Existenz - The most interesting and critical concept of the film, to me, wasn't broached formally as a subject, but was implied from context at the very end. I'm referring to the Transcendenz programmer's discomfort with the way the game unfolded, it's anti-gamer/gaming message. This implies that somehow, the technology of the time represented not only takes feedback from user action, but also from user thought. Games shaping themselves around our actions is nothing new, conceptually, and across the spectrum of gaming, from analog board games to the highest-end virtual worlds, the difference in the feedback from action is simply one of degree rather than kind. The idea that a game can read and interpret our thoughts, however, and subsequently alter itself to fit those thoughts, is both intriguing and disturbing in the possibilities derived from it. That, to me, would make for the most truly immersive gaming experience, given that a world that caters to us on an individual, unvoiced-desire level is a world which we are unlikely to want to leave. Of course, the idea that thought is indeed readable by machines itself implies that thoughts have some heretofore unknown physical properties which the machine can pick up on. Examining that, a possibility implied is that thought, by being made hardware, can then be changed by changing that hardware. To give us new thoughts (and, a presumed extension, new desires, memories, etc) it just becomes a matter of altering whatever physical form those thoughts take, or possibly how the brain itself reacts to said thoughts. Breaking things down to a chemical level, we've discovered that thoughts of depression can be caused by a chemical imbalance, the brain getting not enough of one thing or perhaps too much of another. If the brain reacts to thought chemically, that is to say if thinking certain things causes certain chemical changes in the brain (which we know happens, in that happy thoughts/memories cause certain parts of the brain to become more active, likewise unhappy thoughts, sexual thoughts, language, etc), then to disconnect (or reroute) one's reactions, one doesn't need to change the thoughts themselves, just how the brain receives/perceives them. Simple, right? Granted, that's not a true interpretation of or alteration of thought, but it seems to be hypothetically viable as a work-around solution.
Stelarc - His works are interesting, and disturbing to a degree. The flesh hook suspensions, surprisingly, less so than the spidery exoskeleton. That thing just brings to mind...well, spiders, already not pleasant, and one of the more annoying enemies from the game Doom 2. The SecondLife arm avatar video was just annoying. Performance art is all well and good, but six minutes or so of watching an older gentleman wave around his hands so his SL avatar can move just one arm, while the other hangs limply, and while it gets hit periodically by blocks causing repetitive and discordant sounds isn't my idea of a good time. But then, I'm not an artist.
The Singularity - From what it sounds like, the term "intelligence" isn't accurate to describe the shift forward. Increased processing capability feels more accurate. There may well be a computer that can make connections faster than humanity based on a series of logical steps, but many advancements come not from rote work or even logical extensions, but from intuitive leaps. Intuition, and other factors that inform intelligence (as I conceptualize it) can't be hard-coded. Computers can't guess, because computers can't imagine. They can't imagine because they can't desire. They can't desire because they can't feel. And they can't feel because they aren't organic, chemical-based creatures. Referring back to the initial paragraph, we're all bags of chemicals (but not, I believe, only that), and the interaction thereof shapes us. Without glands, how can anything feel the impulses that are gland-driven, such as love, hate, fear, passion, and so on. Cybernetic intelligence enhancements to organic brains seems a more likely outcome, long-term, than any strictly-mechanical intelligence surpassing a purely organic brain. We are analog creatures, and the basis of our inner selves is analog, based on analog input and offering analog feedback. A digital consciousness, while conceptually faster and simpler with digital feedback, cannot surpass an analog one in terms of perception, ability, etc because there just don't exist the protein-based means it needs. A computer cannot strive, fear, or die. Thus, a computer cannot progress, save to the limits of the hardware it's housed in.
No comments:
Post a Comment