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E-book Exoanthropology : Dialogues with AI

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Penilaian

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In Isaac Asimov’s story, Someday (1956a), two young boys, Nic-colo and Paul, describe a world both clearly past and future for us. On the one hand, their descriptions of technology show the story’s age. Personal computers are run by valves and updated by reels of magnetic tape; there is no internet, no wifi, or cell technology — all the silly and fundamental mistakes the past invariably makes about the future. On the other hand, the capa-bilities of the futuristic AIs Asimov presupposed, as well as their effect on human anthropology and Anthropocene inquiries, are only starting to show themselves today. Technology at the level of a children’s toy called “the Bard” can generate a novel story from scores of stories and the data it stores on its magnetic reel of tape at the press of a button. From the boys’ lack of enthusi-asm about the Bard, we can assume it has been surpassed, and is just barely interesting enough to bring out of the basement. The boys talk badly about the Bard, and they kick it and leave it behind when they get excited about going to the “Library.” Paul met an old man who would teach them to “read,” which Niccolo had never heard of before. Reading, Paul explains, is a process of decoding little squiggles and understanding the mes-sage someone else left for you. This never happens in the boys’ world; all messages are left verbally, with voice notes. Slowly we understand — and this is the twist Asimov plants so well — this
futuristic technology is cool, but it has destroyed literacy. The literate population appears to have shrunk to the size of our population of Classics scholars today. I don’t think that the ultimate moral of the story is that eve-rything old is new again — that literacy is something that comes and goes. Back to ancient Greece and before, literacy is one of the West-ern tradition’s most foundational achievements. But it is only because we have a population of Classics scholars today that we continue to be an heir to this history of the West. Careful preservation of the past is something very important for our Western tradition. This is so even though we must acknowledge the dramatic and violent ways that the exportation of colonial languages and cultures have negatively affected whole peoples and regions of the globe, decimating Indigenous bodies, lan-guages, and ways of life. The losses to world culture because of these injustices are literally inexpressible. Yet, we still need to preserve what we were handed when we were handed the Western tradition. Without letters of some kind, the opposite of the things Hobbes lists will take place. Our bearings will likely become less true: less memory of the past, fewer conjunctions among mankind, greater dispersion across distant regions of the earth, and greater forgetfulness. Without being able to read, we must believe what we hear — or not — depending on how the winds may blow.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

006.3 LEI e

Penerbit

New York : Punctum books., 2023

Deskripsi Fisik

523 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781685710774

Klasifikasi

006.3

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Artificial Intelligence

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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