make me a real boy!” remolded. And the later type of brain The voice of the story teller is to be had been inserted, infused with the heard again. The ocean froze, two thousand earlier memories. […] He opened his years passed. Humanity disappeared. A new eyes. He sat up. His hands went up to type of robots has replaced it. They are very his head. His expression was one of interested in studying the past, so David’s amazement. “Daddy! What a strange discovery finally makes him unique: he is dream I had. I never had a dream one of the original robots who knew living before…” […] Embracing the child, he people. Through reading his mind, the new (Henry) lifted David off the bench. inhabitants of the Earth discover unexpected David and Teddy stared at each other details. For they are in search of the mean- in wonder. Then they fell into each ing of existence and human beings through other’s arms. their spirituality, art, poetry, mathematical for- It was almost human. mulas must have been the key. One of these special robots tells David that the very fabric From the point of view of the screen of space-time appears to store the memory of story, which could be qualified as a literary every event in the past. A human space-time text, with A.I. Ian Watson creates a metafic- existence in the past can be used but never tion13. We thus have to deal with a pastiche reused. These are too complicated things for of Aldiss’ series of three short stories. As the mind of a child robot (“You were created far as Pinocchio’s adventures are concerned, to be so young”) whose only desire is to in Stanley Kubrik’s vision, the “movie was become real and to have his Mummy close to to be a picaresque robot version of Pino- him, be it for a single day. The first wish cchio”. I would rather incline for pastiche cannot be accomplished, the second one than for parody though. A third element instead, materialized thanks to Teddy who specific to intertextuality can be added, the had kept strands of Monica’s hair, makes allusion. In our case the allusion does not David really happy. Like in a dream, Monica refer to a literary text only but also to a sci- says to him: “I love you David. I will always entific one. The first text is William Butler love you.” and then falls asleep forever. Yeats’ poem, The Stolen Child14 from which The last voice to be heard is that of the only the refrain is taken. The second is Hans story-teller: “…for the first time in his life, Moravec’s Mind Children, as the end of the he (David) went to that place where the screen story creates the image of a world to- dreams are born”. This step also recalls Al- tally dominated by strangely shaped an- diss’ third short story, Super Toys in Other droids. There also are allusions to the Bible Seasons. If that David froze in the sense that as “Let he who is without sin cast the first he remained inert in front of the discovery stone” invoked by Johnson, the chief of cer- of his non uniqueness, he really freezes in emonies in “demolishing artificiality” on the the film. That David is saved by his father Flesh Fair when offering David and Gigolo with the help of his friend Ivan Shiggle, Joe as next in line to be destroyed. Or Pro- chief of Synthank: fessor Hobby’s remark on God’s creation of Adam in order to be loved by him. David lay on the bench between them still connected by cable, awaiting rebirth. Rodica-Gabriela Chira 352 machines could bring and SF tried to some- how detach from science and its military industrial impact by developing the genre Multidisciplinarity called fantasy17. The new hard SF texts offer richer per- As already mentioned, the two large spectives even though the narrative is clas- domains meeting in A.I. are science and sical; they offer a “mental experience”, thus fiction. In order to define its genre as a film anticipating a possible future by articulating we need to establish the themes, the nar- exact sciences such as genetics, informatics, rative approach and the structural elements. with extremely imaginative plots. A narra- The great theme is machines, namely an- tive may therefore engender cloning and in- droids; the narrative perspective is that of an formatics in a plot taking into consideration omniscient story teller whose nature is dif- these two realities of our everyday life and ficult to define when thinking at the im- the result is a twofold dimension: an imagi- mense time span involved; therefore its nary and a worrying one – a curious hybrid- structure may involve a relationship be- ization between the universe of biology and tween myth and tale adapted to nowadays’ the one of cyberworlds. The electronic, digi- realities. We can thus discover hard and soft tized copy, registers the memory, the emo- science as well as a feel of fantasy. Hard tional and intellectual content of the original science and fantasy are both subgenres of while the biological cloning does not recre- science-fiction. ate an adult but an embryo capable of be- Speaking of the hard science’s moder- coming a child and adult but obliged to pass nity, Roger Bozzetto quotes Wylensbroeck: through the experience from childhood to a- “When scientific hypothesis is married with dult age (as with Mary Shelley’s Franken- philosophical speculation a unique and stein). The proximity of the imagined knowl- meaningful literary genre is born”15; Hard edge with the real knowledge, far from be- science is a fiction articulated on a mirage ing an obstacle, becomes an “effective means issued from the irruption of Galilean tech- of fascinated delight”18. At the same time, niques in the literary space. It transmits a this mental experience can be assimilated to specific type of emotions, “the sense of a ritual of initiation through fiction thus wonder”, given not only by the scientific bringing this subgenre closer to fantasy. discoveries but also by the image of science The machine and the intelligence of the in that society and by the light under which artificial being is a literary hard SF theme they both appear in mass media as well as in from the end of the 19th century. Modern the reception of potential readers. Another fantasy also developed in the 19th century, impact is that of the connections existing in but out of the fairy tales. It presently ac- the reality and the imaginary between the knowledges two main forms of manifesta- image of real science and phantasmas in tion, namely high and low fantasy, depend- general16. ent on the dominant world: the “primary” In the beginning of SF, the hard sci- world (or the real one, a rational and famil- ence, with the USA pulps in 1926, invented iar fictional world) and the “secondary” the means of travelling out of space in order world (entirely fictional but with internally to colonize the universe through technical consistent rules, though different from the superiority; the technique was used as an “real” world)19. In low fantasy the emphasis “adjuvant”. After 1950, with Hiroshima, a is less placed on typical elements associated new approach spoke about the tragedy with fantasy, the narrative being set in real- About SF and Fantasy through Artificial Intelligence world environments, in the “primary” world of Einstein – comes from a 353 with the inclusion of some magical ele- cartoon, as well as the moving ments. The forms of low fantasy also in- images David would like to clude personified animals, personified toys, catch. The combination of words in the last supernatural elements time slips and, of question is also suggestive. A flat fact ap- course, androids20. peals to reason, a fairy to imagination and The two main literary texts that in- fantasy. No wonder that the last demand spired A.I. come from two different centu- seems to totally disturb the computer sys- ries. Pinochio’s adventures cannot be classi- tem. By combining Flat fact + Fairy tale a fied as a SF novel but it definitely belongs provoking question is created: “How can the to low fantasy. Brian Aldiss’ short stories, Blue Fairy make a robot into a real live though first published in 1969, enter in the boy?” The answer represented by The Sto- new hard SF category. A.I. is a SF movie len boy’s refrain, slightly modified, is an in- where hard science and low fantasy meet, vitation, an incantation, but also a rhymed whose main theme is androids and the rela- riddle whose sense is painfully discovered tionship between humans and non-hu- once arrived “at the end of the world where mans21. the lions weep”: If Ian Watson’s screen play can be interpreted as metafiction, Steven Spielberg Come away O human child creates a metafilm. In the article “Very To the waters and the wild special effects” published in the New York With a fairy hand in hand Review of Books22, Geoffrey O’Brien writes: For the world’s more full of weeping “A.I. is a meditation on its components; the Than you can understand. technical means that make possible the me- chanical child are as one with the means used to make the film…. Now that we have Art, science and magic: cultural impact the technology what are we going to use it for?”23 This is a question with ethical and The quotation from Plato’s dialogue philosophical impact, the spectator’s posi- (Laws), evoked by Philippe Walter in his tion must not be comfortable. By accompa- attempt to read Pinocchio’s story as the “the nying the characters all the way down resurgence of a myth of the homunculus through their experience they may learn a through Plato and the hermetic and alche- lesson. A.I. is a metafilm through the simu- mical tradition”24 is more than revealing: lated crossing of the boundary between hu- man and non-human and even post-human Let us conceive of the matter in this with the help of modern cinema techniques. way. Let us suppose that each of us liv- Humans play the role of non-humans imag- ing creatures is an ingenious puppet of ining that someday the reverse could hap- the gods, whether contrived by way of pen. If by reading we create our own images, a toy of theirs or for some serious by watching the film we have to face a purpose – for as to that we know noth- reality “happening” right before our eyes. ing; but this we do know, that these Hard science and fantasy appear in inward affections of ours, like sinews words and images when the oracle simu- or cords, drag us along […].25 lacrum takes place: the 4D “reunion” with Dr. Know with the help of a special compu- The Genesis tells us we are made of ter. But Dr. Know’s head – a funny imitation clay over which a breath of life blew. God Rodica-Gabriela Chira 354 connects human beings to the needs companionship and love, Aldiss’s Da- cosmos through vegetal strings, vid also is there to love his human parents some tissues, where the vital unconditionally, Astro Boy is created to re- fire is consumed; according to the Brahman- place dr. Tenma’s missing son but also in ic doctrine, the organs of the body are con- order to achieve a scientific goal, dr. Hob- nected through the breaths (pranas), equiva- by’s David is programmed to love his moth- lent of the Winds (but these breaths, are ig- er unconditionally. But what do we under- neous pneumas breezes of fire); the human stand by love? Sheila, the mecha woman being is made of this “breath” which allows defines it as: “Love is widening my eyes a the articulation and this articulation coin- little bit, quickening my breath a little, and cides with a ritual representing the building warming my skin, and touching…” Gigolo of the fire altar. Which means the string and Joe would give a similar answer. This is the thread explain that any being is through some mechanical definition addressing to its own nature “projected” or woven by a the senses. superior principle, and that every existence At the very beginning of the film, in time implies an articulation or tissue. Cell when the idea of creating a mecha child tissue, conjunctive tissue, bone tissue, mus- who could love is presented, one of the par- cular, nervous or blood tissue, the human ticipants at the reunion, a woman, puts “the being is a tissue of igneous prana26. This is oldest question of all”: “Could humans love Pinocchio, a character made of a piece of him back?” The selfish desire of the scien- wood with symbolic meanings which finally tist is projected in the answer: “In the begin- becomes human through “magic”. ning didn’t God create Adam to love him?” Pinocchio became a contemporary ar- The film practically turns around this ques- chetype27. In a patriarchal society like ours, tion, adapted of course to our times, trying for it continues to be so, this child creation, to suggest possible answers: What happens a puppet or a robot, belongs to “Godlike if the mecha child doesn’t grow old while fathers”. They created it as a child figure, his “parents” do? What happens if the pa- namely a boy, not a girl, to serve their rents really get attached to the child? What needs. Geppetto is a craftsman “allied to the does love mean for the mechas? What does tradition of poiesis or creativity to which love mean for human beings? Can it imply artists belong”, while the mechas’ creators, hatred? Dr. Tenma and Professor Hobby are scien- For David love becomes the mere rea- tists, although “poetic” ones who want to son of his existence. When, after consulting make robots in order “to chase down their Dr. Know, David assumes the risks of going dreams”. Artists or scientists, they are all to Man-hattan, his decision is motivated by “figures of the male creator who appropri- his mother’s love for him. Gigolo Joe tries ates the procreativity of the maternal realm to dissuade him: “She loves what you do for as they singlehandedly ‘give birth to’ their her […], she does not love you. She cannot ‘sons’, effectively excluding women from love you. […] You are alone now only be- their worlds except in highly idealized and cause they got tired of you”. Man-hattan re- symbolic, rather than active, roles”28. In the presents the end of the world for the mechas end of dr. Know’s “divination session”, Pro- and David’s will is defined as sacrifice. If fessor Hobby appears as the author of the Pinocchio learns what love means through book How Can a Robot Become Human. moral lessons, through negative experiences, Geppetto creates Pinochio in order to David loves from the very beginning, he is help him make a living, Disney’s Gepetto programmed. In his very early existence, About SF and Fantasy through Artificial Intelligence Pinocchio cannot tell the difference between first plan for a few seconds 355 good and bad, “physical” suffering makes something like a bust of the him acknowledge it. Aldiss’ David is too Virgin; although not dressed small to understand death. “Good” and in blue, it appears in a blue light and under “bad” for him and for Spielberg’s David are the small cross one can read “Our Lady of only connected to their goal. Even for this the immaculate heart”; and she is placed in mecha child love is seen as including not Rouge city close to Dr. Know’s divinatory only courage and suffering but hatred also. room. The film offers a different perception For David, the Swinton’s family house of the consumerist society’s impact on our is Eden because his mother lives there. behavior. Our need for love is not double Once expelled from his Eden, he futilely directed, it’s a selfish one. Unfortunately looks for the fictional character Blue Fairy Gigolo Joe might be right: “They made us to make him a real boy so that his mother too smart, too quick and too many.” We are will want him back. Who is the Blue Fairy suffering from the mistakes they make be- in A.I.? An animate drawing in Dr. Know’s cause when the end comes all that would be room, a plaster statue on the bottom of the left it’s us.” (min. 100) and they are afraid. ocean which, when touched, goes to pieces, What we call love is nothing but pleasure or an “apparition” in the mirage Eden reconsti- attachment merely connected to a patriar- tuted by the last generation of androids. chal society. Real love is something one “What if the Blue Fairy is a parasite that is shares, it can never be associated with fear the reason to hold the minds of our artificial or hatred even if our wishes are not fulfilled. intelligence?” Gigolo Joe asks after the The opposition man/ woman/ creator meeting with Dr. Know. “I am the Blue therefore remains the eternally unsolved hu- Fairy” says Professor Hobby when David man problem. As for Pinocchio, David’s arrives in Man-hattan. The feminine image birth does not imply a maternal involve- remains rather an illusion, David does not ment, but some kind of a ‘rebirth” takes become human, Eden cannot be regained, place for both of them under the sign of a neither his mother nor he is real and the mother. The feminine presence is rare; in perfect mother-son day is “disturbingly hol- The adventures of Pinocchio, none but the low”31. Should humanity remember that Blue Fairy, passing from a moribund little love is a gift and not a possession? girl, to a fairy and then a mother. As Re- Having to face David’s desire to be- becca West states, in Collodi’s book, the come human even after his mother’s death Blue Fairy often is “quite hard-hearted and (in Supertoys in Other Seasons) Henry often does not display much affection for states that “his obsession with being human the puppet”29. She is an “ambiguous figure, would count as a neurosis if he were a man. including her blue hair, her ability to meta- There were humans who had illnesses morphose and her associations with death”30. where they imagined they were machines”. Although in a funny way, when first hearing According to Hans Moravec’s previ- about the Blue Fairy, Gigolo Joe points out sions by 2050 the society could operate that for humans blue is the color of melan- increasingly well independently. If we are choly and of course he could help her liber- able to furnish scientific information con- ate from it. This color even brought in the cerning our physical development, meek is idea of assimilating the Blue Fairy with the the only characteristic attributed to humans. Virgin traditionally depicted with a blue Would that finally mean love’s triumph? mantle. Spielberg’s film also brings in the Would the loss of interest in biological Rodica-Gabriela Chira 356 heritage turn humanity in a- Aldiss, Brian, Super-Toys Last All nother direction, the one in Summer Long, http://www.wired.com/wi- which he would give up incar- red/archive/5.01/ffsupertoys_pr.html. nating the invisible? Super-Toys When Winter Comes, Su- per-Toys in Other Seasons, transcribed from Meek humans would inherit the earth, Super-Toys Last All Summer Long and Oth- but rapidly evolving machines would er Tales of Future Time by Brian Aldiss, expand into the rest of the universe. Copyright 2001, published by St. Martin’s This development can be viewed as a Press in The “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence” very natural one. Human beings have Fanfiction Online Anthology, http://mecha- two forms of heredity, one the tradi- huggermr.tripod.com/id29.html, http://me- tional biological kind, passed on strands chahuggermr.tripod.com/id30.html. of DNA, the other cultural, passed Bozzetto, Roger, “Modernité de la hard from mind to mind by example, lan- science-fiction”, in IRIS. Le Fantastique guage, books and recently machines. contemporain, no. 24, Les Cahiers du Gerf, At present the two are inextricably Centre de Recherche de l’Imaginaire, Uni- linked, but the cultural part is evolving versité de Grenoble 3, Hiver 2002/2003, p. very rapidly, and gradually assuming 59-65. functions once the province of our bi- Collodi, Carlo, Pinocchio: The Adven- ology. In terms of information content, tures of a Marionette, translation from the our cultural side is already by far the Italian Walter S. Cramp, Boston, Ginn, larger part of us. The fully intelligent 1904, http://www.questia.com/library/272- robot marks the point where our cultur- 2131/pinocchio-the-adventures-of-a-mario- al side can exist on its own, free of bio- nette. logical limits. Intelligent machines, Moravec, Hans, “The Universal Ro- which are evolving among us, learning bot”, http://90.146.8.18/en/archiv_files/199- our skills, sharing our goals, and being 11/E1991_013.pdf. shaped by our values, can be viewed as Walter, Philippen “Pinocchio, l’âme de our children, the children of our minds. feu et la marionnette de Platon” in La fa- With them our biological heritage is brique du corps humain: la machine modèle not lost. It will be safely stored in li- du vivant, Véronique Adam et Anna Caioz- braries at least; however its importance zo (eds.), Publication de la MSH-ALPES, p. will be greatly diminished32. 203-215. Watson, Ian, “My Adventures with Stanley Kubrick” by Ian Watson, in Play- Bibliographycal references boy, August 1999, http://www.frc.ri.cmu.- edu/~hpm/project.archive/clippings.and.not A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Artificial es/9908.Ian.Watson.Kubrick.html. Intelligence:AI – original title) – 29 June West, Rebecca, The Persistent Puppet: 2001 (USA), 146 min. Director Steven Spiel- Pinocchio’s Heirs in Contemporary Fiction berg; screen story: Ian Watson; screenplay: and Film, The University of Chicago Libra- Steven Spielberg. http://yify.tv/artificial-in- ry, Digital Collections, Copyright 2002 The telligence/. University of Chicago, http://fathom.lib.u- Astro Boy (1980’s), official teaser, first chicago.edu/2/72810000/. episode, http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/2/- Wood, Gaby, Le rêve de l’homme-ma- 72810000/72810000_pinocchio.pdf. chine. De l’automate à l’androïde, traduit About SF and Fantasy through Artificial Intelligence de l’anglais (américain) par Sébastien Mar- 357 ty, Editions Autrement, coll. Passions com- plices, Paris, 2005. First publication under the title Edisons’ Eve, by Alfred A Knopf, 6 Ian Watson, “My Adventures with Stanley New York, 2002. Kubrick by Ian Watson”, in Playboy, August 1999, http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/pro- ject.archive/clippings.and.notes/9908.Ian.W Notes atson.Kubrick.html. 7 Ibidem. 1 A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Artificial Intel- 8 The Japanese word “mecha” is derived ligence:AI - original title) – 29 June 2001 from the Japanese abbreviation meka for the (USA), 146 min. Director Steven Spielberg; English word “mechanical”. The Japanese screen story: Ian Watson; screenplay: Ste- use the term “robots” (robotto) or “giant ro- ven Spielberg. http://yify.tv/artificial-intelli- bots” to distinguish limbed vehicles from gence/. other mechanical devices. 2 Gaby Wood, Le rêve de l’homme-machine. Mecha: 1) Japanese slang for Mech (piloted De l’automate à l’androïde, traduit de l’an- robot); 2) A giant or small robot used in glais (américain) par Sébastien Marty, Edi- Japan controlled by a person 18-21 years of tions Autrement, Paris, 2005, coll. Passions age, with the exception of “the chosen one”, complices, p. 16-22. First publication under type of pilot who is usually 15 years of age; the title Edisons’ Eve, by Alfred A Knopf, 3) Robot with unbelievable power, weap- New York, 2002. ons, and height. Usually defies the laws of 3 He thus projects for ca. 2000-2010 the physics. 4) Can usually be found in Anime, dumb robot, for 2010-2020 the learning secret underground factories, and outer robot, for 2020-2030 imagery, for 2030- space. http://www.urbandictionary.com/de- 2040 reasoning, first generation technicali- fine.php?term=mecha. These definitions are ties, for 2050+Mind children. In Hans Mo- not totally adaptable to our situation. ravec, “The Universal Robot”, http://90.1- 9 B. Aldiss, Super-Toys When Winter Comes, 46.8.18/en/archiv_files/19911/E1991_01- http://mechahuggermr.tripod.com/id30.html. 3.pdf. 10 Ibidem. 4 Hans Moravec, Mind Children. The Future 11 Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio: The Adventures of Robot and Human Intelligence, Cam- of a Marionette, translation from the Italian bridge University Press 1988, Harvard Uni- Walter S. Cramp, Boston, Ginn, 1904, versity Press, 1990. http://www.questia.com/library/2722131/pi 5 Brian Aldiss, Super-Toys Last All Summer nocchio-the-adventures-of-a-marionette. Long, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/- 12 Astro Boy (1980’s), official teaser, first 5.01/ffsupertoys_pr.html. Super-Toys When episode, http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/2/72- Winter Comes, Super-Toys in Other Sea- 810000/72810000_pinocchio.pdf. sons, transcribed from Super-Toys Last All 13 “Metafiction is a term given to fictional Summer Long and Other Tales of Future writing which self-consciously and system- Time by Brian Aldiss, Copyright 2001, pub- atically draws attention to its status as an lished by St. Martin’s Press in The “A.I.: artifact in order to pose questions about the Artificial Intelligence” Fanfiction Online relationship between fiction and reality. In Anthology, http://mechahuggermr.tripod.com/- providing critique of their own methods of id29.html, http://mechahuggermr.tripod.com/- construction, such writings not only exam- id30.html. ine the fundamental structures of narrative Rodica-Gabriela Chira 358

fiction, they also explore the possible fic- occur. (Robert H. Boyer, Kenneth I. Za- tionality of the world outside the literary horski (ed.), The Fantastic Imagination II. fictional text.” Patricia Waugh, Metafiction: Avon Books, 1978, p. 2. The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious 21 The recent films talking about these ob- Fiction. New York, Routledge, 1984. sessions owe their existence to the 19th cen- http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticis tury automatons (Mary Shelley’s Franken- m/postmodernism/metafiction.htm. stein and Villiers de Lille Adam’s Future 14 Published in 1889, in The Wandering of Eve) firstly inspiring George Méliès’ cine- Oisin and Other Poems, “The Stolen Child” matographic special effects, first attempts to was written in 1886 and is considered to be create virtual realities. From Gaby Wood, one of Yeats’ more notable early poems. It op. cit., p. 22. is based on an Irish legend and concerns 22 Geoffrey O’Brien, “Very special effects” faeries beguiling a child to come away with in the New York Review of Books, August 9, them. Yeats had a great interest in Irish my- 2001, cited by Rebecca West in The Per- thology about faeries resulting in his publi- sistent Puppet: Pinocchio’s Heirs in Con- cation of Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish temporary Fiction and Film, The University Peasantry in 1888 and Fairy Folk Tales of of Chicago Library, Digital Collections, Ireland in 1892, ttp://www.online-literatu- Copyright 2002 The University of Chicago, re.com/yeats/816/. http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/2/72810000/, 15 John Wylenbroeck, in Extrapolation, vol. Session 9: “Futuristic (and Future) Pino- 23, no 4, Winter 1982, p. 326, p. 59 in Roger cchios”. Bozzetto’s article, “Modernité de la hard 23 Rebecca West, The Persistent Puppet: science-fiction”, in IRIS. Le Fantastique con- Pinocchio’s Heirs in Contemporary Fiction temporain, no 24, Les Cahiers du Gerf, Cen- and Film, Session 9: “Futuristic (and Fu- tre de Recherche de l’Imaginaire, Université ture) Pinocchios”. de Grenoble 3, Hiver 2002/2003, p. 59-63. 24 Philippe Walter, “Pinocchio, l’âme de feu 16 According to Roger Bozzetto, “Modernité et la marionnette de Platon” in La fabrique de la hard science-fiction” – article cited in du corps humain: la machine modèle du vi- note 14 –, p. 59-60. vant, Véronique Adam et Anna Caiozzo 17 Ibidem, p. 61. (eds.), Publication de la MSH-ALPES, p. 18 Ibidem, p. 61-62. 203. 19 Kathleen Buss, Lee Karnowski, Reading 25 Plato, Laws, Book I, 644d, 644e. and Writing Literary Genres. International http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?do Reading Association, 2001, p. 114; Phylis c=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0166%3Ab Jean Perry, Teaching Fantasy Novels, Libra- ook%3D1%3Apage%3D644. iries Unlimited, 2003, p. vi. 26 Philippe Walter, “Pinocchio, l’âme de feu 20 Jean-François Leroux, Camille La Bossi- et la marionnette de Platon”, p. 212-213. ère (ed.), Worlds of Wonder, University of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9hnUY Ottawa, pp. 190-192. V06t4 Low fiction is thus involving “nonrational 27 Rebecca West, The Persistent Puppet: Pi- happenings that are without casuality or ra- nocchio’s Heirs in Contemporary Fiction tionality because they occur in the rational and Film, Session 1: “The Value of Pi- world where such things are not supposed to nocchio”. About SF and Fantasy through Artificial Intelligence 359

28 Ibidem, Session 9: “Futuristic (and Fu- 31 Ibidem, Conclusion. ture) Pinocchios”. 32 Hans Moravec, “The Universal Robot”, p. 29 Ibidem, Session 4: “Pinocchio and ‘Seri- 4, http://90.146.8.18/en/archiv_files/19911/- ous’ Fiction”. E1991_013.pdf. 30 Ibidem, Session 5: “The Blue Fairy and the Fantastic”