UTRECHT UNIVERSITY

Dream machines gone wrong

An Archaeology of Notions of Artificial Intelligence in Science Fiction

Despina Skordili New Media & Digital Culture 13/04/2012 Course: New Media Archaeology Professor: Imar de Vries

Table of Contents

Introduction From Talos to HAL: Machines serving humanity or taking over control A generation of scientists raised by robots Conclusion References

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Introduction Recent development in computer science has become the incentive for significant current discussions about the way technology is represented in popular culture. Technological progress, as well as ideas about its implications on our everyday lives, has become a dominant subject featured in mass media, literature, film, television series, commercials and other aspects of the mainstream current. Theorists from the field of new media study seem to be paying increasing attention to the information that a more cultural approach can add to discussions about new media history. For example, in his essay Modernity, Hyperstimulus, and the Rise of Popular Sensationalism, Ben Singer analyzed press illustrations and stage melodrama of the late 18th- early 19th century, in order to examine the shocks of the urban modernity. He suggests that these samples of popular culture can function as suggestions of a condition of cultural duress surrounding the onset of urban modernity (Singer, 1995: 88). Erkki Huhtamo argues that anecdotal evidence can sometimes reveal a more complete view of technologys social influence, than focusing only on scientific facts about the history of media. From such a point view, he adds, unrealized dream machines, or discursive inventions (inventions that exist only as discourses), can be just as revealing as realized artefacts (Huhtamo, 1996: 300).

Considering Huhtamos idea, one could add that a notable aspect of popular culture, which can function as a platform for the examination of notions of computer technology, can be found in science fiction. During the last decade, increasing attention has been paid to the field of science fiction, with researchers examining the way this genre represents realized or imagined technology. In an essay about the way the gendering of television is represented in science fiction of the 1920s and 1930s, Sybille Lammes argues that the way new technologies are depicted in this genre can be seen as an alternative debate to academic discourse: Science Fiction magazines and films can function as a playground for discussing new technologies that are on the brink of becoming lived material realities (Lammes, 2003: 67).

Through the use of symbols and metaphors, science fiction works portray theories that prevail in media research. The appearance of cyborgs in films and novels can be considered as a visualization of Marshal McLuhans view of the media as extensions of our body. Human embodiment in virtual spaces, examined by notable scholars such as Katherine Hayles in her essay Flesh and Metal: Reconfiguring the Mindbody in Virtual Environments, is a dominant theme in cyberpunk.

There is a myriad of concepts that can be detected in the representations of technology in science fiction and which can be connected to actual contemporary technology. However, this essay is going to focus on the notions that have accompanied artificial intelligence. Since the late 1980s, popular culture is becoming more and more occupied with the theme of intelligent machines. Science fiction plots are ranging from optimistic views of devices regarded as servants of progress to more pessimistic scenarios of computers acting as an enemy against humanity. Skynet, from the Terminator series, is a system of intelligent computers which aims into destroying its creators. Android David, from the film A.I Artificial Intelligence, is capable of feeling emotions and dedicates his whole life to being loyal to his parents. Therefore, it is noticeable that science fiction can function as a platform where our hopes and fears about the future of computer technology are being portrayed.

However, if we look back, long before the concept of artificial intelligence was introduced, I believe we can notice that similar ideas about the possibilities of
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technology are visible through history. Manifestations of technological singularity- a concept that scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil describes in his book The singularity is near: When humans transcend biology as sciences future capability of completely understanding human intelligence and extending it to machines (4) - continuously pop up through history. Centuries before research on artificial intelligence was officially founded in the conference at Dartmouth College, in 1956, man has been intrigued by the idea that machines can be brought into life and obtain human intelligence. Myths, legends and folk stories, which can be traced back in ancient civilizations, function as evidence about how man used to comprehend technology and what were his expectations from and fears about it. From the development of modern science, in the late 18th century, until the studious preoccupation of the scientific community with artificial intelligence, during the 1950s, a plethora of plots dealing with the subject of inanimate human constructs becoming animate through technology can be detected in novels, magazines, radio plays and, more recently, film.

What can the existence of such ideas that surrounded singularity in the popular culture of the past reveal about our notions of artificial intelligence today? Could we claim that the re-appearance of fears and expectations through history implies that our notions about technology havent changed? Or does artificial intelligence, presented in the plots of contemporary science fiction, portray actual technology and our perception of it in a different way than five or ten decades ago? This is the main question that this paper seeks to address. My supposition, which I will attempt to examine below, is that, in earlier depictions of artificial intelligence in science fiction, the represented technology is detached from the actual contemporary progress and includes more utopian scenarios, with nave optimistic predictions or exaggerated technological fears. In contrast, todays predictions about the future of technology have changed in tone and texture, because of the rapid development of the late 1980searly 1990s in the electronic media field. Therefore, it seems that today, science fiction content and scientific predictions have a two way interaction: science fiction is inspired by our hopes and fears about the future, but also inspires further technological development, by suggesting the next possible step. Since it is not possible to investigate the large amount of science fiction works that contain elements on human notions about technology, this papers sample will be based on specific
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novels and films that are considered to be benchmarks of this genre, at different chronological periods.

In order to detect continuities and discontinuities in the way technology is depicted in science fiction from the early introduction of the concept of artificial intelligence until today, I will follow an approach that Eric Kluitenberg defines as an archaeology of imaginary media (Kluitenberg, On the Archaeology of Imaginary Media, 2011). As media theorists Erkki Huhtamo and Jussi Parikka explain in the introduction of Media Archaeology: Approaches, Applications, and Implications, many studies of the last three decades seem to be following a media archaeological approach. More and more scholars have begun to take into consideration elements of the past and attempt to detect continuities and ruptures that can reveal striking information and lead the examinations about the new into a different perspective. Therefore, media archaeology could be defined, as Huhtamo puts it, as a new way of studying recurring cyclical phenomena which (re)appear and disappear and reappear over and over again in media history and somehow seem to transcend specific historical contexts (Huhtamo, 1996: 298).

The content of science fiction is mostly dealing with the imaginary, containing futuristic technology and exploring the possible consequences of imagined scientific innovations. Most of the predictions featured in science fiction works through the centuries have not yet become realized- partially or entirely- today, as we are going to see later on in this paper. But it is in the imaginary media that are not even close to being realized, that we can excavate interesting information about the way humans have perceived the evolution of technology through history; in the media that Eric Kluitenberg describes as potential or possible media: dream media, fantasized media; visions of how human communication can be reshaped by means of machines (Kluitenberg, 2006: 8). He, himself, states the importance of an archaeological quest of imaginary media: If media archaeology offers possibilities to venture into the realms of both the realized and the imaginary, with the obvious intention of showing how these two domains influence each other, then the archaeology of imaginary media is a suggestion to shift attention to the domain of the imaginary and the

unrealizable for both realized and unrealized media machines (Kluitenberg, Media archaeology: approaches, applications, and implications, 2011: 49). Are todays science fiction plots less of a fantasy and more of a point to the correct direction for technological development? Are we actually today in a position to predict and create the future? Such an approach could lead us into answers for these questions, by helping us dig out secret paths in history, which might help us to find our way into the future (Zielinski, qtd. in: Kluitenberg, 2006: 13).

From Talos to HAL: Machines serving humanity or taking over control In his book Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television, Jeffrey Sconce examines mans tendency to reflect a living quality on electronic media. This idea is apparent frequently today in samples of popular culture, portraying technological apparatuses as animate beings, acquiring human intelligence and using it in order to act for the common good or to fight their human creators. But where does this tendency have its roots? Why are we obsessed with ascribing supernatural powers to material apparatuses and why are we intrigued by the thought of the inanimate coming to life? In order to answer these questions, this essay will follow an approach similar to Jeffrey Sconces, who attempts to detect cyclical returns of this idea through history. Mans concerns about the thought of inanimate constructs becoming animate can be traced long before the outburst of modern technology. As a matter of fact, science fiction seems to have its roots back in ancient Greek mythology. Talos, the mythical guardian of Crete, was a robot created of bronze by Hephaestus, the god of fire and technology. He died when Jason, the hero of Argonautica, removed from his heel the valve that was connected to the one and only vein of his body. Therefore, it could be argued that the concept of the technological imaginary, used today for the study of new media technologies, has its roots on an ancient human need; since the invention of the first samples of technology, man seems to be haunted by the question what comes next, in a way that reveals that- as Martin Lister et al. describe it- his dissatisfactions with social reality and desires for a better society are projected onto
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technologies as capable of delivering a potential realm of completeness (Lister et al., 2003: 67). Cyclical returns of the technological imaginary concept can also be discerned if we move forward to the period of the development of modern technology, in the late 19 thearly 20th century. In his essay The Idea of Technology and Postmodern Pessimism, Leo Marx notices a change in human notions of technology. The optimistic ideas about progress that reigned during the Enlightenment gave their place to a more deterministic view of technology in the 19th century. This period was marked with a rapid wave of development: the introduction of the telegraph and the telephone, of electrical and chemical power, the construction of the railroad and of the highway system. This evolution led to the official introduction of the term technology in its contemporary sense. According to Marx, the tendency of investing technology with a host of metaphysical properties and potencies, thereby making it seems to be a determinate entity, a disembodied autonomous causal agent of social change- of history (249) has its roots on this shift of human notions about technology. This deterministic spirit, Marx states, was reflected in works of art by avant-garde practitioners of various radically innovative styles associated with early modernism (252). Consequently, the technological development of the 19 th century helped define the form of the science fiction genre. Mary Shelleys novel Frankenstein, published in the beginning of the 19th century, is considered to be a benchmark in science fiction discussions, with critics going as far as to argue that it has marked the invention of the genre in its contemporary form (Van der Laan, 2010: 298). Chemist Victor Frankenstein, the main character of the novel, is obsessed with the idea of creating life through artificial means and takes advantage of his scientific knowledge in order to construct a humanoid monster. It is noticeable that the story in Mary Shelleys novel can function as one of the most significant examples of mans intrigue by giving life to an inanimate creation of his own. Given the chronological content of the period when it was written, it can be said that the novel reveals peoples notions of the time on the endless possibilities attributed to the scientific revolution of modernity. What is remarkable to mention is that, in James Whales adaptation of the novel, more than a century later, in 1931, the creation of the monster is portrayed with more emphasis on
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the scientific process. In contrast, in the novel the reader is left uninformed of the method by which the creature is given life, attributing a more mystical sense to the process. This difference could be due to the rapid technological progress of the early twentieth century and the empowerment of human aspirations for future development.

The theme of the crazy scientist, eager to claim the superhuman ability to create life or raise the dead, is also apparent in 1920 film Metropolis. Rotwang builds a robot in order to bring his deceased secret love back to life. His experiment goes out of control, when the creature he has created is dipping the city of Metropolis into chaos, by encouraging the workers to kill the machines that uphold it. Metaphors of the living or magical qualities that humans tend to aspire to technological constructs are visible throughout the background of the plot. The M- Machine, a giant device running the factory, is portrayed in main character Freders hallucination as a reflection of ancient god Moloch. Later on, the female robot created by Rotwang is worshiped by the workers of Metropolis as a goddess, only to be burnt, in the end, on fire, like a witch. The Maria robot, Julia Dover notices, offers omnipotence and impotence at the same time. Its lure prompts a closed system of desire for the extension of power and a simultaneous fear of loss of control to perpetuate itself (278).

This simultaneous feeling of hope and fear towards technology, apparent- as we saw above- in pre-computer popular culture, became a dominant theme in science fiction works of the 1950s, when the discussions about artificial intelligence were officially introduced in scientific discourse. Notions of the idea that it will be possible for machines to obtain intelligence and function as servants for humanity can be discerned in earlier academic discussions. In his essay As we may think, published in 1945, science administrator Vannevar Bush presents his idea about the invention of a machine, which he calls the memex, and which would function as a device of data storage. According to contemporary critics, Bushs description of the memex can be seen as a prophecy for the invention of the World Wide Web (Chun, The Enduring Ephemeral, or The future Is a Memory, 2011: 189). At the same time, traces of the idea about machine intelligence are also apparent in Bushs essay. In the beginning of
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the 5th section of his paper, he states: It is readily possible to construct a machine which will manipulate premises in accordance with formal logic, simply by the clever use of relay circuits. Put a set of premises into such a device and turn the crank, and it will readily pass out conclusion after conclusion, all in accordance with logical law, and with no more slips than would be expected of a keyboard adding machine. Therefore, an interplay between scientific and imaginary notions is noticeable in Vannevar Bushs essay, which Wendy Hui Kyong Chun characterizes as equally fictional and utopian as the technological predictions contained in science fiction (189).

The connection between electronic media discourse and science fiction content is visible through the use of metaphors of living media that structured much academic discussions on electronic technology in the 1950s. The rapid development during this period marked an outburst of ideas about inanimate constructs coming to life. In 1946, professors J. Presper Eckert, Jr. and John W. Mauchly completed the creation of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). As Ray Kurzweil clarifies, the issue of the inventor of the first computer has been a matter of much scientific debate, because of the speculations on how one defines computer (1990: 175). Nonetheless, at that time, ENIAC was considered to be the first programmable electronic computer (183). This notable evolution in the field of computer technology triggered peoples obsession with aspiring humanlike qualities to electronic apparatuses. As Kurzweil explains, it was the first time that scientific discussions used terms such as super brain and electronic genius for the description of computers (183).

This idea grew even stronger after the official foundation of discussions about artificial intelligence, marked by the Darthmouth College conference in 1956. Still, the issue of the definition of the artificial intelligence concept was the cause of much scholar debate. How can we speak about machine intelligence if we are not sure what do the terms machine and intelligent mean? Cant the human brain be considered as an intelligent machine? And, simultaneously, doesnt an intelligent machine do what an intelligent person does? (Kurzweil, 1990: 14) These speculations have lead to the construction of different definitions about artificial intelligence. Kurzweil refers
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to the one which seems to be the more accepted in scientific discussions: Artificial intelligence is the act of creating machines that perform functions that require intelligence when performed by people (14).

Apart from the contemporary increasing scientific interest in the concept of artificial intelligence, the rapid computer developments of the period caused a big wave of optimistic and pessimistic speculations in popular discourse. Peoples perceptions of machine intelligence and its consequences in human history are apparent in science fiction works of the 1950s and 1960s. Robot guru Isaac Asimovs novel I, Robot is considered to be a benchmark in science fiction literature. Published in 1950, not only has it inspired later references of robotics in popular culture, but it has also influenced contemporary notions, which mainly picture robots as humanlike devices, able to communicate with humans. In contrast to earlier depictions of artificial intelligence in science fiction, Asimov seems to encounter the field of robotics in a more positive way (West, 2010). He seems to be focusing on the beneficial influence that the development in robotics and computer science will have for humanity. Robot characters in Asimovs novel are faithful followers of the authors first law of robotics (A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm) as stated in the short story Runaround. What is, however, striking is the fact that, in the 2004 film adaptation of the novel, robots are presented in a more menacing way, as a threat to humankind, therefore resembling pre-Asimov ideas (West, 2010). Stanley Kubricks 1968 film 2001: A space odyssey, based on the novel co-written by the director and by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, appears more synchronized with the contemporary predominant pessimistic notions about artificial intelligence. HAL 9000, the computer that functions as a member of the crew of the Discovery One spacecraft on its mission to Jupiter, is presented as equal to the rest of the human members. One of the issues that HALs existence raises- still dominant in contemporary scientific discussions- is that of machine common sense. Is HAL programmed to respond the way he responds or does he have the capacity to feel and think? The film raises these questions through the dialogues between HAL and the crew. I cant rid myself of the suspicion that there are some extremely odd things
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about this mission, he expresses his fears to astronaut Frank Poole; later on, when he is being killed by Frank, his last words before being reprogrammed are I am afraid. Pessimistic views about the dangers accompanying the attribution of intelligence on machines are being apparent in the point when HAL does not hesitate to proceed to murder when he suspects that two members of the crew intend to shut him down, therefore revealing a humanlike instinct of survival.

What can these past signs of science fiction say about human notions of the time on technology? As we have seen in the above examination of science fiction works of the late 19th-early 20th century, their content seems to be detached from the actual progress in the field of electronic technology. Traces of technological singularity ideas are apparent even in pre-computer popular culture, as in Frankenstein and Metropolis. Science fiction content contains exaggerated fears or utopian optimistic predictions, with authors and directors attributing magical qualities to machines. There seems to be a long gap between the technological predictions they include and actual contemporary development. As the years pass by, science fiction starts to become more connected to the realized technology. The rapid development in the field of computer science since the 1950s inspired a vast array of popular culture works. Still, the agents of artificial intelligence continue to be portrayed in an implausible manner, either as powerful servants of humanity or as a menace to their creators.

Is this phenomenon still apparent in todays notions of machine intelligence? In Archaeologies of the future: the desire called utopia and other science fictions, Fredric Jameson argues that at the very moment in which utopias were supposed to have come to an end, and in which that asphyxiation of the utopian impulse alluded to above is everywhere more and more tangible, SF has in recent years rediscovered its own utopian vocation, and given rise to a whole series of powerful new works (289). In the chapter that follows, this paper will indeed attempt to examine how these utopian notions are expressed in more recent science fiction works.

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A generation of scientists raised by robots

The optimism stemming from the success that research on artificial intelligence was met with during the 1950s and 1960s, gave its place to a brief period of reduced interest. In the early 1970s, the scientific community figured that, in order for the stimulation of human intelligence to be realized, something was missing, and the something turned out to be knowledge (Kurzweil, 1990: 209). The realization that there was no easy way of capturing that knowledge (213) fueled a wave of negative critique and disappointment. This can be connected to the general feeling of postmodern pessimism that Leo Marx attributes to that period. The previously romantic approach of the idea of progress gave its place to a more deterministic view about the powers of technology (256-257). In the postmodern society, feelings including the fear of isolation because of artificial support, of the lack of ability to separate ones identity from the environment, a sense of paranoia and of confusion between the virtual and the real, became predominant in discussions about the humancomputer interaction (Nichols, 2000:27). However, despite this era of artificial intelligence winter, as it is being referred to in scientific discussions, the hope that the realization of machine intelligence will someday be possible did not disappear. As Ray Kurzweil states, Many observers still think that the AI winter was the end of the story and that nothing since has come of the AI field. Yet today many thousands of AI applications are deeply embedded in the infrastructure of every industry (2005: 264). In the late 1980s- early 1990s, the spread of the personal computer and the gradual introduction of the internet in every household rendered the developed society more familiar with technology. Simultaneously, discussions on artificial intelligence were met with an increased interest. This rapid development in computer technology created a whole new horde of notions about the humans position in the new age of technological innovations. In post-industrial capitalism, the human is defined in relation to cybernetic systemscomputers, bio-genetically engineered organisms, eco-systems, expert systems, robots, androids and cyborgs- all of which evoke those forms of ambivalence reserved

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for the Other that is the measure of ourselves, Nichols describes (28). The metaphor thats meant (thats taken as real) becomes the simulation.

This new perception of identity and reality can be detected in the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, which had a great development in the 1980s. According to some critics, the new relation of human in the environment of cyberspace has its roots on Neuromancer, a work that gave the world the most developed and influential model of cyberspaces future terrain (Sconce, 2000: 203). This idea of human simulation as an imaginary Other described by Nichols, becomes apparent through symbols and metaphors of embodiment in William Gibsons novel. The futuristic background is characterized by references to surgical boutiques and illegal body modification clinics, while the main characters are cyborgs with prosthetic limps and body transplants, who are being invented, not born, fixed, not cured. Main protagonist Cases physical body is addicted to its imaginary other that exists in cyberspace, as Gibson describes in the part 1 of the novel: For Case, who'd lived for the bodiless exultation of cyber-space, it was the Fall. () Case fell into the prison of his own flesh. This sense of paranoia and confusion between the real and virtual world can be connected with the shift in human notions concerning the way cybernetic systems influence the way we perceive our identity. In cybernetics discussions, dominant metaphors portray the human as an automated but intelligent machine and vice versain an expansion of McLuhans theory about the media as extensions of the body. Simulation is also presented as reality and vice versa. The cybernetic metaphor contains the germ of an enhanced future inside a prevailing model that substitutes part for whole, simulation for real, cyborg for human, conscious purpose for the decentred goal-seeking of the totality- system plus environment (Nichols, 2000:46).

Moving forward to recent science fiction, we can detect the same notions on reality perception and on the alteration of human identity in the frames of cyberspace. In the 1999 film The Matrix, in which the influence from cyberpunk novels is apparent, the plot is set in a dystopian future where humans are imprisoned inside a computer program, perceiving a simulated reality, created by intelligent machines which have taken control over humanity. The concept of embodiment is also apparent here, through the use of plugs that connect the comatose humans to the Matrix, the device
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that retains this simulated reality. The metaphor of the human attachment to a computer device has its equivalent in scientific discussions on the cyberspace, which describes a potentially exhilarating virtual world produced by networks of telecommunications media and accessed by human subjectivities plugged in to a global electronic matrix (Sconce, 2000: 203). The strong influence that such notions hold in popular discourse becomes apparent if we consider that a series of homicides that took place sort after the release of The Matrix, were attributed to the film. In the two cases of murder, referred to in Jeffrey Sconces essay On the Origins of the Origins of the Influencing Machine, the defense had stated that the crimes were due to obsessive thoughts that the two murderers were struggling with after watching the movie (70). In the aforementioned two cases, one could identify an extreme form of expression of a fear that can be detected in discussions about the influence of computer technology. As Sconce explains, in translating simulation into a crude technological mirage, The Matrix merely dramatized the lurking suspicion that electronic media have the ability to control reality and the mind through the transmission of invisible influence, a force produced along the conflated semantic and institutional borderlines of power as both electromagnetic transmission and sociopolitical regimentation (71).

Having followed an archaeological approach in the examination of science fiction from the early evolution of electronic technology until today, we can detect a shift in the content of such works. Contemporary science fiction seems to be more connected to real life developments. Predictions about the future seem to be more down to earth, in comparison with utopian notions of machine intelligence presented in popular culture of the 1920s and 1930s. Therefore, one could wonder, where is this phenomenon due to? One reason for this shift could be that both scientists and contemporary authors have been raised in a culture where the science fiction genre had gained wide popularity. Asimovs and Clarkes novels have functioned as points of reference for more recent discussions of the technological industry community. It is indeed no secret that the three laws of robotics by Isaac Asimov have exercised a strong influenced to the late twentieth century generation of robotics engineers. Therefore, it becomes clear that not only are contemporary science fiction authors inspired by real life computer technology, which continues to develop in rapid rates,
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but this relationship also works the other way around: science fiction seems to respond to computer technology evolution by revealing the next step for further development and suggesting even greater leaps. We could therefore suggest that the two fields have a two way interaction. Could this interplay between science fiction and actual technology function as a means of evaluation for past predictions in retrospect? In an essay comparing the predictions that had surrounded the telephone during its introduction to society, with its actual route until 1976, authors Ithiel de Sola Pool et al. argue that we should not be too harsh when examining foresight of the past: we have the benefit of hindsight now, yet it is not much easier to answer the questions about the past than about the present or future. Postdiction is almost as hard as prediction; aftcasts almost as hard as forecasts (151). This difficulty becomes clear when attempting to evaluate technological predictions featured in science fiction. The technological imaginary for the simulation of human intelligence hasnt been realized yet. In 1990, Ray Kurzweil had said: the 1990s will, in my estimation, witness the emergence of an industry valued at several hundred billion dollars and a generation of ubiquitous intelligent machines that word intimately with their human creators (213). Today, we cannot state that his prediction has come entirely true. But still, smaller successes in the field of artificial intelligence create a feeling of optimism and encourage further attempts. Kurzweils scenario of the machine chess player that would be able to beat the best human players (1990: 407-409) came true in 1997, in a tournament between champion Garry Kasparov and IBMs Deep Blue computer. Last year, an IBM computer competed successfully with two human players in the famous TV quiz show Jeopardy! (Markoff, 2011). As Kluitenberg states, the dream of sentient machines makes better media copy than the reality of cybernetic Fordism. At the beginning of the twenty- first century, artificial intelligence remains the dominant ideological manifestation of the exhibition value of computing. (2006: 273)

At the same time, predictions in science fiction discourse seem to be following a similar path. Neither have the optimistic notions of artificial intelligence, picturing cyborgs as servants for humanity, nor their more pessimistic versions, warning on the catastrophic consequences of machines taking over control, been realized today.
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However, even though terms such as cyberspace, artificial intelligence and virtual reality remain more imaginary than real, they are still a dominant part of popular culture contents. The thought that we live in a world created and prevailed by electronic media, has become a common idea of popular culture.

Conclusion

This paper has investigated the information that past ideas, contained in scientific and science fiction discourse, can reveal about todays human notions on technological singularity. Having approached these ideas on artificial intelligence, included in science fiction contents, from an archaeological perspective, we can suggest that, as the centuries pass by, human notions seem to continuously become more down to earth, increasingly connected to real life technological development. Ranging from myths and traditional tales to popular culture of the 1930s, we notice that traces of human hopes and fears about artificial intelligence can already be detected in science fiction of the pre-computer era. Soon after the concept of artificial intelligence in scientific discussions was officially introduced, notions of singularity depicted in popular culture can still be characterized as utopian and exaggerated, revealing nave optimistic hopes about future progress or feelings of terror about its possible consequences. However, as we move closer to recent science fiction plots, we can argue that they are more conjoined with evolution in the computing field, serving as inspiration for further development by raising the question: what if things could be done otherwise?

Science fiction might not serve as a valid source of fair predictions about the future, but it could indeed help us discover the secret paths in history that Zielinski talks about. Therefore, the previous findings could serve as a basis for further examination that could lead on a possible image of what future human notions on artificial intelligence could be like. Although past predictions on machine intelligence havent been entirely realized yet, we have seen that the technological imaginary can provide us with equally useful information. Therefore, even if todays predictions about the future of artificial intelligence dont become realized soon, they could serve as a platform for a future archaeological quest. Our current views on cyberspace, virtual
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reality and artificial intelligence could be a useful source for future scholar discussions. What is, therefore, left to see, is whether the current attempts in the computer technology field will finally be the first step for a series of innovations or whether they will be the last chapter of an unrealized utopian desire.

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Markoff, John. "On Jeopardy! Watson Win Is All but Trivial NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 16 Feb. 2011. Retrieved on: 9 Apr. 2012.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/science/17jeopardywatson.html?_r=1>. West, David. "I, Robot: Interpretations of the Power and Influence of Robots and Artificial Intelligence | CinemaLit." Teachmix. N.p., 27 Mar. 2010. Retrieved on: 8 Apr. 2012.

<http://teachmix.com/cinemalit/content/%E2%80%9Ci-robot%E2%80%9Dinterpretations-power-and-influence-robots-and-artificial-intelligence>.

Filmography:

2001: A Space Odyssey. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. 1968. A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Dir. Steven Spielberg. 2001. Frankenstein. Dir. James Whale. 1931. I, Robot. Dir. Alex Proyas. 2004. Metropolis. Dir. Fritz Lang. 1927. Terminator II: Judgment day. Dir. James Cameron. 1991. The Matrix. Dir. Andy & Larry Wachowski. 1999.

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