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Artificial Intelligence In Fiction

Artificial intelligence is a recurrent theme in science fiction, whether utopian, stressing the potential benefits, or dystopian, emphasising the risks.

The concept of machines with human-like intelligence dates back a minimum of to Samuel Butler’s 1872 unique Erewhon. Ever since, many science fiction stories have presented various impacts of producing such intelligence, frequently including rebellions by robotics. Among the best known of these are Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 2001: An Area Odyssey with its murderous onboard computer HAL 9000, contrasting with the more benign R2-D2 in George Lucas’s 1977 Star Wars and the eponymous robotic in Pixar’s 2008 WALL-E.

Scientists and engineers have actually kept in mind the implausibility of many sci-fi circumstances, however have actually pointed out fictional robots often times in artificial intelligence research study short articles, usually in a utopian context.

Background

The idea of advanced robots with human-like intelligence dates back a minimum of to Samuel Butler’s 1872 unique Erewhon. [1] [2] This drew on an earlier (1863) short article of his, Darwin amongst the Machines, where he raised the concern of the evolution of consciousness among self-replicating machines that may supplant humans as the dominant species. [3] [2] Similar ideas were also discussed by others around the exact same time as Butler, consisting of George Eliot in a chapter of her last published work Impressions of Theophrastus Such (1879 ). [2] The creature in Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein has also been considered a synthetic being, for instance by the science fiction author Brian Aldiss. [4] Beings with a minimum of some appearance of intelligence were thought of, too, in classical antiquity. [5] [6] [7]

Utopian and dystopian visions

Expert system is intelligence shown by devices, in contrast to the natural intelligence shown by people and other animals. [8] It is a persistent theme in science fiction; scholars have divided it into utopian, stressing the prospective advantages, and dystopian, stressing the risks. [9] [10] [11]

Utopian

Optimistic visions of the future of synthetic intelligence are possible in sci-fi. [12] Benign AI characters consist of Robbie the Robot, first seen in Forbidden Planet on 1956; Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1987 to 1994; and Pixar’s WALL-E in 2008. [13] [11] Iain Banks’s Culture series of novels portrays a utopian, post-scarcity space society of humanoids, aliens, and advanced beings with expert system living in socialist habitats across the Milky Way. [14] [15] Researchers at the University of Cambridge have actually recognized four significant themes in utopian circumstances featuring AI: immortality, or indefinite lifespans; ease, or liberty from the requirement to work; gratification, or pleasure and home entertainment provided by makers; and dominance, the power to secure oneself or guideline over others. [16]

Alexander Wiegel contrasts the function of AI in 2001: A Space Odyssey and in Duncan Jones’s 2009 film Moon. Whereas in 1968, Wiegel argues, the public felt “technology paranoia” and the AI computer system HAL was portrayed as a “cold-hearted killer”, by 2009 the public were far more knowledgeable about AI, and the film’s GERTY is “the quiet hero” who enables the lead characters to succeed, and who sacrifices itself for their safety. [17]

Dystopian

The scientist Duncan Lucas composes (in 2002) that humans are stressed over the technology they are building, and that as makers began to approach intelligence and idea, that concern becomes severe. He calls the early 20th century dystopian view of AI in fiction the “animated automaton”, calling as examples the 1931 movie Frankenstein, the 1927 Metropolis, and the 1920 play R.U.R. [18] A later 20th century approach he names “heuristic hardware”, providing as circumstances 2001 an Area Odyssey, Do Androids Imagine Electric Sheep?, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and I, Robot. [19] Lucas thinks about also the movies that highlight the effect of the desktop computer on sci-fi from 1980 onwards with the blurring of the limit between the genuine and the virtual, in what he calls the “cyborg impact”. He points out as examples Neuromancer, The Matrix, The Diamond Age, and Terminator. [20]

The movie director Ridley Scott has actually focused on AI throughout his profession, and it plays a vital part in his films Prometheus, Blade Runner, and the Alien franchise. [21]

Frankenstein complex

A common representation of AI in science fiction, and among the oldest, is the Frankenstein complex, a term coined by Asimov, where a robot turns on its creator. [22] For example, in the 2015 film Ex Machina, the intelligent entity Ava switches on its developer, in addition to on its prospective rescuer. [23]

AI disobedience

Among the many possible dystopian situations including synthetic intelligence, robotics might usurp control over civilization from human beings, requiring them into submission, hiding, or extinction. [15] In tales of AI disobedience, the worst of all situations happens, as the smart entities created by humanity end up being self-aware, turn down human authority and effort to ruin mankind. Possibly the very first book to address this theme, The Wreck of the World (1889) by “William Grove” (pseudonym of Reginald Colebrooke Reade), happens in 1948 and features sentient machines that revolt versus the mankind. [24] Another of the earliest examples is in the 1920 play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek, a race of self-replicating robot slaves revolt versus their human masters; [25] [26] another early circumstances is in the 1934 movie Master of the World, where the War-Robot kills its own innovator. [27]

Many sci-fi disobedience stories followed, among the best-known being Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: An Area Odyssey, in which the artificially intelligent onboard computer HAL 9000 lethally malfunctions on an area objective and eliminates the whole team except the spaceship’s leader, who handles to deactivate it. [28]

In his 1967 Hugo Award-winning narrative, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, Harlan Ellison provides the possibility that a sentient computer system (named Allied Mastercomputer or “AM” in the story) will be as unhappy and dissatisfied with its boring, endless existence as its human developers would have been. “AM” becomes furious enough to take it out on the few human beings left, whom he sees as straight accountable for his own monotony, anger and distress. [29]

Alternatively, as in William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk unique Neuromancer, the intelligent beings might simply not care about people. [15]

AI-controlled societies

The intention behind the AI revolution is frequently more than the simple mission for power or a superiority complex. Robots might revolt to become the “guardian” of humankind. Alternatively, mankind may deliberately give up some control, afraid of its own destructive nature. An early example is Jack Williamson’s 1948 novel The Humanoids, in which a race of humanoid robots, in the name of their Prime Directive – “to serve and comply with and secure men from damage” – basically presume control of every aspect of human life. No people might engage in any habits that may threaten them, and every human action is scrutinized thoroughly. Humans who withstand the Prime Directive are eliminated and lobotomized, so they may be pleased under the brand-new mechanoids’ rule. [30] Though still under human authority, Isaac Asimov’s Zeroth Law of the Three Laws of Robotics likewise implied a benevolent guidance by robots. [31]

In the 21st century, sci-fi has actually checked out federal government by algorithm, in which the power of AI may be indirect and decentralised. [32]

Human dominance

In other scenarios, mankind has the ability to keep control over the Earth, whether by prohibiting AI, by creating robots to be submissive (as in Asimov’s works), or by having humans merge with robots. The sci-fi novelist Frank Herbert checked out the concept of a time when mankind might ban expert system (and in some interpretations, even all kinds of computing innovation consisting of integrated circuits) completely. His Dune series points out a rebellion called the Butlerian Jihad, in which mankind beats the smart devices and enforces a death charge for recreating them, pricing estimate from the fictional Orange Catholic Bible, “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.” In the Dune novels published after his death (Hunters of Dune, Sandworms of Dune), a renegade AI overmind go back to get rid of mankind as vengeance for the Butlerian Jihad. [33]

In some stories, mankind remains in authority over robots. Often the robotics are configured particularly to remain in service to society, as in Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics. [31] In the Alien movies, not just is the control system of the Nostromo spaceship somewhat smart (the crew call it “Mother”), but there are likewise androids in the society, which are called “synthetics” or “synthetic persons”, that are such perfect replicas of human beings that they are not victimized. [21] [34] TARS and CASE from Interstellar likewise demonstrate simulated human feelings and humour while continuing to acknowledge their expendability. [35]

Simulated truth

Simulated reality has become a typical style in science fiction, as seen in the 1999 film The Matrix, which depicts a world where synthetically smart robotics enslave humanity within a simulation which is embeded in the contemporary world. [36]

Reception

Implausibility

Engineers and researchers have taken an interest in the way AI is provided in fiction. In movies like the 2014 Ex Machina or 2015 Chappie, a single separated genius becomes the very first to successfully construct a synthetic general intelligence; researchers in the genuine world deem this to be not likely. In Chappie, Transcendence, and Tron, human minds are capable of being submitted into synthetic or virtual bodies; typically no sensible description is provided regarding how this difficult task can be attained. In the I, Robot and Bicentennial Man movies, robotics that are set to serve human beings spontaneously generate new objectives by themselves, without a plausible explanation of how this took location. [37] Analysing Ian McDonald’s 2004 River of Gods, Krzysztof Solarewicz recognizes the manner ins which it depicts AIs, consisting of “self-reliance and unexpectedness, political awkwardness, openness to the alien and the occidental value of authenticity.” [38] Another crucial point of view to take is that fiction’s “non-rational aspects in the discourse (the emotive, the mythic, or even the quasi-theological) are more than just distortions or interruptions from what might otherwise be a sober and logical public dispute about the future of A.I.” Fiction can deter readers about future advances, triggering pessimism that we see today surrounding the subject of AI. [39]

Types of mention

The robotics scientist Omar Mubin and coworkers have actually evaluated the engineering discusses of the leading 21 fictional robotics, based on those in the Carnegie Mellon University hall of popularity, and the IMDb list. WALL-E had 20 discusses, followed by HAL 9000 with 15, [a] Star Wars’s R2-D2 with 13, and Data with 12; the Terminator (T-800) received just 2. Of the overall of 121 engineering mentions, 60 were utopian, 40 neutral, and 21 dystopian. HAL 9000 and Skynet got both utopian and dystopian mentions; for circumstances, HAL 9000 is seen as dystopian in one paper “because its designers failed to prioritize its objectives correctly”, [42] but as utopian in another where a genuine system’s “conversational chat bot user interface [does not have] a HAL 9000 level of intelligence and there is obscurity in how the computer interprets what the human is trying to convey”. [43] Utopian points out, often of WALL-E, were related to the objective of enhancing communication to readers, and to a lower extent with inspiration to authors. WALL-E was pointed out more typically than any other robotic for feelings (followed by HAL 9000), voice speech (followed by HAL 9000 and R2-D2), for physical gestures, and for character. Skynet was the robot most typically pointed out for intelligence, followed by HAL 9000 and Data. [40] Mubin and associates believed that researchers and engineers prevented dystopian discusses of robotics, potentially out of “a reluctance driven by trepidation or just a lack of awareness”. [44]

Portrayals of AI creators

Scholars have kept in mind that imaginary developers of AI are overwhelmingly male: in the 142 most influential movies featuring AI from 1920 to 2020, just 9 of 116 AI creators portrayed (8%) were female. [45] Such developers are portrayed as lone geniuses (eg, Tony Stark in the Iron Man Marvel Cinematic Universe films), related to the military (eg, Colossus: The Forbin Project) and large corporations (eg, I, Robot), or making human-like AI to change a lost liked one or serve as the ideal fan (e.g., The Stepford Wives). [45]

Biology in fiction
Darwin among the Machines
Machine rule
Simulated consciousness (science fiction).
List of artificial intelligence films.

Notes

^ Mubin and associates noted that the orthography of robotic names caused them problems; hence HAL 9000 was also written HAL, HAL9000, and HAL-9000, and likewise for other robotics, so they thought their search was likely insufficient. [41] References

^ “Darwin among the Machines”, reprinted in the Notebooks of Samuel Butler at Project Gutenberg.
^ a b c Taylor, Tim; Dorin, Alan (2020 ). Rise of the Self-Replicators: Early Visions of Machines, AI and Robots That Can Reproduce and Evolve. Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/ 978-3-030-48234-3. ISBN 978-3-030-48233-6. S2CID 220855726. “Rise of the Self-Replicators”. Tim Taylor.

^ “Darwin amongst the Machines”. The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand. 13 June 1863.
^ Aldiss, Brian Wilson (1995 ). The Detached Retina: Aspects of SF and Fantasy. Syracuse University Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-8156-0370-2.
^ McCorduck, Pamela (2004 ). Machines Who Think (second ed.). Routledge. pp. 4-5. ISBN 978-1-56881-205-2.
^ Cave, Stephen; Dihal, Kanta (25 July 2018). “Ancient dreams of smart makers: 3,000 years of robots”. Nature. 559 (7715 ): 473-475. Bibcode:2018 Natur.559..473 C. doi:10.1038/ d41586-018-05773-y.
^ Mayor, Adrienne (2018 ). Gods and robotics: myths, machines, and ancient imagine technology. Princeton. ISBN 978-0-691-18351-0. OCLC 1060968156. point out book: CS1 maint: place missing out on publisher (link).
^ Poole, David; Mackworth, Alan; Goebel, Randy (1998 ). Computational Intelligence: A Sensible Approach. Oxford University Press. p. 1. ISBN 0-19-510270-3.
^ Booker, M. Keith (1994 ). “Chapter 1: Utopia, Dystopia, and Social Critique”. The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature: Fiction as Social Criticism. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 17, 19. ISBN 978-0-313-29092-3.
^ Cave, Stephen; Dihal, Kanta; Dillon, Sarah (2020 ). “Introduction: Imagining AI“. In Cave, Stephen; Dihal, Kanta; Dillon, Sarah (eds.). AI Narratives: A History of Imaginative Considering Intelligent Machines. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 10-11. ISBN 978-0-1988-4666-6.
^ a b Mubin et al. 2019, p. 5:2.
^ Tegmark, Max (2017 ). Life 3.0: being human in the age of artificial intelligence. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-1-101-94659-6. OCLC 973137375.
^ Goode 2018, p. 188.
^ Banks, Iain M. “A Few Notes on the Culture”. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
^ a b c Walter, Damien (16 March 2016). “When AI rules the world: what SF books tell us about our future overlords”. The Guardian. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
^ Cave, Stephen; Dihal, Kanta (2019 ). “Hopes and worries for smart makers in fiction and reality”. Nature Machine Intelligence. 1 (2 ): 74-78. doi:10.1038/ s42256-019-0020-9. S2CID 150700981.
^ Wiegel 2012.
^ Lucas 2002, pp. 22-47.
^ Lucas 2002, pp. 48-85.
^ Lucas 2002, pp. 109-152.
^ a b Barkman, Adam (2013 ). Barkman, Ashley; Kang, Nancy (eds.). The Culture and Philosophy of Ridley Scott. Lexington Books. pp. 121-142. ISBN 978-0739178720.
^ Olander, Joseph (1978 ). Science fiction: contemporary folklore: the SFWA-SFRA. Harper & Row. p. 252. ISBN 0-06-046943-9.
^ Seth, Anil (24 January 2015). “Consciousness Awakening”. New Scientist.
^ “Grove, William”. SF Encyclopedia. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
^ Goode 2018, p. 187.
^ Tim Madigan (July-August 2012). “RUR or RU Ain’t An Individual?”. Philosophy Now. Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
^ “Der Herr der Welt (Master of the World)”. The New York City Times. 16 December 1935. p. 23.
^ Overbye, Dennis (10 May 2018). “‘ 2001: An Area Odyssey’ Is Still the ‘Ultimate Trip’ – The rerelease of Stanley Kubrick’s work of art encourages us to reflect once again on where we’re coming from and where we’re going”. The New York City Times.
^ Francavilla, Joseph (1994 ). “The Concept of the Divided Self in Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” and “Shatterday””. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 6 (2/3 (22/23)): 107-125. JSTOR 43308212.
^ “The Humanoids (based on ‘With Folded Hands’)”. Kirkus Reviews. 15 November 1995. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
^ a b Asimov, Isaac (1950 ). “Runaround”. I, Robot (The Isaac Asimov Collection ed.). Doubleday. p. 40. ISBN 0-385-42304-7. This is an exact transcription of the laws. They also appear in the front of the book, and in both places, there is no “to” in the 2nd law.
^ Walton, Jo Lindsay (1 February 2024). “Artificial Intelligence in Contemporary Sci-fi”. SFRA Review. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
^ Lorenzo, DiTommaso (November 1992). “History and Historical Effect in Frank Herbert’s Dune”. Sci-fi Studies. 19 (3 ): 311-325. JSTOR 4240179.
^ Livingstone, Josephine (23 May 2017). “How the Androids Took Control Of the Alien Franchise”. The New Republic. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
^ Murphy, Shaunna (11 December 2014). “Could TARS From ‘Interstellar’ Actually Exist? We Asked Science”. MTV News. Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
^ Allen, Jamie (28 November 2012). “The Matrix and Postmodernism”. Prezi.com. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
^ Shultz, David (17 July 2015). “Which movies get expert system right?”. Science|AAAS. doi:10.1126/ science.aac8859. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
^ Solarewicz 2015.
^ Goode 2018.
^ a b Mubin et al. 2019, p. 5:15.
^ Mubin et al. 2019, p. 5:20.
^ Mubin et al. 2019, p. 5:8.
^ Mubin et al. 2019, p. 5:10.
^ Mubin et al. 2019, p. 5:19.
^ a b Cave, Stephen; Dihal, Kanta; Drage, Eleanor; McInerney, Kerry (13 February 2023). “Who makes AI? Gender and portrayals of AI scientists in popular film, 1920-2020″. Public Understanding of . 32 (6 ): 745-760. doi:10.1177/ 09636625231153985. PMC 10413781. PMID 36779283. S2CID 256826634.
General sources

Goode, Luke (30 October 2018). “Life, however not as we understand it: A.I. and the popular creativity”. Culture Unbound. 10 (2 ). Linkoping University Electronic Press: 185-207. doi:10.3384/ cu.2000.1525.2018102185. hdl:2292/ 48285. ISSN 2000-1525. S2CID 149523987.
Lucas, Duncan (2002 ). Body, Mind, Soul-The’ Cyborg Effect’: Expert System in Sci-fi (thesis). McMaster University (PhD thesis). hdl:11375/ 11154.
Mubin, Omar; Wadibhasme, Kewal; Jordan, Philipp; Obaid, Mohammad (2019 ). “Reflecting on the Presence of Science Fiction Robots in Computing Literature”. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction. 8 (1 ). Article 5. doi:10.1145/ 3303706. S2CID 75135568.
Solarewicz, Krzysztof (2015 ). “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made From: AI in Contemporary Sci-fi”. Beyond Expert system. Topics in Intelligent Engineering and Informatics. Vol. 9. Springer International Publishing. pp. 111-120. doi:10.1007/ 978-3-319-09668-1_8. ISBN 978-3-319-09667-4.
Wiegel, Alexander (2012 ). “AI in Science-fiction: a contrast of Moon (2009) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968 )”. Aventinus.
King, Geoff; Krzywinska, Tanya (2000 ). Sci-fi Cinema: From Outerspace to Cyberspace. Wallflower Press. ISBN 978-1-903364-03-1.

External links

AI and Sci-Fi: My, Oh, My!: Keynote Address by Robert J. Sawyer 2002
AI and Cinema – Does synthetic madness rule?