Meditations of the Machine

Lest we forget the real reason I started this blog…

Filed by webmaster at 7:20 pm under Robots
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Word on the street has it that robotics is where the Internet was in about 1994. Sure, back then you’d heard of the Internet, and everyone was talking about how it was going to change the world, but you might not have had an email address and there wasn’t a glut of porn online yet convincing you of the dire necessity of signing up on AOL.

Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about ubiquitous computing (computers built into your home, your clothes, your skull), not to mention robot servants and companions. We should expect to a wide range of products hitting the market with great frequency in the near future.

Don’t believe me? Then perhaps you have not seen the latest in Stuffed Robots and Robot Cupcakes…

Filed by webmaster at 10:16 am under Robots
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Over the coming weeks, I hope to work through the long list of links I’ve assembled over the past few years on AI, philosophy of mind, robotics, etc. At heart, this blog is my modest version of Alexander Roob’s Alchemy and Mysticism (a fantastic book, by the way). It will take a while, but I think it will end up being a nice resource for anyone interested in these issues.

The most natural topic with which to start is with automata: machines that imitate life, from men to shitting ducks. (Of course, depending on how we restrict the definition, they also distribute soft drinks and candy bars…)

This page on Nature Interface is a great introduction to humankind’s fundamental interest in re-creating himself through the plastic arts and/or magic. Though the writing, and especially the editing, leaves a lot to be desired, the author hits all the major players from antiquity to the 19th century. (There are also some cool images of classic automata.)

For me, the things to note here are the role of alchemists (e.g., Albertus Magnus and Paracelsus) in making automata and the legend of Descartes’s Francine.

Next, let’s flesh the topic out with this decidedly better written summary of automaton history. Here I want to pay particular attention to the material on Von Kempelen. (He gets a lot of attention in Edison’s Eve by Gaby Wood, which we’ll come to later. Maybe we’ll even touch on episode three of The Sarah Connor Chronicles.)

Von Kempelen was the man when it came to automata, and he turned The Turk from a parlor trick into a European phenomenon. I will want to fictionalize a lot of his techniques in my novel. (Note the link within the text to his speech synthesis technology.)

Isn’t this fun?

Filed by webmaster at 10:52 pm under Automata
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I have long been interested in linguistics, philosophy of mind, and spirituality, but in the past few years I have become particularly intrigued by how they pertain to the pursuit of artificial intelligence.

Another of my long-time interests is alchemy. The study of what it means to be human and the attempt to build machines more like us ultimately come together in the hypothesis that spirit is an epiphenomenon of matter.

I am starting this blog as a way to organize and store research for two of my writing projects. The first, tentatively titled The Meditations of the Machine, is a fictional critique of Descartes’s mind-body problem. The second is a nonfiction book on the future of human consciousness in the age of AI, which will provide an overview of literature on philosophy of mind, AI, and robotics, and then attempt to fill the gaps that other authors have left between mind and spirit, carbon and silicon.

Despite its title, Ray Kurzweil’s Age of Spiritual Machines never discusses the notion of a robo sapiens soul as overtly as one would like. I hope to cast some more light on the matter on this blog and in my two projects.

Filed by webmaster at 9:03 pm under Future of Human Consciousness
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