Recent postings on the subject of robots, automata, human interaction and
emotion prompted me to think of Woody Allen's film Sleeper (1973). For those
who may not have seen the film, Woody Allen's character is admitted to hospital
for minor surgery, is frozen by cryogenic technology, and wakes up to find
himself in a world 200 years in the future. Some of the inhabitants believe
that this future world is "... so full of wonderful things ... After all
there's the orb, the telescreen, the orgasmatron ..." What more could people
wish for??
Here's a little excerpt from the script in which the female character Luna
explains to Woody Allen's character what she studied at university and why...
Luna:
WE DON'T HAVE CITIES LIKE NEW YORK ANYMORE.
Miles:
REALLY ? NO CITIES AT ALL ?
Luna
NO, BUT I WENT TO THE UNIVERSITY AT A POPULATION CENTER.
Miles:
YOU WENT TO A UNIVERSITY ? THAT'S HARD TO BELIEVE. FOR WHAT ?
Luna:
COSMETICS, SEXUAL TECHNIQUE AND POETRY
Miles:
NO KIDDIN' ? THEY TEACH YOU SEXUAL TECHNIQUE IN SCHOOL ?
Luna:
YOU HAVE TO KNOW IT IN CASE SOMETHING GOES WRONG WITH THE MACHINE.
Miles:
WHAT DO YOU DO, SWITCH TO MANUAL ?
(Script from:
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/s/sleeper-script-transcript-woody-allen.html)
This makes me think what kind of world might require us to create "intelligent"
machines in order to understand our human condition, our emotions, and our
interactions with one another ... and what happens when something goes wrong
with the "intellegent" machines, or with the people for that matter?
"Oh wonder, how many goodly creatures are there here, how beautious mankind is,
oh Brave New World that has such people in it." (Shakespeare: The Tempest)
Kind wishes
Peter
Peter Walters
PhD Student
Faculty of Art, Computing and Engineering Sciences
Sheffield Hallam University
http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cs/cri/adrc/research2/peterwalters
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