1. The movie “Blade Runner” and AI: What is artificial intelligence? (from Britannica.com)

(AI), the capacity of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot device to perform tasks commonly associated with the higher intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience.

Some computer programs that are used to perform AI tasks are designed to manipulate symbolic information at extremely high speeds, in order to compensate for their partial lack of human knowledge and selectivity. Such programs are usually called expert systems.

au·ton·o·mous adj.

1. Not controlled by others or by outside forces; independent.

2. Independent in mind or judgment; self-directed.

e·mo·tion n.

1. An intense mental state that arises subjectively rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes; a strong feeling.

2. The part of the consciousness that involves feeling; sensibility.

Turning Test. Voight-Kampff Test

2. Virtual Reality (VR) Systems (and the movie “The Matrix”)

Types Of Virtual Reality (VR) Systems

1. Window on World Systems (WoW): A display screen as a window through which one beholds a virtual world.

2. Video Mapping: The user watches a monitor that shows his body's interaction with the world.

3. Immersive Systems: Completely immerse the user's personal viewpoint inside the virtual world.

4. Telepresence: Links remote sensors in the real world with the senses of a human operator.

5. Mixed Reality: Merging the Telepresence and Virtual Reality systems.

Plato’s Cave, Virtual Reality and the “Movie Matrix”

A defining dramatic moment in the film “The Matrix” [Warner Bros., 1999] occurs just after Morpheus invites Neo to choose between a red pill and a blue pill. The red pill promises "the truth, nothing more." Neo takes the red pill and awakes to reality—something utterly different from anything Neo, or the audience, could have expected. What Neo had assumed to be reality turns out to be only a collective illusion, fabricated by the Matrix and fed to a population that is asleep, cocooned in grotesque embryonic pods. In Plato's famous parable about the shadows on the walls of the cave, true reality is at least reflected in perceived reality. In the Matrix world, true reality and perceived reality exist on entirely different planes.

Dialog from the film script:

Neo: The Matrix?

Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is? The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.... Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes... Remember, all I'm offering is the truth, nothing more...

Follow me... Apoc, are we online?

3. Virtual Community

Origins of Virtual Community. Source: Portions from P. Kollock and M. Smith (1998),

The Landscape of Cyberspace, and revised for presentation as a lecture by by EML.

1. Historical origins in print and the "invisible college" -- a community of mind.

Developed further by broadcasting -- "radio land" (1930s) "TV land" (1950s)

Further development by computer networks

Academic researchers (1970s)

Cleveland's Free-net (1986)

Santa Monica's PEN (1989)

Widespread diffusion of the Internet (1993- present)

2. Definition of VC

Virtual Community (VC) is a sense of connection or belongingness that is maintained through computer-based interaction

3. Elements that make up VC

Matrix-- common interest

Networks -- common place

Individuals -- common characteristics

Duration - - sustained over time

4. Process of VC formation

individuals > (leads to)

interaction >

mutual recognition >

attitudes/feelings >

attachment >

community membership

5. Some Forms of Virtual Community (not a complete list):

1. Email and discussion lists (asynchronous communication, push media)

Email: is person to person

Discussion list: all addressees on a list

based on a "postal" model

2. BBS and Usenet (asynchronous, pull)

BBS = bulletin board conferencing system (The Well, 1980s)

Usenet = distributed database of messages that is passed through an informal global network in a standard format

Based on a "real life" bulletin board model

3. Text chat (synchronous)

Channels of communication devoted to various topics. Example: IRC - Internet Relay Chat and ICQ/AIM (instant messages)

Based on a "CB-radio" model (but using writing rather than speech)

4. MUDS (synchronous)

Multiple linked computers that use interactive text or images to model (1) physical spaces and (2) face-to-face interaction.

Based on a game model.

5. Graphical Worlds (synchronous)

Personal interaction in two or three dimensional simulated environments. Avatars as personal representatives.

6. Websites (both)

Web sites can support both asynchronous and synchronous communication. Can serve as a supplement to other forms of virtual community.

Virtual Community has the potential to change our lives on three different, but strongly interinfluential, levels.

v First, as individual human beings, we have perceptions, thoughts, and personalities (already shaped by other communications technologies) that are affected by the ways we use the medium and the ways it uses us.

v Second, the level of person-to-person interaction where relationships, friendships, and communities happen.

v The third level of possible change in our lives, the political, derives from the middle, social level, for politics is always a combination of communications and physical power, and the role of communications media among the citizenry is particularly important in the politics of democratic societies.

There are people who use the medium for genuine human interaction, and this relates to three essential places in people's lives :

the place we live,

the place we work,

and the place we gather for conviviality.

Virtual Community is changing all three of these important areas of our lives.

4. Final Examination Study Questions

1. The movie “Blade Runner” (1982) imagines a dark future where technology and capitalism are the dominant forces. Drawing upon the movie, Identify and discuss two technological “accelerators” and two “brakes.” (see Fidler, p. 18).

2. In “Blade Runner,” the motto of the Tyrell Corporation, maker of the replicants, is “More human than human.” What is supposed to distinguish humans from the replicants is their ability to feel certain emotions. Compare this trait in the characters of Deckard, Tyrell, Rachel, and Roy.

3. What is AI? Define in your own words and give one example. In this context, what is the “Turing Test”? Describe how the Turing Test works. In your view, is this a good way to distinguish humans from computers?

4. In the movie Blade Runner, Harrison Ford’s character (Decker) administers a “Voight-Kampff” test to the replicant Rachel at the Tyrell Corporation offices. What is the purpose of this test? How does it work? Compare and contrast the “Voight-Kampff” test to the Turning Test.

5. Another central theme from the movie concerns “false memories,” and your knowledge of who you are. Parts of the movie “Blade Runner” and the clip that we saw from “Total Recall” raises the question which of your memories are real and which really come from someone else’s childhood. How could you tell the difference? Would it really make a difference if your memories were not your own?

6. What is the definition of simulacra (as used by the French philosopher Baudrillard)? Explain how this idea of simulacra is used in the theme of the movie “The Matrix.”

7. Compare Dr. Frankenstien and Dr. Tyrell. How is each related to the myth of Prometheus?

8. Think about the inventor Ray Kurzweil (Reading 15) and the fictional character from the movie Blade Runner, Eldon Tyrell. Does Kurzweil, like Tyrell, believe that machines will eventually equal or exceed humans in most ways?

9. Kurzweil writes, “… once computers are as complex as the human brain, and can match the human brain in subtlety and complexity of thought, are we to consider them conscious?” In your opinion, Is Kurzweil correct in his suggestion that computers can have consciousness?

10. As we discussed in lecture, what is the definition of virtual community? (Handout) What are the five types of virtual reality? Briefly, define and give one example of each.

11. As we discussed in class, what are the fours elements that define or make up a “virtual community.” State each element and give an example.

12. What is technological determinism? Give an example. What is neo-liberalism? Give an example.

13. Fidler writes, “New technologies merely facilitate change and create opportunities.” (see Fidler, p. 264). How should the Department of Media Studies be adapting is curriculum to our new circumstances? What courses, if any should be dropped? Added? What other changes may be required?

14. Who is Dr. Andrew Grove? What is a “strategic inflection point”?

15. “As the opportunity and need principle reveals,” writes Fidler, “Technology is not what drives new forms of media.” What does this statement mean? Explain in your own words and give one example. (p. 260).

16. Fidler discusses a media concept called “The Daily Me.” Explain this concept in your own words, and identify at least two ways that it differs from “The Daily Us.” (p. 245).

17. How will the third mediamorphosis change the businesses of advertising and mass marketing? Identify two potential impacts and mention their consequences. (p. 261).

18. What is “agent technology” and how does it work? (Fidler, p. 180 - 183). What practical uses can you imagine for such technology?

19. What is ALICE and how does it work? What practical uses can you imagine for such technology?

20. According to Brooke Shelby Biggs (Reading 11), “The Internet has ushered in an era of independent and decentralized information exchange that can and will weaken the power of totalitarian regimes.” Why does Biggs think this? Do you agree or disagree?