The Evolution of the Robotic Other in Science Fiction Film and Literature: from the Age of the Human to the Era of the Post-Human

Science fiction film and literature establishes one of the most effective mediums for providing incisive critical analysis of complex sociopolitical issues. An observation of the robotic Other in Karel Capek\u27s early 20th century play R.U.R.:(Rossum\u27s Universal Robots), Philip K. Dick\u27s acclaimed novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and Ronald D. Moore\u27s re-envisioning of the pop-culture, science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica, provides an illustrative study of how the creators of these varied science fiction works utilize the robotic Other to destabilize the more traditional boundaries of the Other and create a narrative that demands critical examination of the post-human concept. The collection of works analyzed in this paper use the robotic Other to study how humanity confronts the divisive issues that arise in post-human civilizations, and addresses how these issues will by necessity require a symbiotic coexistence between humanity and its technological creation in order to not merely survive but flourish in this new post-human univers

The Evolution of the Robotic Other in Science Fiction Film and Literature: from the Age of the Human to the Era of the Post-Human

Science fiction film and literature establishes one of the most effective mediums for providing incisive critical analysis of complex sociopolitical issues. An observation of the robotic Other in Karel Capek\u27s early 20th century play R.U.R.:(Rossum\u27s Universal Robots), Philip K. Dick\u27s acclaimed novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and Ronald D. Moore\u27s re-envisioning of the pop-culture, science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica, provides an illustrative study of how the creators of these varied science fiction works utilize the robotic Other to destabilize the more traditional boundaries of the Other and create a narrative that demands critical examination of the post-human concept. The collection of works analyzed in this paper use the robotic Other to study how humanity confronts the divisive issues that arise in post-human civilizations, and addresses how these issues will by necessity require a symbiotic coexistence between humanity and its technological creation in order to not merely survive but flourish in this new post-human univers

Our Fear of AI: Exploring Its Creators and Creations in Fiction

The idea of technological creation has proliferated across fiction for the last century. As the world becomes increasingly technologically advanced, these fears have become more tangible. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence particularly, from Alexa to self-driving cars, comes a rise in the fear of what intelligent creations might lead to. In order for AI to continue growing and adding value to society, experts must contend with the apprehension surrounding AI. While these conversations are already occurring, they generally focus on the fear of the machine itself. This thesis argues that the fear of the creators and regulators of AI, not just the machine, heavily influences the fear of AI as a field. It examines three different AI takeover narratives, "With Folded Hands", Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and Ex Machina, in order to analyze the fears surrounding technology creators in conjunction with the influence of societal events and systems of the times.Plan II Honors Progra

WebAL Comes of Age: A review of the first 21 years of Artificial Life on the Web

We present a survey of the first 21 years of web-based artificial life (WebAL) research and applications, broadly construed to include the many different ways in which artificial life and web technologies might intersect. Our survey covers the period from 1994—when the first WebAL work appeared—up to the present day, together with a brief discussion of relevant precursors. We examine recent projects, from 2010–2015, in greater detail in order to highlight the current state of the art. We follow the survey with a discussion of common themes and methodologies that can be observed in recent work and identify a number of likely directions for future work in this exciting area

Mankind is Machine: A Monstrous Posthuman Reading of Philip K. Dick’s Selected Works

The works of Philip K. Dick act as an ideal template for readers to explore what it means to be human in a technologically dominated world. Dick’s emphasis on the usage of androids and artificial intelligence as literary monsters allows for a posthuman reading of the traditional literary monster, notably in how their uncanny nature and behavior helps reveal the synthetic tendencies of humanity. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, “Imposter,” and “I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon,” each narrative incorporates artificial intelligence and androids acting as others to reveal the machine-like qualities of Dick’s human characters. This approach ultimately reveals Dick’s greater commentary on the nature of humanity’s tendencies to fall into machine-like patterns and expectations within the historical world. By asking questions of what it means to be human through posthuman monsters, Dick challenges the traditional definition of what it means to be both human and alive

Economic Complexity Unfolded: Interpretable Model for the Productive Structure of Economies

Economic complexity reflects the amount of knowledge that is embedded in the productive structure of an economy. It resides on the premise of hidden capabilities - fundamental endowments underlying the productive structure. In general, measuring the capabilities behind economic complexity directly is difficult, and indirect measures have been suggested which exploit the fact that the presence of the capabilities is expressed in a country's mix of products. We complement these studies by introducing a probabilistic framework which leverages Bayesian non-parametric techniques to extract the dominant features behind the comparative advantage in exported products. Based on economic evidence and trade data, we place a restricted Indian Buffet Process on the distribution of countries' capability endowment, appealing to a culinary metaphor to model the process of capability acquisition. The approach comes with a unique level of interpretability, as it produces a concise and economically plausible description of the instantiated capabilities

“More Human Than Human”: Lacan’s Mirror Stage Theory and Posthumanism in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

In my thesis, Philip K. Dick\u27s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is examined using French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan\u27s mirror stage theory. In the novel, humans have built androids that are almost indistinguishable from humans except that they lack a sense of empathy, or so the humans believe. The Voigt-Kampff Machine is a polygraph-like device used to determine if a subject shows signs of empathy in order to confirm if one is an android or a human. Yet, should empathy be the defining quality of determining humanity? In his article The mirror stage as formative of the function of the ‘I’ as revealed in psychoanalytic experience, Lacan refers to a particular critical milestone in an infant\u27s psychological development. When the baby looks in a mirror, they come to the realization that the image they are seeing is not just any ordinary image; it is actually themselves in the mirror. This a-ha moment of self-realization is what Lacan\u27s Mirror Stage Theory is based on. According to Lacan\u27s theory, the image that the child sees in a mirror becomes an Other through which they will always scrutinize and pass judgment on, for it is not how they have pictured themselves to be in their mind’s eye. I hypothesize that the androids are humans\u27 artificial and technological Other. It is my thought that Dick uses the conflict of determining the biological from the artificial, the effort to differentiate humans from androids and biological animals from artificial ones, to illustrate Lacan\u27s psychoanalysis of the mirror stage and its importance in our continual search for determining what humanity is and who we really are

AI in space: Past, present, and possible futures

While artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly present in recent space applications, new missions being planned will require even more incorporation of AI techniques. In this paper, we survey some of the progress made to date in implementing such programs, some current directions and issues, and speculate about the future of AI in space scenarios. We also provide examples of how thinkers from the realm of science fiction have envisioned AI's role in various aspects of space exploration