Actuality and Artificiality

Name: Carl Strathearn

(First Class BA-Hons) Multimedia Design

Title: Actuality and Artificiality

www.Strathearnmultimedia.co.uk

This is my personal blog describing the processes used for my final year Multimedia Design Project. I have kept a weekly log 'sessions' along with videos and pictures of the build including an in-depth analysis of each stage of the project. In order to achieve a comprehensive log I implemented Gibbs (1988) model of reflective practise, to help improve and maintain a high standard of work via critically analysing and evaluating each session.

The title of my final year Multimedia Design project (Actuality and Artificiality) is an adaptation of the postmodernist philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s ideology, Simulacra and Simulation: Simulacra as object and Simulation as process. The objective of the project was to combine the disciplines of: Processing ‘Kinect’, Arduino, Applescript and Physical Robotics to create a machine that could simulate intelligence, respond to its environment, interact with people and effectively express human characteristics and emotions.

The model for this character is based on Marvin from the television series - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: who was programed with a ‘genuine people personality’ - emulating human emotions. The concept that a machine could operate outside the parameters of its programed symbolic order (Apparently random recurrent behaviour in a simple deterministic system) and evolve into a new entity, is one that has always fascinated me. I wanted to explore this ideology further and create an interactive installation based on this idea. The project utilises Weizenbaum’s (1966), ‘Eliza’ or chat-bot framework (Keyboard Interaction), which I adapted to create the personality of the robot, this script is then outputted to Applescripts voice function and the robots integrated speaker system enabling it to talk. The robot can track movement using an Xbox Kinect module and is controlled autonomously through its programming framework.  

I spent the first two years at University researching and developing my skills in the fields of: programming, animation and philosophy, so in my final year I wanted to combine all of these elements to create something that was innovative, progressive and different to what these processes are typically used for. At college I studied Psychology, Sociology and Social Welfare so the progression to Multimedia was not a straight forward one. However, I feel that I was able to adapt the methodical approaches I learnt at college into my current work. I am always interested in developing my skills further and getting involved in different projects, as a mature student I take my work seriously and always aim to achieve the highest possible standard of outcome. 

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Philosophy: Actuality and Artificiality // Basis of my Special Study

SINCE THE FIRST HUMANOID ROBOT GRACED THE SILVER SCREEN IN METROPOLIS (1927). THE MECHANOID AS A PSYCHOTIC, MALFUNCTIONING ICON WAS BORN. THE IDEOLOGY THAT A MECHANICAL CONSTRUCT MAY FUNCTION OUTSIDE OF ITS SYMBOLIC ORDER & EVOLVE INTO A NEW ENTITY IS ONE THAT HAS BEEN REPLICATED IN FILM & LITERATURE EVER SINCE. BUT IS THIS PHENOMENA PLAUSIBLE OR MERELY CONFINED TO THE REALMS OF SCIENCE FICTION?

The branch of A.I philosophy that deals with the creation of an artificial consciousness is called ‘Cognitive Science’. It endeavours to create a synthetic brain, which is capable of individual thought and process; the predominant model of this construct is the human mind. However, we are very far away from achieving this goal, the most technologically advanced computers and systems are equivalent in intelligence to insects. Searle (1971) in his experiment ‘The Chinese room’ demonstrates that seemingly complex symbolic strings can be mimicked without understanding the meaning of the symbol. (An example of this may be a Chimpanzee that has been taught sign language, even though the Chimp and replicate certain symbols and even form sentences / strings: The Chimp has no knowledge of the meaning of those individual symbols). Knowing the limits of today’s technology means we have to conceptualise that in the future these hurdles may be jumped and true A.I created. So.. how could a program or machine operate outside of its symbolic order, one possible answer may lie in the study of chaos theory.

Chaos theory is becoming more applied in the field of science as our understanding of its core concepts progress: for example a system based on chaos theory is used to measure turbulence on aeroplanes and defining previously un-definable objects in fractal geometry. Chaos theory dictates the possibility of, apparently random recurrent behaviour within a simple deterministic system. However, this is a massive stretch of the imagination and although not entirely impossible very, very improbable. This opens up another door of intrigue, why do we accept the concept of the malfunctioning robot as a new entity so easily.

In Stephen Spielberg’s 2001 adaption of Kubricks 1970 script ‘Artificial Intelligence’ the lead character, a robot named David is brought into existence to replace a husband and wife’s unwell son ‘Martin’ who is in a coma. David is programed to express emotion and make attachments with humans. However, when Martin the son comes out of his coma and returns to the family things quickly escalate. In a scene set at the dinner table Martin is eating his food and David is sat mimicking eating from an empty plate, Martin then provokes David by eating with his mouth open and taunting him. In response David picks up some food from Martins plate and starts eating, they both keep eating and taunting each other despite direct orders from the mother and farther, this results in David braking down. It is possible to hypothesise that the reason for David braking protocol and eating human food that could potentially destroy him was purely driven by desire in the form of the unrestricted, underdeveloped super ego, underlying the symbolic order wanting to be human, equally loved and accepted by the family. 

However, I suggest that the robot as a psychotic malfunctioning mechanical symbol is not the most terrifying phenomena. It is the fact that the machine as an object has become more 'human' than a mere mechanical construct. To quickly conclude, the possibility of a robot operating outside of its symbolic order is not entirely impossible but highly unlikely. Half a century of research into ‘A.I’ has not lived up to initial expectations; this is due to modern A.I been founded on a classical symbolic system that is fundamentally flawed.