Veröffentlichungsreihe der Abteilung Organisation und Technikgenese des Forschungsschwerpunkts Technik - Arbeit - Umwelt am Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung FS H 92 - 109 Aviation, Androids, and Artificial Intelligence The Intricate Paths of Literary Imagination and Technological Development Ute Hoffmann Berlin, October 1992 Social Science Research Center, Berlin Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH (WZB) Reichpietschufer 50, D-1000 Berlin 30 Tel. +49-30-254 91 0 Abstract Over the past decade, the study of science and technology has led to the unavoidable conclusion that scientific theories and technological artifacts are shaped by their social and cultural setting. At the same time, literary studies have noted a blossoming of utopian and science-fiction scholarship. None­ theless, the influence that imaginary visions of alternative worlds and fictional accounts of impossible machines have had on scientific and technological developments—and vice versa—is an issue that is still largely unexplored. This paper is an attempt to map out the complex and shifting rela­ tions between literary utopias, science fiction and emerging technology, as elucidated by the case of flying machines, androids, and artificial intelligence. The paper is meant as an argument for taking pleasure in crossing the bound­ ary between the study of literature and the study of technology while at the same time conscientiously maintaining the two pursuits as separate intellec­ tual activities. Zusammenfassung Das Verhältnis von Literatur und Technik ist ein Thema, mit dem sich bisher - und zunehmend im letzten Jahrzehnt - die Literaturwissenschaft, seltener die Technikforschung beschäftigt hat. Und konzentrierte sich das Interesse dabei vor allem auf die literarischen Reaktionen auf Technik, ist der Anteil der Literatur an der Entstehung von Technik noch kaum erforscht. Dieses Papier untersucht für die frühneuzeitliche Geschichte des Fliegens und den Bereich der menschenähnlichen Maschinen (Androiden und Artificial Intelligence), ob und welche Verbindungen hier zwischen Technik- entwürfen in der utopischen und spekulativen Literatur (Science Fiction) und realen Technisierungsprozessen bestehen. Es zeigt sich, daß die literarische Einbildungskraft - bei aller Eigensinnigkeit - in ihrer Bedeutung für die Technikentwicklung nicht unterschätzt werden sollte, auch wenn die Rolle der Literatur unterschiedliche Formen annehmen kann und nicht einfach zu be­ stimmen ist. Die Technikbedeutsamkeit von Literatur sollte in historisch­ vergleichenden Studien weiter erforscht werden. Interessante Einzelthemen könnten dabei u.a. die Motivations-, Legitimations- und Inspirationsfunktion literarischer Technikentwürfe für die Produzenten von Technik darstellen. Contents Introduction I The History of Flight in Early Modern Europe The Birth of the Modem Utopia and the First Scientific Utopias The Art of Flying: Practical Approaches and Scholarly Discourse The Flight of Witches Literary Scenarios of Flight The Relation between Literature and Technology II Androids and Artificial Intelligence From Androids to the Functionally Oriented Machine Images of Humanoid Creations and Intelligent Machines in the Literary Imagination The Relation between Fiction and Technology Conclusion References Introduction One of the popular theories of literature nowadays is that fiction is not about anything but itself. In this view, the study of literature is not expected to benefit from looking at the practical side of the themes and concepts in fiction. For their part, students of technology have largely accepted that technology is deeply affected by its social and cultural setting, but they have been somewhat reluctant to think of their subject in literary terms. However, some effort has been made to explore the relation be­ tween literature and technology (e.g., Mumford, 1977: 561-597; Segal, 1985; Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 1987; Segeberg, 1987; Grossklaus & Lämmert, 1989; Schütz, 1988; and Berghahn & Grimm, 1990). Drawing on such reflections and on works from a variety of backgrounds, the present article examines the cases of flying machines, androids, and artificial intelligence for the links that may exist between the literary imagination and technological development. In the first part, I concentrate on the three hundred years from 1500 to 1800 A.D. Tracing the idea of human flight through reflections, actual experi­ ments, and utopian literature, I arrive at a few concluding remarks on the role of fiction in the history of aviation during early modern period. In the second part, androids and artificial intelligence are discussed, including more recent developments in this area. Lastly, I touch upon a few issues that students of the relations between literature and technol­ ogy might fruitfully attend to. I The History of Flight in Early Modern Europe The Birth of the Modern Utopia and the First Scientific Utopias Utopia is a creation of early modern Europe. The eponymous book written by Sir Thomas More was published in 1516, and by the end of the eighteenth century the tale of a fictional place outside the known world was an established genre (Hölscher, 1990). The advent of the 7 modern utopia not only coincided with but was linked to landmark discoveries and larger cultural developments that considerably widened the horizon of early modern Europe and stimulated the utopian imagination. First, the voyages of exploration and discovery, beginning with the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492, moved beyond the boundaries of the known world on earth (Schwonke, 1957). Second, a new kind of cosmology opened up the heavens when, in 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus's Revolution of the Heavenly Orbs dislodged the earth from the center of the universe, which henceforth was infinite (Kuhn, 1981). Third, the decline of apocalyptic prophecies signaled a new horizon of expectation. Eschatological expectations of the end of the world gave way to conceptions of an indeterminate and uncertain future (Koselleck, 1989). Thus, utopia was engendered by the literal discovery of a New World, the mental restructuring of the heavenly territories, and the secularization of time. Utopia (Greek for nowhere) was the tale of a New World that is nonexistent, although it is a world of new possibilities. The ideal state stands out as the first focus of utopia. Thereafter, however, knowledge itself became a central utopian interest. In this regard, Francis Bacon's New Atlantis (published posthumously in 1627) was undoubtedly a most important contribution among the classic early modem utopias. However, the first utopia to make science central to its vision was Tommaso Campanella's City of the Sun (Civitas Solis), first circulated in manuscript form in 1602 (Kumar, 1987:6). The City of the Sun is laid out in seven concentric circles, a pattern repeated as a series of walls within the city. It is on these walls that all human knowl­ edge was visualized in words and paintings. Thus, the City of the Sun is the physical embodiment of all the arts and sciences, all that is needed for cultivation of the good life. 8 The Art of Flying: Practical Approaches and Scholarly Discourse Like the members of the House of Salomon in Bacon's New Atlantis, Campanella's Solarians have mastered an art that was still a dream for the contemporaries of these two authors, the art of flying. The three hundred years from 1500 to 1800 were a decisive stage in the history of flight (Behringer & Ott-Koptschalijski, 1991:221-301; Hart, 1985). During that period almost everything was thought out in narrative fiction and in more or less systematic approaches to technology- designs of gliders, parachutes, helicopters, and three-stage space rockets. In 1783 it culminated in actual flight when the first hot-air balloon lifted off in southern France. Medieval times were also marked by a European-wide discussion of aerial travel, although it revolved primarily around mythical craft made of clouds and nocturnal flights of ghosts. The spirit of techno­ logical invention did not tackle the problem of flight until the beginning of modern times. From 1486 to 1514 Leonardo da Vinci demonstrated a variety of theoretical possibilities for flight, ranging from gliding and parachuting to flying in a helicopter. Above all, Leonardo systematized extant observations relating to the flight of birds, which constituted the foundation for numerous sixteenth-century attempts at flying—not all of which ended happily. Daring experimenters equipped with wings they had fashioned out of eagle feathers or covered with leather leapt like bats from towers or tall buildings. They also experimented with fixed- wing constructions so as to glide through the air like a bird. Bird-like flight left the problem of propulsion unsolved. A resourceful Transylvanian fortress commandant of the mid-sixteenth century drew designs of an invention in which the rocket familiar in medieval warfare was adapted as a source of power for human flight. The same man also made a proposal unique in the annals of that period: using a three-stage rocket to fire an entire building into the sky. In the seventeenth century, attempts to fly continued unabated with pairs of movable or fixed wings. The project by the Italian inven­ tor Tito Burratini captured attention throughout Europe (Behringer & 9 Ott-Koptschalijski, 1991:169-271). In 1659 he built several models of a flying machine that combined fixed wings with a mechanism to beat the wings. The maneuverable