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Artificial Intelligence; Steven Spielberg Movie
Topic Started: Jun 30 2012, 10:14 AM (409 Views)
caltrek
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Lieutenant Commander
Anybody seen this one yet?

Very early this morning, I woke up from a bad dream, got out of bed, wandered into the living room, and found this movie being played on TV. I didn't really know quite what to make of it. Although the plot line is very straight forward, there are a lot of surrealistic asides that make it a very complicated and interwoven story. For those who haven't seen it yet, it is about a robot that has been built as a very realistic looking and acting child. I missed the beginning, so I am not quite sure how the artifical boy becomes part of a family.

The first segment of the story involves a series of incidents in which the robot child proves to be a some what problematic member of the household. This portion of the movie seems fairly realistic in its portrayal of the humans involved with the robot boy's experiences. It is later into the movie that some very surrealistic events occur. These events seem to have both a futuristic component to them, as well as a psychological component that blend together in various surrealistic themes and sub-plots.

At the end of the movie, I couldn't quite decide whether I liked it or not. I did manage to fall back asleep and have some relatively pleasant dreams.
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Swidden
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Professional Gadfly-at-large; Provisional wRench-fly at large

It was also the last film Stanley really worked on.

There is a lot I like about this film, but I have always come away from it feeling somewhat unsatisfied. It might have something with how many folks work on its script/story. There is just something about it that seems to tell me it needs something else, something more. That being said, it is still one of the better, more thought provoking SF films to come our way,
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24thcenstfan
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I don't know why I have never watched this movie. Still haven't sought out the opportunity.

Re: The child robot. I think increasingly, people are developing personal relationships with artificial humanoids (hence making that a plausible futuristic element). I don't know if you all have ever seen a show called "Taboo". One episode dealt with a woman who treats fake lifelike babies like real children (not being able to have her own children). Carrying them around, pushing them in strollers, letting them go on outings with the family. Another story dealt with men buying lifesize female dolls to have relationships with and interact with like they are their wife/girlfriend.

I think there will definitely be a segment of society who wishes to form these attachments when a biological equivalent is not available. When they are completely humanoid, we will probably see many people form bonds with artificial husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, children, friends....

In time, it will be as commonplace as our physical and often emotional dependence on other technologies.
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caltrek
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24,

Very good understanding of the emotions involved, displayed have you.

Where the movie gets surrealistic is what happens when the artificial intelligence reaches a level where "it" to feels?

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24thcenstfan
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caltrek
Jul 8 2012, 01:05 PM
24,

Very good understanding of the emotions involved, displayed have you.

Where the movie gets surrealistic is what happens when the artificial intelligence reaches a level where "it" to feels?

Sentience and self determination are then right around the corner!
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caltrek
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24thcenstfan
Jul 9 2012, 11:13 AM
caltrek
Jul 8 2012, 01:05 PM
24,

Very good understanding of the emotions involved, displayed have you.

Where the movie gets surrealistic is what happens when the artificial intelligence reaches a level where "it" to feels?

Sentience and self determination are then right around the corner!
...and what of the human reaction to all of this?

In one of the scenes, an individual lectures to a crowd about how the artificial child is an affront to humanity and should be destroyed. A woman cries out from the audience in so many words that the child robot does not want to be destroyed, feels that it should not be destroyed, and therefore should not be destroyred. Given the choice between stoning the human who wants to destroy the robot child, and stoning the robot child, the audience choses to stone the human. This comes as a great suprise to the human.
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Swidden
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I find that particular scene a wonderful statement on how we seem to view human life itself. It's a very good metaphor for a number of life topics.
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caltrek
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One of the themes that I found interesting in the movie was a speculative approach to how forms of artificial intelligence would become sentient. Metaphor is at the center of this idea. The child robot becomes enthralled with the story of Pinocio. It has been a long time since I read Pinocio, so I had forgotten about the role that the Blue Fairy played in that story. The robot child becomes enthralled with the idea of finding the Blue Fairy in real life so that he can also be transformed into a human. At one point, it becomes clear that the child knows what a fairy tale is, yet he still insists on looking for the Blue Fairy. He begans to experience the same confusion that humans experience, that between understanding metaphor as pointing to something in "real" life, and understanding metaphor as something that "really exists". His understanding of symbolism becomes elevated to a new level. In the terms of Star Trek's Data, he grows, or at least tries to grow, beyond his immediate programming. The quest becomes the thing, and in that childish quest we very much recognize something that is truly human.
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24thcenstfan
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Holograms. Another form of artificial intelligence that might need contending with some day. As I'm sure most of you recall, there were holograms in Star Trek (VOY especially) that wanted to seek self determination.
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