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Souls And Curcuits
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Aug. 16th, 2008 | 01:47 pm
location: Home Base
mood: 
CONTEMPLATERIZING
I'm still currently fighting that damned virus and my own sloth so I haven't been able to do get a lot of work finished. Which isn't to say that I haven't been working. I've been working... just not being as productive.
So Mark Invited me to watch WALL-E with him and a few other people from church. So of course I went, right? That had to be the best Pixar film I've ever seen (except for The Incredible, simply because that oozed of coolness). But honestly.
It was so much deeper that I had expected. They tackled so many controversial issues and all these tiny gray areas on sentience and robotic cognition. It was such a great film!
I guess this is all I really have to say but I love discussing stuff like this so I might be back to talk about it. I don't know. We'll see. Right now I have some work to try and do. I'm sorry if I've spoiled you but this was just such a great film and I'd love to see it again! Man I do love this film! Yesterday was great.
So Mark Invited me to watch WALL-E with him and a few other people from church. So of course I went, right? That had to be the best Pixar film I've ever seen (except for The Incredible, simply because that oozed of coolness). But honestly.
It was so much deeper that I had expected. They tackled so many controversial issues and all these tiny gray areas on sentience and robotic cognition. It was such a great film!
Humans Suck
This film did to me the opposite of what the Discovery Channel Commercial did to me. That commercial and the Olympics and all that made me love humanity and have hope that maybe we weren't doing it all wrong and we had a slim chance of salvaging our planet before we finally kill it and in the process snuff ourselves out as well. WALL-E made me hate humans. No I don't really mean that but man, those humans were total crap! They were fat, lazy, absorbed and fully depended on the comforts that the robots provide. Auto-dependency. Evil. There was no room for creativity or self improvement or reason. It was so sad.
This is all just reflections of our current situations though. A few weeks ago we had a lecture in class (one of the few cool lectures I've had the pleasure of having during my miserable tenure in 4th year), and it was about how science fiction is in actuality a commentary on out present social condition and a speculation of the effects of escalation on our current problems. Meaning that science fiction tackles the same problems we're dealing with now, only - since it's set in the future - they can exaggerate and point the blame without directly implicating anyone here and now. The problem is, however, true.
We are living in a time of excess and of unconcern and we're blinded by commercialization and advertising and modern comfort. Especially here in the third world where our government and corporate sectors feel that building commercial establishments for people to spend their money in rather than develop agriculture and industry where people can earn money is a good idea. I guess that was a real brave thing for Pixar to explore. It was really sad to see what human have become in the film and it was even more depressing to know that that is actually the direction we're going into now. Apathy and all that. I was made to feel guilty. I think it was an effective call to action in terms of being more concerned about the worl around us and the importance of health and our relation to our environment.
Corporations Are Kinda Bad
One real whopper of an issue here (whopper here meaning really really big as opposed to it's other meaning, that of a whopper being a lie), was the corporation. In the film the corporation Buy n' Large has taken over every other entity in the world as well as the government... (sound's familiar doesn't it? scary...) and so they continue to sear the earth and fill it with waste while they push the human race into a cycle of conformity and dependence on the company. I sure do hope that that never happens, although biblically, I think it might.
Imagine having the government run by the same people you buy drinking water from. That puts them in control man! You wouldn't be able to do anything outside of what the controlers of the world allows! That sucks!
Cognitive Robotics And The Question Of Artificial Intelligence Synthesizing A "Soul"
This has been one of my favorite debate topics. I'm moving now from the human issue of this film and talking about what this film is all about... WALL-E! In the film, around 700 years of isolation has caused WALL-E's artificial intelligence to evolve. He become sentient (meaning aware of himself as a being and not merely a programmed appliance) and also sapient (meaning possessing human characteristics and cognition). I've wondered about the possibility of this. I understand that artificial intelligence can be made to evolve and to learn, but would it do so enough for it to develop simulated emotion? How? I mean... that's cool and at the same time a scary abomination.
It is my belief that simulated emotion can be created by an A.I. based on calculated responses. Example, if a robot is yelled at in an angry manner, because it is developed in intelligence it can probably calculate that the proper response to that yell would be to "feel" sad. So it doesn't actually "feel" anything. It just knows what it should feel and than it can portray it though physical actions. I think thats possible you know. because then the emotion of the robot is merely a reactive response to outside stimuli based on some advanced programming. So technically, if it is left alone the robot could calculate that a human would feel lonely and then manifest reactions based on his data.
But then that would mean that the thing can actually choose to not manifest the emotion since its only a reaction to the situation. It doesn't have to fee lonely. It just knows that the emotional response to this situation would be to feel lonely. I don't know if this is making sense. I'm actually really surprised you're still reading. Anyway, a lot of people think that robots with emotions are impossible due largely to the fact that they believe that the emotion is actually felt by the robot, the same way we feel a churning in our gut around people we like.
If you think of it terms of calculated responses though, that might actually be believable. So why would EVE laugh at WALL-E, when he does something funny? If it's just a calculated response she doesn't have to feel anything, right? Well that could be explained the same way. WALL-E chooses to give an unconventional stimuli to EVE, and her A.I. could be adapting to the situation. She's a smart robot and WALL-E's off the wall interactions could be causing her to write new programs or codes to try and understand and interact with him. They are "learning" robots and so them interacting could be brought about by development in their system, not actual emotion. But that's taking the fun out of it all. We want to believe these robots have emotion. And so we will.
Later on in the film, EVE repairs a damaged WALL-E with other spare parts. When the his System reboots, he has none of his prior personality left in his shell and is acts as a mere appliance, which is probably where he started in the first place. This is explainable due to that fact that his chip was replaced. So all the things that were WALL-E are now gone and this new thing with EVE is just a shell. It's real sad but that would be the way it works if we're working under the premise that WALL-E's personality was brought about by years of development to his original programming and A.I.
Then the distraught EVE leans over and gives him a "kiss" which is essentially a bolt of static electricity from her to him. After that she takes his hand and soon the old WALL-E is back! This is one of the best parts of the film people are crying now but on a scientific level, that shouldn't happen right? I think it can! Remember EVE "kisses" him right? Thats a transfer of electronic impulse. Now EVE was once affected by WALL-E's reactions to her causing a development in her coding, causing her to "fall in love" with him. I'm sure this can work the other way around! That static must've had some information on it that once again caused present, stoic WALL-E to develop and since EVE's memory banks must be extensive, reproduce his previous personality based on the information in EVE! THIS IS GREAT! I love robotics.
This film did to me the opposite of what the Discovery Channel Commercial did to me. That commercial and the Olympics and all that made me love humanity and have hope that maybe we weren't doing it all wrong and we had a slim chance of salvaging our planet before we finally kill it and in the process snuff ourselves out as well. WALL-E made me hate humans. No I don't really mean that but man, those humans were total crap! They were fat, lazy, absorbed and fully depended on the comforts that the robots provide. Auto-dependency. Evil. There was no room for creativity or self improvement or reason. It was so sad.
This is all just reflections of our current situations though. A few weeks ago we had a lecture in class (one of the few cool lectures I've had the pleasure of having during my miserable tenure in 4th year), and it was about how science fiction is in actuality a commentary on out present social condition and a speculation of the effects of escalation on our current problems. Meaning that science fiction tackles the same problems we're dealing with now, only - since it's set in the future - they can exaggerate and point the blame without directly implicating anyone here and now. The problem is, however, true.
We are living in a time of excess and of unconcern and we're blinded by commercialization and advertising and modern comfort. Especially here in the third world where our government and corporate sectors feel that building commercial establishments for people to spend their money in rather than develop agriculture and industry where people can earn money is a good idea. I guess that was a real brave thing for Pixar to explore. It was really sad to see what human have become in the film and it was even more depressing to know that that is actually the direction we're going into now. Apathy and all that. I was made to feel guilty. I think it was an effective call to action in terms of being more concerned about the worl around us and the importance of health and our relation to our environment.
Corporations Are Kinda Bad
One real whopper of an issue here (whopper here meaning really really big as opposed to it's other meaning, that of a whopper being a lie), was the corporation. In the film the corporation Buy n' Large has taken over every other entity in the world as well as the government... (sound's familiar doesn't it? scary...) and so they continue to sear the earth and fill it with waste while they push the human race into a cycle of conformity and dependence on the company. I sure do hope that that never happens, although biblically, I think it might.
Imagine having the government run by the same people you buy drinking water from. That puts them in control man! You wouldn't be able to do anything outside of what the controlers of the world allows! That sucks!
Cognitive Robotics And The Question Of Artificial Intelligence Synthesizing A "Soul"
This has been one of my favorite debate topics. I'm moving now from the human issue of this film and talking about what this film is all about... WALL-E! In the film, around 700 years of isolation has caused WALL-E's artificial intelligence to evolve. He become sentient (meaning aware of himself as a being and not merely a programmed appliance) and also sapient (meaning possessing human characteristics and cognition). I've wondered about the possibility of this. I understand that artificial intelligence can be made to evolve and to learn, but would it do so enough for it to develop simulated emotion? How? I mean... that's cool and at the same time a scary abomination.
It is my belief that simulated emotion can be created by an A.I. based on calculated responses. Example, if a robot is yelled at in an angry manner, because it is developed in intelligence it can probably calculate that the proper response to that yell would be to "feel" sad. So it doesn't actually "feel" anything. It just knows what it should feel and than it can portray it though physical actions. I think thats possible you know. because then the emotion of the robot is merely a reactive response to outside stimuli based on some advanced programming. So technically, if it is left alone the robot could calculate that a human would feel lonely and then manifest reactions based on his data.
But then that would mean that the thing can actually choose to not manifest the emotion since its only a reaction to the situation. It doesn't have to fee lonely. It just knows that the emotional response to this situation would be to feel lonely. I don't know if this is making sense. I'm actually really surprised you're still reading. Anyway, a lot of people think that robots with emotions are impossible due largely to the fact that they believe that the emotion is actually felt by the robot, the same way we feel a churning in our gut around people we like.
If you think of it terms of calculated responses though, that might actually be believable. So why would EVE laugh at WALL-E, when he does something funny? If it's just a calculated response she doesn't have to feel anything, right? Well that could be explained the same way. WALL-E chooses to give an unconventional stimuli to EVE, and her A.I. could be adapting to the situation. She's a smart robot and WALL-E's off the wall interactions could be causing her to write new programs or codes to try and understand and interact with him. They are "learning" robots and so them interacting could be brought about by development in their system, not actual emotion. But that's taking the fun out of it all. We want to believe these robots have emotion. And so we will.
Later on in the film, EVE repairs a damaged WALL-E with other spare parts. When the his System reboots, he has none of his prior personality left in his shell and is acts as a mere appliance, which is probably where he started in the first place. This is explainable due to that fact that his chip was replaced. So all the things that were WALL-E are now gone and this new thing with EVE is just a shell. It's real sad but that would be the way it works if we're working under the premise that WALL-E's personality was brought about by years of development to his original programming and A.I.
Then the distraught EVE leans over and gives him a "kiss" which is essentially a bolt of static electricity from her to him. After that she takes his hand and soon the old WALL-E is back! This is one of the best parts of the film people are crying now but on a scientific level, that shouldn't happen right? I think it can! Remember EVE "kisses" him right? Thats a transfer of electronic impulse. Now EVE was once affected by WALL-E's reactions to her causing a development in her coding, causing her to "fall in love" with him. I'm sure this can work the other way around! That static must've had some information on it that once again caused present, stoic WALL-E to develop and since EVE's memory banks must be extensive, reproduce his previous personality based on the information in EVE! THIS IS GREAT! I love robotics.
I guess this is all I really have to say but I love discussing stuff like this so I might be back to talk about it. I don't know. We'll see. Right now I have some work to try and do. I'm sorry if I've spoiled you but this was just such a great film and I'd love to see it again! Man I do love this film! Yesterday was great.