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

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

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

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

5. Properties of Human Language
Arbitrariness
Cultural transmission
Discreteness
Displacement
Metalinguistics
Productivity

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

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

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

13. 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

14. 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

15. Types of Artificial Intelligence
Computer
Robot
Android

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

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

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

19. Current State of AI
Roomba
Lego robot
Asimo

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

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

24. 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

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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

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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

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

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