Cyberculture in Film/title> <style type="text/css">  </style> </head> <body> <div align="center"> <table width="100%" border="0"> <tr> <td><div align="center"><H1>Cyberculture in Film</H1></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td><div align="center">Artificial Intelligence</div></td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="1"> <tr> <td width="12%" ><p align="center">Surf the Site:</p></td> <td width="88%" rowspan="9" ><p>Artificial Intelligence:</p> <p><img src="i.Robot%20Signature.png" width="500" height="259"></p> <p>Modeling is a strategy used by many disciplines, from biology to economics, to re-create real world situations in an attempt to better understand them. As technology has advanced many new frontiers have been developed, namely in the field of artificial intelligence. My first hand experiences with the subject have been in simple video games, which over the years has developed from simple intelligence which is easily outsmarted to complicated strategies used by the computer to overcome a human adversary. Chess AI for example was finally able to overcome the chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov. On a more scientific level, artificial intelligence has been able to model many animals behavior and research is going on at MIT (<a href="http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/living-machines/overview/overview.shtml">http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/living-machines/overview/overview.shtml</a>), to further the capabilities of artificial intelligence.</p> <p><img src="i-robot2_350x250.jpg" width="350" height="250"></p> <p>The main focus of this web page is the role of artificial intelligence and prosthetic memory, a form of AI, in film. It seems that the possibility of overdeveloping AI is a problem that is addressed by many writers and directors. In Michael Crichton’s book <em>Prey</em>, a computer programmer, Jack Forman, accepts a job at Xymos Technologies and finds himself amidst a huge mess involving nanotechnology. Xymos had been programming nanoswarms, a swarm of microscopic molecules, to exhibit characteristics of actual animal swarms. Somehow the swarm evolves and starts to behave like a predator, trying to overtake humans’ bodies in an attempt to create more swarms. The movie <em>I, Robot</em> also addresses this issue and exhibits advanced AI in both a positive and negative light. In the world of <em>I, Robot</em>, robots are everywhere and used by everyone to assist them in daily life. US Robotics, the main manufacturer of robots, is developing a revolutionary new robot and distributing these new ones so there is one robot to every five humans. As can be expected these robots turn on the humans and it is unclear why they are breaking the laws programmed into each. These laws can be summed up to say that every robot will never harm another human and will always try and help one who is in danger. Unfortunately, the main surveillance system at US Robotics, Viki, evolves in some way and decides that the best way to protect humans is to enslave them so they don’t hurt one another. In this sense technology and artificial intelligence are portrayed with seriously negative undertones. The flip side in the movie is a robot created at the end of a scientist’s life, Sonny. In the beginning Sonny seems to be an antagonist to Will Smith and ends up fighting him. Once Sonny is captured, it becomes apparent that he is not like any of the other robots created before him, because he was given a conscience and the ability to dream and keep secrets. As the movie goes on Sonny seems to exhibit more human qualities than robot characteristics. At the end when he is being attacked by Viki, Sonny says, “That seems so heartless,” implying that he has a set of human morals and understands that although it may stop humans from killing one another, enslaving the human race is morally wrong. Sonny then proceeds to risk his own existence to try and save the human race, fighting his way through numerous robots. This self-sacrifice is a very human characteristic and it seems that although the advancing technology created a malicious strand of code, even further advancement resulted in a very human-like robot that overcame its lesser adversaries and was able to help restore human freedom.</p> <p><img src="brsm_city_syd_mead_concept.jpg" width="730" height="557"></p> <p>AI is also depicted in a more revolutionary light by the movie Artificial Intelligence. This movie starring Robin Williams shows us a different example of robotics. His character is an extraordinary creation that simply evolves to learn new emotions from his owner. When he is set free he seeks to become more and more human, he goes so far that he actually develops new organs and makes himself human in some senses. In the end the world actually recognizes his humanity, which is actually a very frightening aspect. Even in Blade Runner the final Replicant seems to be so much more human than any other character because of his instinctual desire to survive longer to experience more. His short life span makes him live life to the fullest and to savor every day while other characters such as the police chief seem to have such a drab existence. It makes me wonder whether we are better at creating life and lifelike experiences than living our own. These robots we see in movies become so much like ourselves that it is frightening to postulate the reality of having such creations. They are stronger, faster, and more intelligent than we are. They could make our lives extremely easy at first and then eventually realize their superiority. The Matrix and the Terminator series are perfect depictions of what could happen to the human race should we allow ourselves to become too dependent. I feel like sometimes we are toying with Pandora’s Box in the new millennium as we already depend so much on technology. It’s not hard to imagine yourself in the role of the asthmatic fat woman at the beginning of I Robot who has her robot run her the inhaler that she desperately needs.</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td ><div align="center"><a href="ai.html">Artificial Intellifence </a></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td ><div align="center"><a href="prosthetic.html">Prosthetic Memory</a> </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td ><div align="center"><a href="spectatorship.html">Spectatorship</a></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td ><div align="center"><a href="question.html">Questions We Must Ask Ourselves</a> </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" ><div align="center"><a href="links.html">Links</a></div></td> </tr> </table> </div> </body> </html>