A Brief Survey of Science Fiction Session 3: Identity Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Winter 2013 Dr. Agatha Taormina

Session Overview: Identity What does it mean to be human? Sentience Medical Interventions Transplants Prosthetics Cyborgs Genetics Mutations Cloning Artificial intelligence Computers Robots Androids

Sentience Consciousness, self-awareness Elements Desire Will Ethics Insight Perhaps emotion

Animal Consciousness Self-concept the mirror test Metacognition: the ability to monitor mental states Language

Properties of Human Language Arbitrariness Cultural transmission Discreteness Displacement Metalinguistics Productivity

Declaration “Conclusions announced by a group of scientists at the Consciousness in Human and Nonhuman Animals conference in Cambridge (July 2012): Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors.

Weight of Evidence Indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Non-human animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates

Planet of the Apes Animal consciousness Shared consciousness Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The Incredible Hulk The Trill from Star Trek Tok’ra and Gou’uld from Stargate SG-1

Medical Interventions Transplants Cornea 1905 Kidney transplant between identical twins 1954 Heart 1967 Hand 1998 Partial face 2005 Double arm 2008 Full facial 2010 Double leg 2011 Examples Spock’s Brain Coma Prosthetics: The Six Million Dollar Man

Cyborgs cyborg: a machine/human hybrid, i.e., a human with mechanical parts the word itself is a contraction of the term "cybernetic organism." Major issue is the ratio of human to mechanical parts Examples Daleks and Cybermen from Doctor Who RoboCop Iron Man The Borg from Star Trek

Current Reproductive Technologies In vitro fertilization Louise Brown, the first test tube baby, born in 1978 Screen embryos for some genetic markers Designer babies

Genetics Mutations Genetic Engineering Spider-Man Heroes The X-Men Frankenstein The Island of Doctor Moreau

Cloning Plants and higher mammals have been successfully cloned Dolly the sheep cloned in 1997 Scientists, philosophers, and politicians debate the ethics of cloning a human being. Example: Jurassic Park

Artificial Intelligence The paradigm for science fiction's presentation of artificial intelligence revolves around several central fears: Fear that artificial intelligence will take over Fear of mechanization--humans will be reduced to machines Fear of humans remaining organic but finding themselves trapped in machines

Types of Artificial Intelligence Computer Robot Android

Computer A machine intelligence; an artificial brain Has no mobility In science fiction a computer with sufficient memory approaches sentience

The State of Computer Intelligence The Turing Test (1950) ELIZA (1966) PARRY (1972) Chatterbots Chinese Room argument (1980)

Deep Blue beats reigning world chess champion Gary Kasparov, 1997 Watson defeats Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings at Jeopardy, 2011

Current State of AI Roomba Lego robot Asimo

Legend of the Golem Golem is an animated being that looks like a man and is fashioned from inanimate matter Word means “unshaped form” in Hebrew Generally inscribed with a word or mark that animates it; erase the mark and the golem falls lifeless

The Golem of Prague Classic origin narrative Golem created by Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the chief Rabbi of Prague in late 16th century in response to a pogrom of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II Golems are generally depicted as mindless and unable to speak

Robot A mechanical man the word comes from a Czech word meaning "servitude" or "work" first appeared in Karel Capek's play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) in 1921

The Laws of Robotics The laws of robotics are an attempt to counteract the fear of artificial intelligence by building safeguards into such machines.

Origin of the Laws Isaac Asimov is generally credited with creating these laws and writing a series of short stories (collected in I, Robot) about the application of the laws. First formally propounded in “Runaround” (1942) Require a robot/android to have a positronic brain

The Three Laws First Law: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders conflict with the First Law. Third Law: A robot must protect its existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

The Fourth Law Asimov added a fourth, or Zeroth, Law in Robots and Empire (1985): Zeroth Law: A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. First Law, revised: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm except where such orders conflict with the Zeroth Law.

Androids android: an artificial human Examples the term means "man-like" unlike robots, androids generally appear virtually indistinguishable from humans Examples Data from Star Trek: the Next Generation The Terminator The replicants from Blade Runner

Other Intelligences Shape-shifters like Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Holograms like the doctor from Star Trek:Voyager

What to read Animal Consciousness Medical Intervention Cyborgs Planet of the Apes (1963) by Pierre Boulle Uplift Universe series by David Brin Startide Rising (1983) Medical Intervention “Flowers for Algernon” (1959) by Daniel Keyes The Speed of Dark (2003) by Elizabeth Moon Cyborgs The Ship Who Sang (1969) by Anne McCaffrey Cyborg (1972) by Martin Caidin Man Plus (1976) by Frederik Pohl

Experimentation Cloning Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) by H.G. Wells The Invisible Man (1897) by H. G. Wells Cloning The Boys from Brazil (1976) by Ira Levin Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1976) by Kate Wilhelm Jurassic Park (1990) by Michael Crichton

What to Read Computers Robots “The Machine Stops” (1909) by E. M. Forster “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966) by Robert Heinlein 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Arthur C. Clarke Robots I, Robot (1950) by Isaac Asimov “With Folded Hands” (1947) by Jack Williamson

What to Read Androids The Caves of Steel (1954) and The Naked Sun (1957) by Isaac Asimov “The Bicentennial Man” (1976) by Isaac Asimov

Coming Next Week: Reality Perception Virtual Reality Time Travel Parallel Universes Alternate History