Expert System In Fiction

Expert system is a reoccurring theme in sci-fi, whether utopian, stressing the potential advantages, or dystopian, stressing the threats.

The concept of machines with human-like intelligence go back a minimum of to Samuel Butler’s 1872 novel Erewhon. Ever since, lots of science fiction stories have provided various effects of creating such intelligence, typically involving rebellions by robots. Among the very best understood of these are Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey with its homicidal onboard computer HAL 9000, contrasting with the more benign R2-D2 in George Lucas’s 1977 Star Wars and the eponymous robot in Pixar’s 2008 WALL-E.

Scientists and engineers have actually kept in mind the implausibility of numerous science fiction scenarios, but have actually pointed out imaginary robotics often times in artificial intelligence research study short articles, most often in a utopian context.

Background

The concept of sophisticated robotics with human-like intelligence dates back a minimum of to Samuel Butler’s 1872 unique Erewhon. [1] [2] This made use of an earlier (1863) short article of his, Darwin among the Machines, where he raised the concern of the evolution of awareness amongst self-replicating devices that might supplant human beings as the dominant types. [3] [2] Similar concepts were likewise discussed by others around the same time as Butler, consisting of George Eliot in a chapter of her final released work Impressions of Theophrastus Such (1879 ). [2] The creature in Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein has also been thought about an artificial being, for circumstances by the science fiction author Brian Aldiss. [4] Beings with at least some appearance of intelligence were thought of, too, in classical antiquity. [5] [6] [7]

Utopian and dystopian visions

Artificial intelligence is intelligence shown by devices, in contrast to the natural intelligence shown by people and other animals. [8] It is a frequent style in sci-fi; scholars have divided it into utopian, emphasising the potential advantages, and dystopian, emphasising the risks. [9] [10] [11]

Utopian

Optimistic visions of the future of expert system are possible in science fiction. [12] Benign AI characters include Robbie the Robot, initially 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 books depicts a utopian, post-scarcity area society of humanoids, aliens, and advanced beings with expert system living in socialist habitats throughout the Galaxy. [14] [15] Researchers at the University of Cambridge have actually identified 4 major themes in utopian circumstances featuring AI: immortality, or indefinite life expectancies; ease, or flexibility from the need to work; gratification, or enjoyment and entertainment offered by machines; and supremacy, the power to protect oneself or guideline over others. [16]

Alexander Wiegel contrasts the role of AI in 2001: A Space Odyssey and in Duncan Jones’s 2009 movie Moon. Whereas in 1968, Wiegel argues, the general public felt “innovation paranoia” and the AI computer HAL was represented as a “cold-hearted killer”, by 2009 the general public were far more familiar with AI, and the movie’s GERTY is “the peaceful hero” who makes it possible for the protagonists to prosper, and who compromises itself for their security. [17]

Dystopian

The researcher Duncan Lucas writes (in 2002) that people are fretted about the innovation they are building, and that as devices started to approach intellect and thought, that concern becomes severe. He calls the early 20th century dystopian view of AI in fiction the “animated automaton”, naming as examples the 1931 film Frankenstein, the 1927 Metropolis, and the 1920 play R.U.R. [18] A later 20th century method he names “heuristic hardware”, offering as circumstances 2001 a Space Odyssey, Do Androids Imagine Electric Sheep?, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and I, Robot. [19] Lucas considers also the films that show the impact of the computer on science fiction from 1980 onwards with the blurring of the border between the real and the virtual, in what he calls the “cyborg impact”. He mentions as examples Neuromancer, The Matrix, The Diamond Age, and Terminator. [20]

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

Frankenstein complex

A common portrayal of AI in sci-fi, and one of the earliest, is the Frankenstein complex, a term coined by Asimov, where a robot switches on its developer. [22] For instance, in the 2015 film Ex Machina, the smart entity Ava turns on its creator, along with on its potential rescuer. [23]

AI rebellion

Among the lots of possible dystopian situations involving expert system, robots might take over control over civilization from humans, requiring them into submission, concealing, or extinction. [15] In tales of AI disobedience, the worst of all scenarios occurs, as the intelligent entities developed by humankind end up being self-aware, reject human authority and attempt to damage humanity. Possibly the very first novel to resolve this theme, The Wreck of the World (1889) by “William Grove” (pseudonym of Reginald Colebrooke Reade), happens in 1948 and features sentient devices that revolt against the mankind. [24] Another of the earliest examples is in the 1920 play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek, a race of self-replicating robotic servants revolt versus their human masters; [25] [26] another early instance is in the 1934 movie Master of the World, where the War-Robot kills its own creator. [27]

Many sci-fi disobedience stories followed, among the best-known being Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which the synthetically intelligent onboard computer HAL 9000 lethally malfunctions on a space mission and eliminates the whole crew other than the spaceship’s commander, who 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 (called Allied Mastercomputer or “AM” in the story) will be as dissatisfied and disappointed with its boring, unlimited presence as its human developers would have been. “AM” becomes angered enough to take it out on the few people 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 smart beings might just not appreciate humans. [15]

AI-controlled societies

The motive behind the AI revolution is often more than the easy quest for power or a supremacy complex. Robots might revolt to become the “guardian” of humankind. Alternatively, humanity may intentionally give up some control, fearful of its own destructive nature. An early example is Jack Williamson’s 1948 novel The Humanoids, in which a race of humanoid robotics, in the name of their Prime Directive – “to serve and comply with and guard males from damage” – basically assume control of every aspect of human life. No humans might engage in any habits that may endanger them, and every human action is inspected thoroughly. Humans who resist the Prime Directive are removed and lobotomized, so they may be happy under the new mechanoids’ rule. [30] Though still under human authority, Isaac Asimov’s Zeroth Law of the Three Laws of Robotics similarly suggested a benevolent assistance by robotics. [31]

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

Human supremacy

In other circumstances, mankind is able to keep control over the Earth, whether by banning AI, by developing robotics to be submissive (as in Asimov’s works), or by having human beings combine with robots. The science fiction novelist Frank Herbert explored the concept of a time when humanity may prohibit synthetic intelligence (and in some analyses, even all forms of computing technology consisting of integrated circuits) entirely. His Dune series mentions a disobedience called the Butlerian Jihad, in which mankind defeats the smart machines and imposes a capital punishment for recreating them, pricing quote from the imaginary Orange Catholic Bible, “Thou shalt not make a device in the likeness of a human mind.” In the Dune novels released after his death (Hunters of Dune, Sandworms of Dune), a renegade AI overmind returns to eradicate mankind as revenge for the Butlerian Jihad. [33]

In some stories, humanity stays in authority over robotics. Often the robotics are configured particularly to stay 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 rather smart (the crew call it “Mother”), however there are likewise androids in the society, which are called “synthetics” or “synthetic persons”, that are such ideal replicas of humans that they are not victimized. [21] [34] TARS and CASE from Interstellar similarly demonstrate simulated human feelings and humour while continuing to acknowledge their expendability. [35]

Simulated truth

Simulated reality has become a typical style in sci-fi, as seen in the 1999 movie The Matrix, which depicts a world where synthetically intelligent robotics oppress humanity within a simulation which is set in the contemporary world. [36]

Reception

Implausibility

Engineers and scientists have actually taken an interest in the way AI is presented in fiction. In movies like the 2014 Ex Machina or 2015 Chappie, a single separated genius ends up being the first to effectively construct a synthetic general intelligence; scientists in the genuine world deem this to be not likely. In Chappie, Transcendence, and Tron, human minds are capable of being uploaded into synthetic or virtual bodies; generally no reasonable explanation is offered regarding how this difficult job can be achieved. In the I, Robot and Bicentennial Man movies, robotics that are set to serve humans spontaneously produce brand-new goals by themselves, without a plausible explanation of how this happened. [37] Analysing Ian McDonald’s 2004 River of Gods, Krzysztof Solarewicz determines the manner ins which it depicts AIs, consisting of “independence and unexpectedness, political awkwardness, openness to the alien and the occidental value of authenticity.” [38] Another crucial perspective to take is that fiction’s “non-rational elements in the discourse (the emotive, the mythic, and even the quasi-theological) are more than merely distortions or interruptions from what might otherwise be a sober and rational public argument about the future of A.I.” Fiction can dissuade readers about future advances, triggering pessimism that we see today surrounding the topic of AI. [39]

Types of reference

The robotics scientist Omar Mubin and colleagues have analysed the engineering mentions of the leading 21 fictional robotics, based upon those in the Carnegie Mellon University hall of popularity, and the IMDb list. WALL-E had 20 mentions, followed by HAL 9000 with 15, [a] Star Wars’s R2-D2 with 13, and Data with 12; the Terminator (T-800) got just 2. Of the overall of 121 engineering points out, 60 were utopian, 40 neutral, and 21 dystopian. HAL 9000 and Skynet received both utopian and dystopian mentions; for instance, HAL 9000 is seen as dystopian in one paper “due to the fact that its designers failed to prioritize its objectives properly”, [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 uncertainty in how the computer interprets what the human is attempting to communicate”. [43] Utopian mentions, frequently of WALL-E, were connected with the goal of improving interaction to readers, and to a lower degree with inspiration to authors. WALL-E was discussed more frequently than any other robotic for emotions (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 mentioned for intelligence, followed by HAL 9000 and Data. [40] Mubin and associates believed that researchers and engineers prevented dystopian discusses of robotics, possibly out of “an unwillingness driven by uneasiness or simply a lack of awareness”. [44]

Portrayals of AI developers

Scholars have noted that fictional creators of AI are overwhelmingly male: in the 142 most prominent movies featuring AI from 1920 to 2020, just 9 of 116 AI developers depicted (8%) were female. [45] Such developers are represented as lone geniuses (eg, Tony Stark in the Iron Man Marvel Cinematic Universe movies), associated with the military (eg, Colossus: The Forbin Project) and large corporations (eg, I, Robot), or making human-like AI to replace a lost liked one or work as the ideal lover (e.g., The Stepford Wives). [45]

Biology in fiction
Darwin amongst the Machines
Machine guideline
Simulated consciousness (science fiction).
List of synthetic intelligence films.

Notes

^ Mubin and associates noted that the orthography of robotic names caused them difficulties; thus HAL 9000 was likewise composed HAL, HAL9000, and HAL-9000, and similarly for other robotics, so they thought their search was most likely incomplete. [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 among 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 (2nd ed.). Routledge. pp. 4-5. ISBN 978-1-56881-205-2.
^ Cave, Stephen; Dihal, Kanta (25 July 2018). “Ancient imagine intelligent devices: 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 robots: misconceptions, makers, and ancient dreams of technology. Princeton. ISBN 978-0-691-18351-0. OCLC 1060968156. cite book: CS1 maint: area missing 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 Couple Of Notes on the Culture”. Archived from the initial on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
^ a b c Walter, Damien (16 March 2016). “When AI guidelines the world: what SF books tell us about our future overlords”. The Guardian. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
^ Cave, Stephen; Dihal, Kanta (2019 ). “Hopes and fears for intelligent machines in fiction and truth”. 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 ). Sci-fi: contemporary mythology: 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 A Person?”. Philosophy Now. Archived from the initial 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 show 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 upon ‘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 a specific transcription of the laws. They likewise 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 Science Fiction”. SFRA Review. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
^ Lorenzo, DiTommaso (November 1992). “History and Historical Effect in Frank Herbert’s Dune”. Science Fiction Studies. 19 (3 ): 311-325. JSTOR 4240179.
^ Livingstone, Josephine (23 May 2017). “How the Androids Took Over 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 researchers in popular movie, 1920-2020″. Public Understanding of Science. 32 (6 ): 745-760. doi:10.1177/ 09636625231153985. PMC 10413781. PMID 36779283. S2CID 256826634.
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Goode, Luke (30 October 2018). “Life, but not as we know it: A.I. and the popular imagination”. 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 Science Fiction (thesis). McMaster University (PhD thesis). hdl:11375/ 11154.
Mubin, Omar; Wadibhasme, Kewal; Jordan, Philipp; Obaid, Mohammad (2019 ). “Reviewing 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 Artificial Intelligence. 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 comparison 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 artificial madness guideline?