Book•
アンドロイドは電気羊の夢を見るか? : Do androids dream of electric sheep?
01 Jan 1995-
TL;DR: A TURTLE WHICH EXPLORER CAPTAIN COOK GAVE TO THE KING OF TONGA IN 1777 DIED YESTERDAY. It was NEARLY 200 YEARS OLD as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: A TURTLE WHICH EXPLORER CAPTAIN COOK GAVE TO THE KING OF TONGA IN 1777 DIED YESTERDAY. IT WAS NEARLY 200 YEARS OLD. THE ANIMAL, CALLED TU'IMALILA, DIED AT THE ROYAL PALACE GROUND IN THE TONGAN CAPITAL OF NUKU, ALOFA. THE PEOPLE OF TONGA REGARDED THE ANIMAL AS A CHIEF AND SPECIAL KEEPERS WERE APPOINTED TO LOOK AFTER IT. IT WAS BLINDED IN A BUSH FIRE A FEW YEARS AGO. TONGA RADIO SAID TU'IMALILA'S CARCASS WOULD BE SENT TO THE AUCKLAND MUSEUM IN NEW ZEALAND.
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02 Jul 2014
TL;DR: The NBIC as mentioned in this paper is an abbreviation of the NBIC (pour Nanotechnologies, Biotechnology, technologies of l'Information and sciences Cognitives), a set of technologies that enable manipulating the matiere a l'echelle des atomes and des molecules.
Abstract: On entend parler depuis 2002 d'une revolution en train de s'operer, celle des technologies convergentes, plus communement appelees NBIC (pour Nanotechnologies, Biotechnologies, technologies de l'Information et sciences Cognitives). Cette revolution technologique est associee a une revolution scientifique que certains nomment le "petit BANG", ou "BANG" est a la fois une reference explicite au Big Bang et un acronyme permettant de designer les quatre composants de base des NBIC, a savoir les bits, les atomes, les neurones et les genes. Les NBIC permettent de manipuler la matiere a l'echelle des atomes et des molecules. Or, a cette echelle, l'organique ne se distingue plus de l'inorganique, le vivant de l'inerte, l'homme de la machine, ce qui rend possible la combinaison des deux. Les ambitions des NBIC sont portees, a leur plus haut niveau, par les transhumanistes, qui souhaitent que l'humanite prenne en charge sa propre evolution. Ils pronent le passage de l'humanite telle que nous la connaissons actuellement a une post-humanite, c'est-a-dire a une humanite technologiquement augmentee et debarrassee des limites naturelles de l'etre humain : d'une part combattre la maladie, le handicap, la vieillesse et la senescence, et empecher la mort ; d'autre part augmenter les capacites humaines et notamment les facultes cognitives et physiques.
Nous souhaitons avec ce memoire apporter un regard philosophique sur les nouvelles technologies, et en particulier sur les differentes visions du progres qui les accompagnent. Nous nous focaliserons, a ce compte, plus particulierement sur le mouvement transhumaniste et nous tâcherons, entre autres, de nous debarrasser des "ethiquettes" et des prejuges qui pesent sur ce dernier afin de le considerer pour ce qu'il pretend etre et mettre a l'epreuve sa pertinence philosophique. Parmi les lignes directrices de ce travail, on retiendra egalement l'interet porte aux imaginaires du progres et aux recits de science-fiction qui accompagnent les avancees des sciences et techniques.
3 citations
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: The Matrix succeeds in illustrating many aspects of his media theory, explicitly linking them to developments in new media technologies and their possible future path, using Baudrillard to draw out the epistemological implications of developments in the simulation of experience and consciousness.
Abstract: The reason for his inclusion is, on one level, clear: the producers of an ubercool, big budget, action-movie, effects-fest whose theme is the virtual reality computer simulation of our entire world, get to name-check for the cognoscenti the theorist of simulation. The once "high priest of postmodernism" (Baudrillard, 1989) is now elevated to the patron saint of a knowledge; a zeitgeist; a complete contemporary experience of the real, and, for the Wachowski brothers, of our future. Baudrillard's inclusion is, therefore, an acknowledgement that his theory of simulation and the simulacrum is, in some way, central to the film. The Matrix succeeds in illustrating many aspects of his media theory, explicitly linking them to developments in new media technologies and their possible future path, using Baudrillard to draw out the epistemological implications of developments in the simulation of experience and consciousness. However the film moves beyond a merely illustrative function; its use of Baudrillard opening up an important arena to discuss contemporary developments in virtual reality, virtuality, and simulation, as well as in cinema and technology. It is this arena that I want to explore, considering in detail both The Matrix's use of Baudrillard and Baudrillard's own possible response to the film and his appearance.
3 citations
16 Apr 2019
TL;DR: This paper explored the relationship between literature and environmental politics, focusing on the work of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, and his dystopian visions, arguing that science and technology fail to pave the way for a better and fairer society but rather towards, as far as Dick is concerned, extinction.
Abstract: In recent years, literary studies have become increasingly invested in environmentalism. As science reveals the negative impacts of climate change, and demonstrates a growing concern for humanity’s contribution, literature operates as a form of cultural documentation. It details public awareness and anxieties, and acts as a conduit for change by urging empathetic responses and rendering ecological controversy accessible. To explore the relationship between literature and environmental politics, this paper will focus on the work of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, and his dystopian visions. In his particular brand of sci-fi, there is no future for humanity. Science and technology fail to pave the way for a better and fairer society, but rather towards, as far as Dick is concerned, extinction. He argues that scientific advancement distances us from reality and from a sense of “humanness”. His pessimistic futures are nihilistic but tender; nurturing a love for humanity even in, what he considers to be, its final hours. Unlike the work of other prominent sci-fi writers, Dick’s fiction does not look towards the stars, but is in many ways a return to earth. The barren landscapes of Mars and other planets offer no comfort, and the evolution of the human into cyborgs, androids and post human species is depicted as dangerous and regressive. Dick’s apocalyptic visions ground his readers in the reality around them, acting in the present for the sake of the earth and humanity’s survival. His humanism is critical of grand enlightenment ideas of “progressivism”, and instead celebrates ordinariness. In the shadow of corporate capitalism and violent dictatorial governments, Dick prefers the little man, the ordinary everyday domestic hero for his narratives. His fiction urges us to take responsibility for our actions, and prepares us for the future through scepticism and pessimism, and a relentless fondness for the human.
2 citations
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: The authors look at the theories of transhumanism and posthumanism through the lens of science fiction and ask the question of whether or not technology holds the key to humanities next evolutionary step or its demise.
Abstract: As science races to keep up with science fiction, many scientists are beginning to believe that the next step in human evolution will be a combination of human and machine and look a lot like something out of Star Trek. The constant pursuit of perfection is a part of the human condition, but if we begin to stretch beyond the natural human form can we still consider ourselves human? Transhumanism and posthumanism are only theories for now, but they are theories that threaten to permanently displace the human race, possibly pushing it into extinction. This thesis will look at the theories of transhumanism and posthumanism through the lens of science fiction and ask the question of whether or not technology holds the key to humanities next evolutionary step or its demise.
2 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The results show that the perception of a conversational agent is dramatically altered when the agent is voiced by an actual, tangible person, and the resulting hybrid an “echoborg.”
Abstract: his paper demonstrates how to interact with a conversational agent that speaks through an actual human body face-to-face and in person (i.e., offscreen). This is made possible by the cyranoid method: a technique involving a human person speech shadowing for a remote third-party (i.e., receiving their words via a covert audio-relay apparatus and repeating them aloud in real-time). When a person shadows for an artificial conversational agent source, we call the resulting hybrid an “echoborg.” We report a study in which people encountered conversational agents either through a human shadower face-to-face or via a text interface under conditions where they assumed their interlocutor to be an actual person. Our results show that the perception of a conversational agent is dramatically altered when the agent is voiced by an actual, tangible person. We discuss the potential implications this methodology has for the development of conversational agents and general person perception research.
2 citations
Cites background from "アンドロイドは電気羊の夢を見るか? : Do androids dre..."
...Dick’s famous novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? [16] (which was later adapted into the film Blade Runner)....
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...The idea of the echoborg was largely inspired by the premise explored in Phil- lip K. Dick’s famous novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?...
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References
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23 Mar 2017
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the best way to contribute to the establishment of an evidence-based first paradigm, is by adopting a research through design approach, and they describe the creation of two Design Fictions through which they consider the relationship between narrative and Design Fiction and argue that links between the two are often drawn erroneously.
Abstract: Design Fiction has garnered considerable attention during recent years yet still remains pre-paradigmatic. Put differently there are concurrent,but incongruent, perspectives on what Design Fiction is and how to use it. Acknowledging this immaturity, we assert that the best way to contribute to the establishment of an evidence-based first paradigm, is by adopting a research through design approach. Thus, in this paper we describe ‘research into design fiction, done through design fiction’. This paper describes the creation of two Design Fictions through which we consider the relationship between narrative and Design Fiction and argue that links between the two are often drawn erroneously. We posit that Design Fiction is in fact a ‘world building’ activity, with no inherent link to ‘narrative’ or ‘storytelling’. The first Design Fiction explores a near future world containing a system for gamified drone-based civic enforcement and the second is based on a distant future in which hardware and algorithms capable of detecting empathy are used as part of everyday communications. By arguing it is world building, we aim to contribute towards the disambiguation of current Design Fiction discourse and the promotion of genre conventions, and, in doing so to reinforce the foundations upon which a first stable paradigm can be constructed.
92 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, two principles for ethical AI design recommend themselves: (1) design AIs that tend to provoke reactions from users that accurately reflect the AIs' real moral status, and (2) avoid designing AIs whose moral status is unclear.
Abstract: There are possible artificially intelligent beings who do not differ in any morally relevant respect from human beings. Such possible beings would deserve moral consideration similar to that of human beings. Our duties to them would not be appreciably reduced by the fact that they are non-human, nor by the fact that they owe their existence to us. Indeed, if they owe their existence to us, we would likely have additional moral obligations to them that we don’t ordinarily owe to human strangers – obligations similar to those of parent to child or god to creature. Given our moral obligations to such AIs, two principles for ethical AI design recommend themselves: (1) design AIs that tend to provoke reactions from users that accurately reflect the AIs’ real moral status, and (2) avoid designing AIs whose moral status is unclear. Since human moral intuition and moral theory evolved and developed in contexts without AI, those intuitions and theories might break down or become destabilized when confronted with the wide range of weird minds that AI design might make possible. Word count: approx 10,000 (including notes and references), plus one figure
63 citations
23 Sep 2017
TL;DR: Hacking the Future as discussed by the authors proposes a spatially attuned reading protocol to assist scholars engaging twenty-first century post-colonized science fiction, arguing that postcolonial writers use Earth-spaces to "hack" into constructions of the future, establishing postcolonial SF as a type of literary activism.
Abstract: This dissertation offers a spatially attuned reading protocol to assist scholars engaging twenty-first century postcolonial science fiction. “Hacking the Future” first explores the boom in postcolonial SF since 2004, considering the instigations of digital publishing, community-building platforms, and the event RaceFail09. It then examines how spatial studies, particularly the concept of Edward Soja’s thirdspace, the geocriticical lens of Bertrand Westphal, and the political attentiveness of Doreen Massey, synchronize with the worldbuilding reading practices proposed by SF theorists Darko Suvin and Samuel Delany. “Hacking the Future” activates this newly spatialized reading practice in the arenas of inquiry highlighted by postcolonial studies to examine how physical, conceptual, and lived spaces function as types of critical revision.
Science fiction (SF) is a speculative genre capable of reaching ‘escape velocity’ from Earth and its histories of violence. Yet, when writing in this imaginative genre, contemporary postcolonial SF authors overwhelmingly produce Earthside stories. Utilizing this dissertation’s proposed combinative protocol allows us to access the interventions and innovations of this new subgenre of writing.
By creating SF, postcolonial writers reclaim their right to not only produce genre fiction, but imagine alternative futures for previously colonized people. ”Hacking the Future” contends that by challenging the ethnographic stare of traditional SF, SF authors of the Global South productively shift away from underlying ideologies of the inferior “Other.” Through close examination of Octavia E. Butler’s Dawn and “Amnesty,” Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “Them Ships,” Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon, and Samit Basu’s Turbulence, this dissertation demonstrates how postcolonial SF spatially revises societal hierarchies, corrupt politics, the Futures Industry, “third contact” narratives between sections of human society, Afropessimism, and citizenship scales. As an additional contribution to the archive surrounding postcolonial SF, “Hacking the Future” includes personal interviews with postcolonial SF writers Samit Basu, Lauren Beukes, Nalo Hopkinson, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Vandana Singh, and SF book cover illustrator Joey Hi-Fi. Using these interviews as critical sources encourages interdisciplinary considerations that bridge creative-critical divides. This project argues that these writers use Earth-spaces to “hack” into constructions of the future, establishing postcolonial SF as a type of literary activism.
40 citations
TL;DR: Although it is unclear whether, by ‘fantasy,’ Butler intended a narrow denition (generic fantasy, i.e., imitation Tolkien heroic or epic fantasy and sword ’n’ sorcery) or a broad denition as mentioned in this paper, such statistics nonethless make the need for a Marxist theory or preferably, Marxist theories of the fantastic selfevident.
Abstract: Although it is unclear whether, by ‘fantasy’, Butler intends a narrow denition (generic fantasy, i.e., imitation Tolkien heroic or epic fantasy and sword ’n’ sorcery) or a broad denition (the fantastic genres, i.e., generic fantasy, sf (science ction), horror, supernatural gothic, magic realism, etc.), such statistics nonethless make the need for a Marxist theory – or preferably, Marxist theories – of the fantastic selfevident. The last twenty or thirty years have witnessed a remarkable expansion in the study of fantastic texts and genres. Literary studies has embraced the gothic, fairy tales and sf, and screen studies has developed a complex critique of horror and is now beginning
36 citations
23 May 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the plausibility of design fictions, looking at examples that are (1) obviously design fiction, (2) identified as design fiction and (3) whose status is either ambiguous or concealed.
Abstract: Since its inception the term ‘design fiction’ has generated considerable interest as a future-focused method of research through design whose aim is to suspend disbelief about change by depicting prototypes inside diegeses, or ‘story worlds’. Plausibility is one of the key qualities often associated with suspension of disbelief, a quality encoded within the artefacts created as design fictions. In this paper we consider whether by crafting this plausibility, works of design fiction are inherently, or can become, deceptive. The notion of deception is potentially problematic for academic researchers who are bound by the research code of ethics at their particular institution and thus it is important to understand how plausibility and deception interact so as to understand any problems associated with using design fiction as a research method. We consider the plausibility of design fictions, looking at examples that are (1) obviously design fiction, (2) identified as design fiction, and (3) whose status is either ambiguous or concealed. We then explore the challenges involved in crafting plausibility by describing our experience of world- building for a design fiction that explores the notion of empathic communications in a digital world. Our conclusions indicate that the form a design fiction takes, and pre- existing familiarity with that form, is a key determinant for whether an audience mistake it for reality and are deceived. Furthermore we suggest that designers may become minded to deliberately employ deceitful strategies in order help their design fiction reach a larger audience.
35 citations