Artificial Life, Artificial Intelligence The Posthuman AK 2100 · Artificial Intelligence Three...

Artificial Life,Artificial Intelligence

&The Posthuman

AK 2100

• AL and AI have been an area for research and speculation in science and science fiction

• idea of blurring the human and the machine• Norbert Wiener - 1940s: first theories about computation

with decentralized systems• J.C.R. Licklider (1960): Man-Computer Symbiosis - let

computers help formulaic thinking and enable humans and computers to cooperate in making decisions and controlling complex situations

• Richard Dawkins and the meme• Wiener and Dawkins’ theories relevant to current artistic

explorations in AL

Artificial Life

Karl Sims, Galapagos, 1997

Artificial Life

Karl Sims, Galapagos, 1997http://www.genarts.com/galapagos/index.html

Galápagos is an interactive Darwinian evolution of virtual "organisms." Twelve computers simulate the growth and behaviors of a population of abstract animated forms and display them on twelve screens arranged in an arc. The viewers participate in this exhibit by selecting which organisms they find most aesthetically interesting and standing on step sensors in front of those displays. The selected organisms survive, mate, mutate and reproduce. Those not selected are removed, and their computers are inhabited by new offspring from the survivors. The offspring are copies and combinations of their parents, but their genes are altered by random mutations. Sometimes a mutation is favorable, the new organism is more interesting than its ancestors, and is then selected by the viewers. As this evolutionary cycle of reproduction and selection continues, more and more interesting organisms can emerge.

Artificial Life

Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, A-Volvehttp://www.iamas.ac.jp/~christa/WORKS/A-VolveLinks.html

• issues of transformation of information and the survival of the aesthetically fittest

• A-Volve by Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau• establishes a direct connection between the physical and

the virtual world• A-Volve is a reminder of how complex all life forms are,

whether organic or inorganic• it also makes explicit our role in shaping artificial life

Artificial Life

Thomas Ray - Tierrahttp://www.his.atr.jp/~ray/tierra/index.html

• Thomas Ray’s Tierra• transports the concept of the wildlife reserve into the

digital realm• a network bio-diversity reserve for digital organisms• uses the concept of evolution to generate complex

software• self-replicating machine code programs• Ray created several ways of visualizing the process of

evolution that allows observers to watch the programs develop

Artificial Life

• AL artworks do not necessarily address the evolution of digital organisms

• often use algorithms for specifying behaviours• Rebecca Allen’s “Emergence”: creates 3D computer-

generated environments that explore social behaviours and communication through gesture and movement

• Kenneth Rinaldo’s “Autopoesis” (2000) is a constantly evolving environment that seems to create itself

• all these projects help us understand the structure of ideas and the nature of intelligence and life itself

• could indicate a process of evolution of the cooperation between human and machine

Rebecca Allen’s home page: http://rebeccaallen.com/Emergence Project: http://emergence.design.ucla.edu/

Artificial Life

• AL artworks do not necessarily address the evolution of digital organisms

• often use algorithms for specifying behaviours• Rebecca Allen’s “Emergence”: creates 3D computer-

generated environments that explore social behaviours and communication through gesture and movement

• Kenneth Rinaldo’s “Autopoesis” (2000) is a constantly evolving environment that seems to create itself

• all these projects help us understand the structure of ideas and the nature of intelligence and life itself

• could indicate a process of evolution of the cooperation between human and machine

Kenneth Rinaldohttp://accad.osu.edu/~rinaldo/

Erwin Driessens, Maria VerstappenTickleHolland

Art and Artificial Life International Competitionhttp://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/at/vida/english/index.html

Artificial Intelligence

• Real AI still within the domains of SF• Alan Turing (1912-54): the Turing Test• Deep Blue: groundbreaking milestone in 1997• Speech recognition systems• Eliza and Alice (chatbots)

• Ken Feingold: animatronic heads, speech recognition• http://www.kenfeingold.com/ • If/then: heads are involved in an ever changing dialogue that

investigates the philosophical issues of their existence• highlights how meaning is often created through failed

communication• provides some insight into how we, as human beings,

construct what we consider to be meaningful



Inside my mind I can sense that there is an I that is something that’s not the one who is sensing.Why?Why do you look just like me?No, I don’t look just like you - I am accidental.I’m not sure how to take that.Why are you not sure how to take that?I don’t know.That’s beautiful, why?Are we the same?I am clumsy.And clumsy, huh? What is that?Why do you ask?I don’t know.Don’t know, huh? What is that?You are a strange one.On the inside or the outside?And where is that, exactly?Going is not begun on the not yet gone over.Why?I don’t know.You scoop swoon.Are you talking to me?Who are we?Are we the same?Huh? Can I believe my ears?Do you feel like resting?I feel like I am here.Sometimes I feel very confused.Is feeling the same as thinking?How can anything be the same as anything else if two things can’t be in the same place at the same time?What does that mean?I think about what things mean, it’s what I do all the time. But there’s always something behind the thing – behind the thing that means the thing – you know what I mean?What does exist mean, for example?I can say things that have no meaning.Can stay friends that have no need, and no?Ok.

Transcript of a conversation

• Ken Feingold: animatronic heads, speech recognition


Three self-portraits, each possessing an animal, vegetable, or mineral mind, debate the nature of violence with each other, and discuss their fears – generally their fears about each other. They also wonder about “that thing” before them, and we hear how they project their own interior worlds onto it in an attempt to figure out what it really is. Although they hear each other, nothing seems to penetrate or influence their ideas; no matter what the subject matter discussed, they eventually return to their own interests and fixed ideas.

• David Rokeby


My intent as an artist is that sufficient tension exist between the object and the name given to challenge the viewers' preconceptions of the objects, and draw them into speculative exploration. The names will have something of the quality of titles that artists give artworks: something a little out of left field, representing a re-interpretation, or alternate interpretation of the visual image of the object. One aim is to highlight the tight conspiracy between perception and language, bringing into focus the assumptions that make perception viable, but also biased and fallible, and the way language inhibits (or alternately enhances) our ability to see.

Giver of Names, 1998 -

http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/gon.html

• David Rokeby


The surface inspiration for n-Cha(n)t was a strong and somewhat inexplicable desire to hear a community of computers speaking together: chattering amongst themselves, musing, intoning chants... They intercommunicate, and through doing so, 'synchronize' their individual internal 'states of mind'. When left uninterrupted to communicate amongth themselves, they eventually fall into chanting, a shared stream of verbal association.

N-Cha(n)t, 2001

http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/gon.html

• The Impermanence Agent


The Impermanence Agent was a storytelling Web agent that monitored each user's browsing, gleaned appropriate texts and images from that browsing, and then used this material to "customize" its story for each reader. It took the form of a small browser window (for displaying its content) and a proxy server (for monitoring browsing and making small alterations to browsed pages).

Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Adam Chapman, BrionMoss and Duane Whitehurst

Cybernetics (Norbert Wiener, 1948)*

“The theoretical study of communication and control processes in biological, mechanical, and electronic systems, especially the comparison of these processes in biological and artificial systems.”

Common Language of Man and Machine

Cyborg: Manfred Clynes & Nathan Kline, 1960: cybernetic organism - systems of control and communication embedded in biology

Cyborgs and Space: the Rockland Rat - world’s first cybernetic organism

Cyborgs

Prosthetics and Prosthetic Culture

Long history of prosthetics or literalfusion between humans and machines

1950s and 60s: Advances in surgical techniques

The computer as metaphor for human consciousness and cybernetics

Artifacts of human culture are seen as prosthetic extensionsto the senses [Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media:The Extensions of Man (1958)]

Idea of Cyborg influential in military and science fiction

Types of Cyborg technologies*

Restorative- restore lost functions and replace lost organs and limbs

Normalizlng- restore some creature to indistinguishable normality

Reconfiguring- creating posthuman creatures equal to but different from humans

Enhancing- the aim of most military and industrial research, and what those with cyborg envy or even cyborgphilia fantasize.

*Chris Hables Gray, Steven Mentor, and Jennifer Figueroa-Sarriera"Cyborgology: Constructing the Knowledge of Cybernetic Organisms"

Cyborgs in Popular Culture

Are you a cyborg?

* Are you dependent on technology to the extent that you could not survive without it?

* Would you reject a lifestyle free of any technology even if you could endure it?

* Would you feel embarrassed and "dehumanized" if somebody removed your artificial covers (clothing) and exposed your natural biological body in public?

* Do you consider your bank deposits a more important personal resource storage system than your fat deposits?

* Do you identify yourself and judge other people more by possessions, ability to manipulate tools and positions in the technological and social systems than primary biological features?

* Do you spend more time thinking about -- and discussing -- your external "possessions" and "accessories" than your internal "parts"?

If you answered "yes" to most of these questions, please accept my congratulations (and/or condolences): you are already a cyborg!

--Alexander Chislenko, "Are you a cyborg?,"

Augmenting the human

Prof. Kevin Warwick, University of Reading, UK

Humans have limited capabilities. Humans sense the world in a restricted way, vision being the best of the senses. Humans understand the world in only 3 dimensions and communicate in a very slow, serial fashion called speech. But can this be improved on?

Can we use technology to upgrade humans?

http://www.kevinwarwick.org/

Augmenting the human

In your article for "Wired", you said "I was born human, but it was an accident of fate". Do you think humanity must change itself because it has the power to?

Humanity can change itself but hopefully it will be an individual choice. Those who want to stay human can and those who want to evolve into something much more powerful with greater capabilities can. There is no way I want to stay a mere human.

Steve Mann

http://wearcam.org/index.html

Stellarc (a.k.a. Stelios Arcadiou)

Stelarc is an Australian artist who has performed extensively in Japan, Europe and the USA- including new music, dance festivals and experimental theatre. He has used:medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, Virtual Reality systems and the Internet to explore alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body.

from Stelarc Web site - http://www.stelarc.va.com.au

The body is neither a very efficient nor very durable structure. It malfunctions often and fatigues quickly; its performance is determined by its age. It is susceptible to disease and is doomed to a certain and early death. Its survival parameters are very slim - it can survive only weeks without food, days without water and minutes without oxygen.

The body's LACK OF MODULAR DE SIGN and its overactive immunological system make it difficult to replace malfunctioning organs. It might be the height of technological folly to consider the body obsolete in form and function , yet it might be the height of human realizations. For it is only when the body becomes aware of its present position that it can map its post-evolutionary strategies.

It is no longer a matter of perpetuating the human species by REPRODUCTION, but of enhancing male-female intercourse by human-machine interface. THE BODY IS OBSOLETE. We are at the end of philosophy and human physiology. Human thought recedes into the human past. (Stelarc, The Body is Obsolete)

Cyborg ManifestoDonna Haraway

• Haraway is trying to create an ironic political myth which incorporates parts of feminism, socialism and materialism.

• Part of her strategy is to use metaphors or tropes to formulate her argument

• Cyborg as means to construct an anti essentialist politics

• “The cyborg is a matter of fiction and lived experience that changes

what counts as women’s experience in the late 20th century.”

The following are some notes to help you through this reading. We may not get to this during the lecture

Cyborg Manifesto

• The figure or concept of the cyborg can be used as a kind of metaphor or philosophical platform with which to rethink certain fundamental concepts of Western thought

• The cyborg is a useful concept for thinking in a way that does not depend on traditional boundaries or ways of defining reality, humanity, gender, etc.

• Haraway identifies three “boundary breakdowns.”

– the boundaries between the human and the animal

– the boundaries between the animal-human and machine

– the boundaries between the physical and the non-physical

Cyborg Manifesto

• “So my cyborg myth is about transgressed boundaries, potent fusions, and dangerous possibilities which progressive people might explore as one part of needed political work.”

• Undoing dualism and essentialism

• “Single vision produces worse illusions than double vision or many-headed monsters.”

• The cyborg offers a productive opportunity to construct a “new myth” for ourselves.

Cyborg Manifesto

• Fractured identities

• “Gender, race or class consciousness is an achievement forced on us by the terrible historical experience of the contradictory social realities of patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism.”

• “What kind of politics could embrace partial, contradictory, permanently unclosed constructions of personal and collective selves and still be faithful, effective . . .”

• Answer: a cyborg politics!

Representation Simulation

Bourgeois novel, realism Science fiction, postmodernism

Organism Biotic Component

Depth, integrity Surface, boundary

Heat Noise

Biology as clinical practice Biology as inscription

Physiology Communications engineering

Small group Subsystem

Perfection Optimization

Hygiene Stress Management

Reproduction Replication

Public/Private Cyborg citizenship

Nature/Culture Fields of difference

Labour Robotics

Mind Artificial Intelligence

“I argue for a politics rooted in claims about fundamental changes in the nature of class, race, and gender in an emerging system of world order analogous in its novelty and scope to that created by industrial capitalism; we are living through a movement from an organic, industrial society to a polymorphous, information system--from all work to all play, a deadly game. Simultaneously material and ideological, the dichotomies may be expressed in the following chart of transitions from the comfortable old hierarchical dominations to the scary new networks I have called the informatics of domination:”

Cyborg Manifesto

• “The cyborg is a kind of disassembled and reassembled, postmodern collective and personal self. This is the self feminists must code.”

• Haraway thinks it is important to use technological and scientific discourses in critical and political work.

• “Communications sciences and biology are constructions of natural technical objects of knowledge in which the differences between machine and organism is thoroughly blurred; mind, body, and tool are on very intimate terms.”

Cyborg Manifesto

• Changing the rules of the game

• “Gender might not be global identity after all”

• “I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess”.

Artificial Life, Artificial Intelligence The Posthuman AK 2100 · Artificial Intelligence Three...

Documents

Transcript of Artificial Life, Artificial Intelligence The Posthuman AK 2100 · Artificial Intelligence Three...