Jack Trembath Intermission 7 through Epilogue


If anything, The Stories of Ibis was technologically refreshing in the sense that it continued a positive, optimistic dialogue about artificial intelligence.  Through the power of stories and storytelling, another theme throughout the book, Yamamoto opens a world of the less popular notion that artificial intelligence is not here to take over but rather, they serve the world and surpass humans in their goals and dreams.  I think the last chapter is exemplary of this notion.  Ibis says, “’Hideo designed this body.  In a sense, it is a crystallization of his dreams.  I am a crystallization of his dreams.  And not just me-every TAI can say something similar. Robots that look like humans.  Robots with human feelings.  Robots that befriend humans.  We are those human dreams made flesh” (418).  In this story, the TAI find joy in solving complex problems, the most difficult being making humans happy.  This is evident even when most of humanity is extinct, and the Artificial Intelligence has pursued the age old human dream of finding life in space.  The idea that artificial intelligence is representative of the pursuit of human dreams ties further into the common thread that artificial intelligence is a reflective piece of technology that tells more about humans than the humanoids.  Overall, I found this book as an excellent look in to the optimistic and utopic possibilities of artificial intelligence, and it opened up my mind to the more positive aspects of techno culture.  The class as a whole really sharpened my critical awareness of technology, and all that arises out of the world of technological culture.  I begin to think a lot about the philosophy and the notions surrounding technology both in reality and in works of fiction.  For example, the HBO series Westworld takes on many more levels of meaning for me after reading Davis and Yamamoto and analyzing the themes and ideas in each of their books.  Before this class, science fiction and the world of technology was dry and lacked the magic that I needed to grasp my attention.  I realize now that I was looking at it wrong and lacked the lens to view the human side of the technological world.                   

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