200 Years After Frankenstein: Intertwined Histories of Artificial Consciousness and Civil Rights
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Concepts of civil rights and artificial consciousness were both born around 200 years ago, starting with Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein and the fight of progressives to end Britain's slave trade. As people have learned to award rights to all people who value them, regardless of gender, skin tone or ethnicity, people have subliminally absorbed the lesson that even artificially created consciousness, if it values human rights, deserves to have them.
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200 Years After Frankenstein: Intertwined Histories of Artificial Consciousness and Civil Rights
- 2. Mary Shelley ’s 1817 masterpiece Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus Credits: http://www.mightyape.co.nz
- 3. 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
- 4. Credits: http://www.stormgrounds.com/wallpaper/Entertainment/Cylon Second Class Citizenry Cylons Credits: http://www.stonebridge.com
- 5. Spielberg’s AI Credits: http://www.filmcritic.com/features/2001/07 Credits: http://outsidernarratives.blogspot.com Imitations do not always go berserk Bicentennial Man
- 6. “ 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…
- 7. 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
- 8. 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.
- 9. 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
- 10. Credits: http://movingfilms.wordpress.com Rossum ’s Universal Robots (1922) Credits: http://en.wikipedia.org
- 11. Star Trek: Measure of a Man (1989) Credits: http://en.wikipedia.org Commander Data Civil Rights of Digital People
- 12. 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
- 14. Thank you. 20 July 2011 [email_address]
Editor's Notes
- This is a story of a tinkerer (named Victor Frankenstein) stitching together dead body parts, and then enlivening the assembly with galvanic charge (resulting in “the monster” pop culture mistakenly calls Frankenstein). It is the forerunner of many variations on human-makes-imitation, imitation-feels-aggrieved, imitation-goes-amok, human-regrets-imitation.
- The imitations may be of flesh, as in Frankenstein, or of a kind of bio-plastic, as in Karel Capek ’s 1920 play that gave us the word “robot” – R.U.R (Rossum’s Universal Robots) . Alternatively, the imitations can really look robotic with metallic composite bodies such as in the film I, Robot, starring Will Smith. Or, copies can be completely virtual as in the avatars deployed against humans in The Matrix.
- The imitation ’s grievance is generally traceable to a lack of acceptance, as in Frankenstein, or second-class citizenry, as in Astro Boy (originally created in manga format as Tetsuwan Atomu by Osamu Tezuka in the aftermath of World War II). The sense of rejection may then express itself as reverse specism at perceived human inferiority, the sentiment of the Cylons of Battlestar Galactica. The resulting mayhem may be a handful of murders, as in Frankenstein, or an effort to kill only the “bad humans,” as in I Robot, or total genocide of almost all humans, as in R.U.R. And the sense of regret runs the gamut of quests to kill the Frankenstein, hunt down only potentially dangerous robots or prohibit any kind of artificial intelligence.
- Some use self-pity to deal with the rejection and discrimination. Even without anti-human violence, the imitations always tend to feel the Frankenstein monster ’s sense of abandonment and the humans always tend to feel Victor Frankenstein’s regret at creating an imitation. After all, a Mother did dump the cute AI kid by the side of a highway (she did kindly leave him with his robot Teddy), and a Father did kick the Bicentennial Man out of the house he immaculately maintained. Empowerment (via creation of an imitation) followed by Disappointment (due to the imitation feeling separate, unequal, unloved and/or threatened). Conflict (arising out of humanity ’s inadequate response to the imitation’s unhappiness) followed by Regret (based on humanity’s disdain for the conflict). These are the themes of robots and other human-like creations: Rising expectations, crashing expectations, agitation and lamentation. These also are the age-old themes of civil rights.
- While rights for preferred demographic groups date to antiquity, only around the time of Frankenstein did civil rights per se, i.e., the notion that anyone who values being free should be free, become a popular concept. The American and French Revolutions, in 1776 and 1791, respectively, set the stage for civil rights with brilliant declarations of freedom understandable by the masses.
- Just as has been the plotline in imagined technological imitations of humans, second-class citizenship for women and racial minorities was met with resentment and conflict. The rising expectations of Africans born in the Americas were slapped down by racism. The rising expectations of women empowered by the industrial revolution were crushed by sexism. These dashed hopes fueled decade after decade of conflict – the long march of civil rights from the 1860s to the 1960s.
- In the past two centuries, imitations of life and civil rights have swirled about each other like a strand of DNA. The fictional imitations evolved from being called “monsters” or “things” by Shelley to “robot” meaning “forced worker” in Slavic by Capek. Meanwhile, the socially constructed imitations evolved from being called “slaves” or “chattel” in the early 1800s to being called “coloreds” in the 1920s. Women went from having no property rights in a marriage to equal rights. The birth of artificial intelligence (AI), in the 1950s, gradually made Frankenstein-like stories plausible, albeit with digital persons rather than fused body parts.
- A decade later, in 1968, we had a credible digital person, HAL, in Kubrick ’s film 2001 A Space Odyssey, running America’s first spaceship to Jupiter, and (again) feeling aggrieved, and then going amok as he murdered crewmen. A decade later, in 1968, we had a credible digital person, HAL, in Kubrick’s film 2001 A Space Odyssey, running America’s first spaceship to Jupiter, and (again) feeling aggrieved, and then going amok as he murdered crewmen.
- As 1960s-era fictional robots and digital creations murdered humans on movie screens out of paranoia and resentment of second-class citizenship, out in the streets real world riots flared from equivalent emotions.
- Gay, lesbian and even transgender rights arose in the 1980s upon an expanding platform of feminist and people of color successes. Hence, few were surprised when, in 1989, Star Trek: The Next Generation aired its “Measure of a Man” episode, heralding the civil rights of digital people such as Commander Data. The 200-year convergence of artificial life and civil rights has arrived.
- Had Victor Frankenstein loved his creation, it would not have gone berserk. Had all immigrants been treated equally, there would not be the fear, loathing and bloodshed that accompanied the march of civil rights. Had men cherished the magic of women ’s bodies, and partnered on the basis of equality, uncountable lives would not have been torn asunder in domestic discord.