200 Years After Frankenstein: Intertwined Histories of Artificial Consciousness and Civil Rights

Mary Shelley ’s 1817 masterpiece Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus Credits: http://www.mightyape.co.nz

Credits: http://en.wikipedia.org Credits: http://canadianchristianity.com Credits: http://www.ibeatyou.com I, Robot Imitations Credits: http://www.technologyblogged.com Rossum ’s Universal Robots

Credits: http://www.stormgrounds.com/wallpaper/Entertainment/Cylon Second Class Citizenry Cylons Credits: http://www.stonebridge.com

Spielberg’s AI Credits: http://www.filmcritic.com/features/2001/07 Credits: http://outsidernarratives.blogspot.com Imitations do not always go berserk Bicentennial Man

“ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” ~ Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776 ~ Credits: http://ebookstore.sony.com Credits: http://remnanttrust.ipfw.edu Slaves, women and other oppressed people occupied the role of being an imitation of a human. In the latter 1700s women had no rights… In the latter 1700s slavery was a part of life…

Credits: http://www.vanderbilt.edu Credits: http://www.archives.gov the long march of civil rights 1860 Credits: http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Credits: http://www.drmartinlutherking.net 1960 Frederick Douglass Abraham Lincoln Martin Luther King, Jr. Lyndon B. Johnson to

In the past two centuries… Monsters / Things Credits: Illustration by Harry Brockway from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. http://foliosociety.org.uk Robot / Slave Credits: http://canadianchristianity.com Illustration by Harry Brockway from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Credits: http://spacecollective.org 1950s Artificial Intelligence Hello Dave 1968s Stanley Kubrick ’s HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey Credits: http://www.moviewallpapers.net Artificial Intelligence made Frankenstein-like stories plausible The creation of a credible, digital person

Credits: http://movingfilms.wordpress.com Rossum ’s Universal Robots (1922) Credits: http://en.wikipedia.org

Star Trek: Measure of a Man (1989) Credits: http://en.wikipedia.org Commander Data Civil Rights of Digital People

Credits: http://www.blingcheese.com Immigration Credits: http://www.immigrationdnatesting.us/ Civil Rights March Credits: http://www.ccrh.org Rosie the Riveter Credits: http://www.pophistorydig.com Young Frankenstein

The lesson of intertwined cultural histories of techno-human imitations and civil rights is clear:
That which values life, regardless of its form, heritage or
substrate, will demand to be respected in its value of life;
Tolerate substrate diversity easily in its beginnings, or
tolerate it hard in the end;
If something thinks like a human, it will want to be loved,
it will resent being abandoned and it will channel its anger
in strange and unpredictable ways; and
Better for all that we love, nurture and respect that which
we create in our likeness.

Thank you. 20 July 2011 [email_address]

200 Years After Frankenstein: Intertwined Histories of Artificial Consciousness and Civil Rights

by martine on Jul 24, 2011

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200 Years After Frankenstein: Intertwined Histories of Artificial Consciousness and Civil Rights Presentation Transcript