For
those of you who have been hooked on the Super Mario video games, artificial intelligence
has created a new twist. In an article
in gizmag.com – “ ‘Social Al’ lets Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Toad learn how to
save the princess on their own” (2/4/16) Dario Borghino explores some new
software that allows video games to operate more independently from the video game
player. In effect, the video game
characters work together to solve problems through their interactions with each
other, through communicating with and learning from one another. Each one of these characters is given a
different skill and a different ultimate goal.
The characters have to learn how to cooperate with each other in order
to complete a task. In their
interactions with each other, they learn from each other’s behavior and through
a “probablilistic algorithm”, they develop insights into how the world works. This knowledge then helps the four characters
to work together. The software allows
these video game characters to become semi-independent complex behavioral
entities. The purpose of the
transformation of these video game characters is to act as models for
applications that “include intelligent social support systems and swarms of
modular robots that learn to perform complex actions on little human
instructions.”
But
what is important for our purposes is the impact that intelligent video game
characters can have on humans. In
previous articles, we were talking about the mirroring and modeling that could
occur as a result of humans interacting with computers, robots and other
complex machines. The defined, discrete,
angular processes of these machines cause humans to feel there is something imperfect
about their own flowing, blendable , continual animal-like movements, and this
impact from the machines gradually causes the humans to subtly and
unconsciously model themselves after the machines.
Now
we are going to be dealing with what are, in effect, vacuumized substance-less technological
figures that people will experience not through external world reality, but
through screen reality. And I am sure
that the “Social Al” software will never simply remain a research tool. Some way will be found to commercialize it
and make it available to the general public.
Somehow, these semi-independently operating video characters can
potentially, in their own way, have as much effect on humans as the
technological figures that are made of material substance: namely complex
machines, computers and robots.
The
idea that an algorithm can give video characters the capacity for what will
appear as spontaneous interaction will mean that the boundaries between these
characters and humans will be considerably blurred. Granted that these characters are
cartoon-like, but the fact that they
have the capacity for human speech and will be speaking in English, and
will have the capacity for what appears to be spontaneous social interaction,
means that, in an important way, they are almost like an evolutionary offshoot
of humans.
Because
they are apparently independently acting vaccumized anthropomorphic entities,
these characters in “Social Al” have many similarities to spiritual beings in a
spiritual world. And this is different
from more typical video images of humans in movies and television programs,
because we know on one level that these video images are representations of
complex behavioral entities – humans – that have an existence in external world
reality. “Social Al” characters are also
different from traditional cartoon characters, because traditional cartoon
characters have no capacity to act independently from those humans that have
created them. The whole existence of a traditional
cartoon character resides in a fabricated narrative or a series of fabricated
narratives that, once created, cannot be spontaneously altered by the character
in any way. To the extent that the
character comes to life and acts across a flow of time, it is intrinsically
embedded in its story or stories.
The
software of “Social Al” has a potentially liberating effect for video game
characters, freeing them from ongoing interventions by humans into the flow of
their screen lives. At the same time, it
provides another whole category of complex behavioral entities to blur the
boundaries as to what is human and to potentially diminish the intrinsic
humanity of humans.
This
column has already dealt extensively with the effects of connections between
humans and the complex behavioral entities of modern machines, computers and
robots. But here is a complex behavioral
entity that has no material substance.
This video character is an entity that can interact with other entities
of its kind and create spontaneous human-like narratives inside a different
kind of complex behavioral entity – the video game – that in its own way has
provided the basis of mirroring and modeling for humans as a result of ongoing
interaction with it.
There
are some significant differences between the immortality of a video game
character in the “Social Al” software and a robot. In a robot, parts do break down, but they can
be replaced by other parts, thus keeping the entity of the robot running. Eventually, if all the parts are replaced, the
reconstructed robot no longer is physically in any way the same as the original
robot before part replacement. What can
be said to provide continuity to the original robot is the robot essence, the
original mental concept created by humans.
This would also be true of the human-like robots, the androids.
An
entity related to the robot would be the cyborg: the combination of human and
robot parts to make a new hybrid entity.
To the extent that a cyborg relies on prosthetic parts to maintain its
immortality, eventually robot parts could replace all the organic human parts,
and eventually the cyborg could slide into becoming a robot. And then the question is whether or not there
would be a way of transferring human consciousness to the robot head. Not an easy assignment.
A
video game character like Mario, once it is animated by “Social Al” software
does not have to worry about ongoing material decay. Material substance can decay, material
substance can perish. When one is
dealing with vacuumized entities, one does not have to deal with decay and
perishability. Without material
substance, there is no material decay or perishability. Granted the video game can be turned off, in
which case the video game character exists then only in a dormant state. But one never has to worry about the video
character falling apart physically, and one doesn’t have to worry about ongoing
physical maintenance to keep the immortality going.
So we
can say that identification with a software-based complex behavioral entity can
potentially lead to a greater sense of real immortality than identification
with the hardware of complex machines, computers and robots. To bring up ideas discussed previously, the
lack of material substance in a seemingly spontaneously acting digital
character like Mario, creates in him a similarity to a spiritual being. And one of the quickest surest ways to
achieve a real immortality is to become a god.
So if the “Social Al” software becomes popular for researchers, the
average gamer will find a way to have frequent access to a god-like character,
a character the identification with which can lead to an experience of
godliness and immortality for him, the gamer.
Of
course, it is just an experience. It is
like a drug high that occupies time that could be spent creating a solid
surrogate immortality through achievements and relationships in external world
reality. Becoming god-like through
semi-independent Super-Mario characters is an illusion, one that takes up time
that could be used living in rich vibrant external world experiences and
making, receiving and preserving organic imprints and preparing for death in a
more authentic way through a surrogate immortality. In today’s world, modern technology is
creating so many illusions of real immortality.
The question is whether or not we choose to pass our lives being sucked
into these illusions.
And
while we get sucked into the screen world reality of these semi-independent
video game characters, robots that function in external world reality are improving
their own independence through improved artificial intelligence and could
eventually displace people who will become paralyzed in the equivalent of video
game opium dens. Something to think
about.
(c) 2016 Laurence Mesirow
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