Scifi Final

Hard Science Fiction

Coined in 1957, a category of science fiction that is characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic, it puts emphasis on the technical details and accuracy of the work. Focuses more on the science than the relationships, religion, and culture of the work. For example: Dune would be soft science fiction as it focuses more on the ecology, religion, and person relationships of the characters instead of the science.

Hugo Gernstock

Key editorial figure of and influential figure in hard science fiction. Founded the first science fiction magazine, Amazing stories, in 1926. Coined the term science fiction. He made an industry out of science fiction even though his stories were terrible. Key to developing “fandom.” Also founded *Modern Electronics* (1908). Founded Worldcon, World Science Fiction Convention, and the Hugo awards, the premier award in science fiction which is given out at Worldcon. 

The Big Three

3 major authors in the “Golden Age” of science fiction which occurred in the 40s & 50s. They include 1. Asimov (robotics, Nightfall, the Foundation Series). 2. Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyessy). 3. Robert Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers). They expanded to the definition of science fiction.

Planetary Romance

Emphasizes heroic fantasy and adventure set on another, often primitive, planet where a fish-out-of-water character (from Earth) demonstrates his superiority to the natives. (Think Avatar). Deals with white supremacy. A fantasy set in space. Early progenitors: Edgar Burroughs (Barsoom) and Phillip Nowlan (Buck Rodgers Comic Strip). Flash Gordon is an important progenitor character.

Flash Gordon

An important progenitor character in planetary romance. Created to compete with and imitate Buck Rodgers. Became very popular, even becomingone of the most popular American comic strips of the 1930s. Flash Gordon is a handsome polo player and Yale University graduate. Earth is threatened by a collision with the planet Mongo and Flash gets kidnapped by Dr. Zarkov and goes to Mongo by spaceship.

Buck Rodgers

Progenitor character of planetary romance science fiction. Created by Phillip Nowlan. Commercially very successful and was popular enough to inspire other newspaper syndicates to launch their own science fiction strips. Became an important part of American popular culture. Comic strip is credited with bringing into popular media the concept of space exploration.

John Carter

Progenitor character of planetary romance science fiction. Created by Edgar Burroughs. Part of the Barsoom series or sometimes called the Maritan series. John Carter in the late 19th century is mysteriously transported from Earth to a Mars suffering from dwindling resources. Story is heavily adapted in popular media.

Space Opera

Term coined in 1941. Related to planetary romance. Emphasizes the epic scale and stakes of the interplanetary struggle and the ideological conflict between forces of control and chaos. Shorthand: A western set in space. Heirs: Star Trek (Gene Rodenberry), Star Wars (George Lucas), etc.

E.E. Smith

Progenitor of the Space Opera. Wrote the Skylark Series. The entire series describes the conflicts between protagonists Seaton and Crane, and antagonist DuQuesne, which often break into open warfare. Seaton is the fastest gun in spaxe and DuQuesne is the second-> has the western characteristic. 

“Golden Age” of Science Fiction

Said to be from the 1940s-1950s. During this period, science fiction was the dominant culture. 1. Popularity: Science fiction was extremely popular as the culture of the time was focused on engineering, aircraft and the ‘technology of tomorrow.’ Brought about by the Cold War and the Space Race. 2. New Media: Science Fiction also had different kinds of media: comics, tv shows, drive-in theaters, pulp titles). 3. Themes: Optimistic but serious, technology would protect the “American way of life” (Superman as a boyscout), scifi would train and inspire the next generation of engineers and create a cultural bulwark against communism. 4. New Forms: Hard Scifi, Planetary Romance, Space Opera, Military Science Fiction, etc.

Asimov

One of the Big Three of science fiction. Russian-American, born 1920. Prolific writer as he wrote over 500+ books in various genres. Died in 1992 after contracting HIV from a blood transfusion. Famous famous and a serious scifi author through his work, Nightfall. He also wrote the Foundation Series. Has a philosophy which is think of a better future and world, and therefore create one. Also wanted to end all nations and become one race. Coined the term robotics and the Frankenstein complex. Paves the way for cybernetics.

“Nightfall”

Asimov’s first big hit. On the planet Legash, there is a society that are its own pioneers in science and archaeology. There are two suns on the planet so it is never dark. They figured out that every 2,000 years ago a civilization falls on the planet and it coincides with an eclipse that makes an invisible moon and will make the world dark for the first time. When the eclipse occurs, the stars come out and the citizens are driven mad by their own insignificance. The civilization falls. This is a social science fiction as it uses science fiction to better understand human psychology, potential, interaction, behavior, etc. 

The Foundation Series

One of Asimov’s important works. Trilogy. Selvin invents psychohistory, which is a mathematical model for how human beings behave at scale. World is run by the Galactic Empire. Selvin uses psychohistory and finds out that the Empire will fall in 500 years and tells the Empire, and he says that they should make the Enclyopedia Galactic which is the sum of all human knowledge. The Empire says that this is treason and that he should die because he is sowing doubt in the Empire and send him to Terminus, which he has already predicted, and that's where he wants to go so that he can create the Encyclopedia Galactica. Encyclopedia Galactica ends up being a ruse to get people to act like they are doomed, and now the real work begins, which is creating a new religion called scientism.

Asimov’s Laws of Robotics

A moral code of conduct for robots that would prevent them from rising up against their creators, created in response to the Frankenstein complex.

3 Laws:


1. A robot may not harm a human being or allow another human to come to harm through inaction.
2. A robot must obey orders given unless those orders violate rule number 1 and harm to a human being is intended
3. A robot must protect its own existence unless it violates one or two (it must go cheerfully into self-destruction if ordered to).

Frankenstein Complex

Coined by Asimov. Fear of mechanical men, especially androids that mimic or closely resemble human beings. Also present on a lower level against robots that are plainly electromechicanical. Fear of the other, the different. Fearing of robots rebelling against their creators. Fear of playing god. 

Uncanny Valley

This is an emotional response that is evoked when a person coming into contact with a huamnoid robot that is highly realistic, the human usually experiences a feeling of unease or revulsion. This visceral reaction increases as the humanoid becomes more human-like. The familiarness of a humanoid robot only exists up to a point, once the robot fails to successfully mimic a human, uncanny valley occurs. Evolutionary feeling that something is wrong, aversion, disgust-> We have evolved both as a species that worries about the disease and works about mating to recognize a diseased individual or someone with something off. Evolutionary-rooted fear against stuff that imitates humans.

Technological Singularity

The point in the future where our ability to create bigger and better forms of technology outpaces our ability to control it, and this spills over into all forms of our society. Also the hypothesis that the invention of artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization. Main thing is that once it is passed it cannot be stopped or taken back.

Robert Heinlein

One of the Big Three. Born in 1907. Served in the navy and the army. Began writing stories for money. He recruited Asimov to work with him on the sonar system for detecting kamikazes. Third wife was Virgina Gerstenflad who was a fellow engineer and became a “scifi power couple.” Wrote Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, Life-line, The Moon is Harsh Mistress, and Soultion Unsatisfactory. Contributions: popularized ‘speculative’ fiction, first scifi to reach the NYT best-seller list, major progenitor of world-building and continuity. All of his works are in the same timeline. Postulated endless war as a social good, marital values, dean of military scifi, post racial worlds, etc. Very Libertarian.

Life-line

Very early Heinlein. Scientist Hugo Pinero develops the ultimate predicting machine the Chronovitameter) which measures how long someone has left to live by measuring the echo from the worldline. He presents it to the Academy of Sciences and is sued by life insurance companies because he is ruining their business. People kill him and the machine predicted his death. The academy burns the report and destroys the machine.

Solution Unsatisfactory

Predicts that a group of scientists would create a doomsday device with uranium 185-> predicts nukes. Also predicted the Cold War and the mututally assured destruction ideology. In the novel, the US develops the weapon, drops leaflets on Germany, and waits for them to retaliate. When they don’t the US, destroys them.

Starship Troopers

One of Heinlein’s major works. Wins the Hugo in 1960 and pioneered the idea of powered armor. Set 700 years in the future. The main character, Johnny Rico, is off to fight the “bugs,” which have a hive mind and a caste system. Contains non-individualistic, non-libertarian, and anti-American ideas. Defended martial values and has a boot camp mentality.

Stranger in a Strange Land

One of Heinlein’s major works. Becomes the bible of the counter-culture. Valentine, the main character, is raised on Mars but returns to Earth later on and meets a woman. Valentine becomes a mega-church messiah of the Church of All Worlds and the Homo Superior. Wins the Hugo and becomes the first scifi on the best seller list.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

One of Heinelin’s major works. Luna, the Earth’s penal colony, is now 3 million people strong. The ‘loonies’ live underground, shipping wheat to Earth. Catapults the Earth into submission as the colony revolts. Libertarian retelling of the Founding Fathers and colonialism. Has the philosophy of radical anarchism: rebellion in order to preserve personal freedom over laws.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Part of Russian cosmism. Solved the problem of rocket travel to outer space through figuring out drag, fuel, steering, and re-entry. He designed the modern rocket and made one of the first wind tunnels in Russia. Father of modern astronautics. Published “Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices.” Huge effect on Robert Goddard.

Robert H. Goddard

Ridiculed as ‘moon man.’ Writes “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes.” Launched the first liquid-propellant rocket-> fueled by liquid oxygen and gasoline. Pioneered the gyroscope system for stability in rockets, first to build workable payload compartment, and parachute recovery systems. Father of modern rocketry.

Herman Oberth

Early progenitor of space travel and rockets. Formed the Spaceflight Society and advised on Frau im Mond, which is a scifi movie. Taught Max Valier and Wernher Von Braun.

Wernher Von Braun

German aerospace engineer. Ran the German V2 program. Was recruited by the US Army for a ballistic missile program after WW2. He is well-known for designing Germany's V-2 rockets, which led to the Saturn V launch vehicles which placed Apollo 11 onto the moon.

V2

First object in space. Built by the Nazis in concentration camps in WW2 through slave labor. First inter-continental rocket but not very accurate as you could hit a city but not a specific place in a city.

Operation Paperclip

A secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, rocket scientists, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World War II in Europe between 1945 and 1959 to help build American rocket program. The deNazification of German scientists after WW2.

Yuri Gagarin

Russian, the first man in space. Won the Hero of the Soviet Union award, which is his nation’s highest honor.

Arthur C. Clarke

Served as a radar specialist in WW2, and defeated the German V2 program. A key player in the Battle of Britain. Developed the ground-control approach to a radar system, the key to the Berlin Airlift. Pioneered the idea of geostationary satellites as telecommunications relays. Wrote the Sentinel and worked on 2001: A Space Odyessy with Stanley Kubrick. 

"The Sentinel”

A fictional short story written by Arthur Clarke in 1951. The story follows the discovery of an artifact on the moon that was left eons ago by ancient aliens. The artifact transmits signals into deep space, but it stops transmitting when it is later destroyed. The narrator thinks that the sentinel was left as a warning beacon for possible intelligent and spacefaring species that might develop on Earth. About mysteries and higher intelligence. Liked by Stanley Kubrick. The basis and starting point of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Stanley Kubrick, *2001: A Space Odyssey*

New Wave of Scifi

Era of scifi that existed between the 60s and 70s. Critiques the world that the Big Three created. This is the crash of the particular version of scifi that was utopian and bullish in nature. “The Death of the Future.” Very self-conscious movement. Contained authors such as Ursula K. LeGuin, Samuel R. Delany, and Phillip K Dick. F**ocused on experimentation, social commentary, and literary merit**, as opposed to hard science and stereotypical adventure plots.

Ursula K LeGuin

Female sci-fi writer during the New Wave of scifi. Her first major book was A Wizard of Earth-Sea innovations, which was stolen to make Harry Potter. Best known for her works in her Hainish universe and her Earthsea fantasy series. Big feminist, big figure in feminst scifi. Majority of her works are influenced by feminism. The first woman to win both the Hugo and the Nebula.

The Left Hand of Darkness

Set in LeGuin’s Hainish universe. The protagionist, Genly Ai, is a Terran male who is on a mission to get Gethen to rejoin Ekumen or the League of All Worlds. Gethen’s inhabitants are ambisexual- their sex and sexuality are latent (no sex drive) and gender-neural for 24 days. Gethen has no rape, war, possessiveness, or covetousness. Over the course of the book, Ai realizes that his mistrust of Estraven, the disgraced Gethen prime minister, is misplaced, maybe misogynist, because every time Ai doesn’t like him, he is presenting as female. Addresses feminist issues. Won the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, making LeGuin the first woman to win these awards. Widely regarded as the first feminist scifi. Represents new voice/possibility-> Ai only gains more morality and decency at the end of the novel, not power or triumph.

Samuel Delany

During the New Wave. Black and gay writer. He married a gay woman and both of them used the married to cover for them, later divorced when the cover was no longer needed. Wrote “Aye, and Gomorrah.” Works include themes about sexuality and gay liberation. Wrote 6 novels in 8 years. Inspired by the Trials of Oscar Wilde. 

Trials of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde lived from 1854-1900 and was a well-known author and gay man. Has an affair with Alfred Douglas. Alfred’s father drops off a note threatening sodomy, as he does not approve of his son’s relationship with Oscar. Wilde sues Douglas for libel but loses and goes to jail. He was later tried for gross indecency. He died at 46 from meningitis after being imprisoned. This persecution against gay authors has inspired many since, including Samuel R. Delany.

Sip Ins

Occurred during the gay liberation movement. Members of the Mattachine Society began staging ‘sip-ins,’ which were a form of protest that was created to challenge bars that refused service to gay people, as by New York’s liquor law, you weren’t allowed to serve liquor to gay people. People would go into bars, declare they were gay, and wait to be served or turned away (so that they could sue). Because of this liquor law, the only people that would sell gay people liquor were the mafia. Liquor law criminalized sexuality in New York.

Stonewall

Occurred in 1969, it was a raid at the Stonewall Inn,which was a gay club in NYC. The raid sparked a riot among bar patrons and neighborhood residents as police officers hauled employees and patrons out of the bars. The Stonewall riots occurred for six days after, which included violent clashes with law enforcement Served as the catalyst for the gay rights movement in the US. The first gay pride march occurred in 1970 on the anniversary of Stonewall.

Paragraph 175

Provision in the German Criminal Code that made sexual relations between males a crime and also criminalized bestiality, prostitution, and underage sexual abuse. Around 140,000 men were convicted under the law. Broadened by the Nazis to become a part of the most severe persecution of homosexual men in history. Inspired the first homosexual movement by calling for its appeal.

Harlan Ellison

Known for his work in the new wave. Won multiple Hugos, Nebulas, and Edgars. Brainchild was Dangerous Visions, which he was editor of, an anthology of 20 new wave authors who had or would win major scifi awards, all writing original stories.

“Aye, and Gomorrah”

Won the Nebula prize for best short story. Written by Samuel Delany. Seen as one of the best works by a gay author. Astronauts, known as Spacers, are neutered before puberty to avoid the effects of space radiation on gametes. Neutering prevents puberty from occurring and results in androgynous adults whose birth sex is unclear to others. Spacers are fetishized by a subculture of "frelks", those attracted by the Spacers' supposed unattainability and unarousability ("free-fall-sexual-displacement complex"). Spacers engage in prostitution by accepting money to give frelks the sexual contact they desire.

Phillip K Dick

New Wave scifi. Wrote “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?,” “We can Remember It for You Wholesale,” and “The Minority Report.” Themes include: the sense that reality, memory, consciousness, and identity are all fragile illusions or perhaps implantations, what is real, what is fake, etc. Considered a master of imaginative, paranoid fiction.

“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

The basis for Bladerunner and Bladerunner 2049. Set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, where Earth’s life has been greatly damaged by nuclear global war, leaving most animals endangered or extinct. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who has to "retire" (i.e. kill) six escaped Nexus-6 model androids, while a secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-par IQ who aids the fugitive androids. Nominated for the Nebula but lost. 

“We can Remember it for you Wholesale”

Written by Dick. Basis for the movie Total Recall. A low-working person cannot stop thinking about Mars. So he takes this drug that gives people the memory of being on Mars without actually having to go, and he finds out that he actually did go to Mars and he was like a super spy. The themes are memory, false memory, and reality.

The Minority Report

Written by Phillip Dick, the basis for the movie “Minority Report.” In a future society, three mutants foresee all crime before it occurs. Plugged into a great machine, these "precogs" allow a division of the police called Precrime to arrest suspects before they can commit any actual crimes. When the head of Precrime, John Anderton, is himself predicted to murder a man whom he has never heard of, Anderton is convinced a great conspiracy is afoot. Reflects much of Dick's personal Cold War anxieties, particularly questioning the relationship between authoritarianism and individual autonomy. Questions the existence of free will.

Afrofuturism

A movement in literature featuring futuristic or science fiction themes which incorporate elements of black history and culture. Coined by Mark Dery. African Americans are descendants of alien abductees and inhabit a sci-fi nightmare in which unseen forcefields of intolerance frustrate their movements. Speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th-century technoculture. Examples: Wakanda, Get Out, Lovecraft Country, The Underground Railroad, etc.

Martin Robinson Delany

American abolitionist and writer who was arguably the first proponent of black nationalism. Believes that there is no future for black people in America and is credited with the Pan-African slogan of "Africa for Africans." Wrote Blake in 1859-> Henry Blake is the main character who is an enslaved man, and he loves another enslaved woman who refuses to give her body to their owner, so their owner sends her away. Then Blake reveals that he is a free man and travels the world spreading the gospel of black pride and acting as a kind of Robin Hood. Delany regarded as the earliest and leading figure in Pan-Africanism, Black Power, Black Pride, and Afrofuturism.

Pauline Hopkins

Inspired by Frederick Douglas. Wrote Of One Blood. Key Figure in Afrofuturism.

Of One Blood

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* Written by Pauline Hopkins.
* The main character is Ruell Briggs. Dianthe Lusk is a supporting character and a singer that Briggs is infatuated with. She later dies in a train crash. The night before her death, Briggs interviews her ghost, and she asks him for help. She is later resurrected by Briggs using a form of mesmerism. 
* This was the first Afritopian (lost kingdom and past that you can build from and utilize) novel. 
* Published in the Colored American Magazine. 

W.E.B. DuBois

Part of Afrofuturism. First African-American to earn a doctorate from Havard. Helped found the NAACP in 1910. Wrote Souls of Black Folk, Black Reconstruction, Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, and The Comet. Encouraged blacks to resist systems of segregation and discrimination.

“The Comet”

Jim Davis was the main character and a messenger in 1900. He takes a message to white bankers. All of the bankers are talking about this incoming comet, and Davis doesn’t care. The door of the vault shuts him in the vault and then opens back up. Everyone is dead. This is the height of Jim Crow, and he is now allowed to go into places and restaurants that he had never been allowed in before. He comes across this white woman. They are the last two people on the planet. They start to fall in love, and they decide that they have to save humanity. They are about to have sex, but four white guys come in and say that New York was the only thing that was hit. They almost lynch Jim, but the woman barely saves him but now she can’t look at him and cannot even look at herself. 

Octavia Butler

Pivotal figure in the New Wave decolonization of everything, including our own minds. Friends with Samuel Delany. Would win two Hugos, two Nebulas, and become the first scifi author to win a MacArthur (a million dollars to write whatever you want). Writing focuses on the liberation and decolonization of our minds.

Kindred

Plot:

* Dana awakes in CA hospital without an arm; sucked back in time, rescues the white boy who is drowning in a pond; gets sucked back in time again to save him from fire which he started but he calls her the n-word, and meets Alice Greenwood; both Kevin and Dana sucked back; Alice becomes Rufus’ concubine; sucked back again, Alice has committed suicide, Dana kills Rufus after he wants her to become his new concubine (who is her great great great grandfather). 
* “I couldn’t really let \[Dana\] come all the way back. I couldn’t let her return to what she was, I couldn’t let her come back whole, and \[losing her arm\], I think, really symbolizes her not coming back whole. Antebellum slavery didn’t leave people quite whole.”
* Major themes: 
* Trauma: What to do with past trauma that happened not necessarily to you but to your people? 
* Race Relations: How to forgive? Kevin and Dana clearly love each other, but the past and, their own communities, their own experiences make it hard to come together whole. 

“Bloodchild”

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* Published 1984. Opens in T’Gatoi, where an insect-like creature is languishing with a human family, including older brother Qui, sister Hoa, and younger brother Gan. These insect creatures have captured a space colony of earth colonies and have used them as incubators for their eggs. The insect feeds the humans their egg liquor, and they are in a weird drunk, sedated state. The women give birth to human babies, and the men carry the bug creatures. They do it willingly and in a sense of love (even though they have been raped and abused). T’Gatoi has presided over a more ‘humane’ way for humans to act as hosts for T’lic young. After witnessing the actual birth process, Gan has a choice. 
* Butler insists the story is not about slavery but…“\[i\]n this short story…the conventional adolescent male narrator/hero is punished by rape, incest, reproductive exploitation by the dominant race.”

Cyberpunk

Subgenre of science fiction. Deals with limits of power and the sense of bleakness, angst, rage, and nihilism. Development of the counterculture. Usually takes place in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics, juxtaposed with societal collapse, dystopia, or decay. Major authors are Phillip K Dick and Harlan Ellison.

Gordon Moore

An American businessman and engineer. Proposed Moore’s Law. Founded Intel Corporation, which is the largest manufacturer of silicon microchips in the world. He was a big visionary in regard to microchips, and saw how important tech would advance years before it did.

Moore’s Law

Predicts that the number of transistors that would fit on a computer chip or an integrated circuit (IC) would double every year. This prediction has held since 1975 and has since become law. It has been used in the semiconductor industry, research development, digital electronics, etc. 

Alfred Bester

Early and big name in cyberpunk, he wrote The Start My Destination, which is one of the biggest novels in the science fiction subgenre of cyberpunk. He also wrote The Demolished Man, which won the inaugural Hugo Award in 1953. 

The Stars My Destination

A big part of early cyberpunk, considered as a prescient forerunner of the cyberpunk subgenre (“proto-cyberpunk”) as it predated cyberunk by over two decades. Written by Alfred Bester. The novel follows the central character, Gully Foyle, who is a low-level cargo ship worker. His ship is attacked, and he is the sole survivor. He becomes a man that is consumed by revenge and later is adopted by a crew that tattoo’s a tiger mask on his face. The novel features noir aspects, megacorporations as powerful as governments, a dark vision of the future, and cybernetic body enhancements.

Blade Runner

A 1982 science fiction film that is based off of the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” which was written by Phillip K Dick. The film is set in a dystopian future LA of 2019, in which synthetic humans, known as replicants, are bio-engineered by the Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies, primarily for menial labor. The story follows the main character, Rick Deckard, hunting down a fugitive group of advanced replicants. The main antagonist is the Tyrell Corporation.

William Gibson

Obsessed with William Burroughs. Dropped out of boarding school and joined the counterculture. Very hippy. Pioneered and led the cyberpunk movement (a subgenre of scifi). Wrote Burning Chrome (1982) and Neuromancer (1984).

“Burning Chrome”

Published in Omni Magazine in 1982. The first book to use the word hyperspace and to call the worldwide web the Matrix. Follows a hacker triangle of Bobby Quine (software), Automatic Jack (hardware, has a prosthetic arm), and Rikki. Quine and AJ are hackers and are looking for a last score, so they choose Chrome as the final score to buy new eyes for Rikki. They burn Chrome, and it turns out that Rikki has prostituted herself at Chrome’s place and buys her own new eyes, and disappears. Nominated for a Nebula Award.

Neuromancer

Considered one of the earliest and best-known works in the cyberpunk genre. Only novel to win the Nebula Award, the Phillip K Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. Made William Gibson famous. Essentially the plot of the Matrix-> a man named Case plugs himself into the Matrix and engages in petty crime, and so he is banished from the Matrix. He gets hired to unite two conscious AI to create a superconsciousness.

Alan Turing

Had a PhD in Math from Princeton. Basically invents the computer in creating the universal Turing machine, which was created to break the enigma machine. Also invents the idea of algorithms. He was the key code breaker at Bletchley Park, where they broke the enigma machine during WW2. Publishes “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” Father of the concept of AI. Created the Turing Test. Charged with gross indecency later in life due to being gay and was given the option between jail and chemical castration (where you are loaded with female hormones), chose castration. Killed himself at 41 with an apple dipped in cyanide. Father of Theoretical Computing and the CPU.

“Computing Machinery and Intelligence”

Published in Mind (a peer-reviewed journal) in 1950. Written by Alan Turing. The paper was the first to introduce Turing’s concept of the Turing Test to the general public. First line: “I propose to consider the question, ‘Can machines think?’” In this paper, Turing is answering other scientists and saying that computers will have memory and will learn. This language that we use in considering the human mind and computers being analoged is Turing. Landmark in artificial intelligence.

Turing Test

Developed by Alan Turing, sometimes called the imitation game. Test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. Turing proposed that a human evaluator would judge natural language conversations between a human and a machine designed to generate human-like responses. The evaluator would be aware that one of the two partners in conversation was a machine, and all participants would be separated from one another. The conversation would be limited to a text-only channel, such as a computer keyboard and screen, so the result would not depend on the machine's ability to render words as speech. If the evaluator could not reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine would be said to have passed the test.

Mind (1950)

Mind is a peer-reviewed journal that is published on behalf of the Mind Association (a philosophical society whose purpose is to promote the study of philosophy). The 1950 issue contained Turing’s paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” which first introduced Turing’s concept of the Turing test to the public. Turing’s paper was a notable article for the peer-reviewed journal.

Bletchley Park

This was where the British broke the enigma machine, which Alan Turing participated in. Without Bletchley Park, the war would have gone on 2 more ears and cost 12 million more lives.

The enigma machine

The enigma machine was a cipher machine used by the Germans during WW2 to send encoded messages to each other. The way it worked was you typed a letter into it, it goes through the machine, and it comes out different. The machine then rewires itself. Cracked by Alan Turing and others at Bletchley Park.

Frank Rosenblatt

Cornell PhD, led the Cornell Neurobiology and Behavior Section. Built the first ever neural network learning computer, the Mark 1 Perceptron. First time it wasn’t theoretical. Father of Deep Learning-> a machine learning technique that teaches computers to do what comes naturally to humans. Dies in a boating accident.

The Perceptron

Landmark in artifical intelligence. Created by Frank Rosenblatt. First ever neural network (a method in artificial intelligence that teaches computers to process data in a way that is inspired by the human brain) learning computer. Called the Mark 1 Perceptron. First implementation of the perceptron algorithm.

Marvin Minsky

PhD in Math from Princeton. Good friends with Rosenblatt. Wrote a dissertation on the “Theory of neural-analog reinforcement systems and its application in the brain-model problem” -> The brain is more complicated than a single learn-and-apply computer. Also wrote the book *Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry* (1969). Brought about an AI Winter in the 1980s. Minsky believed that AI was really cool but wouldn't be able to do much, leading people in R and D programs to pull away from AI as people think that it is faster to teach people Russian instead of waiting for the computer to learn it.

AI Winter

Created by Marvin Minsky, occurred in 1980s. AI Winter is defined as a quiet period for AI research and development, an inactive cycle for AI intiatives. The term is also used to describe dormant periods when customer interest in AI declines. A period of reduced funding and interest in artificial intelligence research.

Deep Blue vs. Kasparov

Landmark in artificial intelligence. Feng-husiung Hsu develops a chess simulator at Carnegie Mellon and names it **Deep Blue->** a chess-playing expert system run on a unique purpose-built IBM supercomputer. It was the first computer to win a game, and the first to win a match, against a reigning world champion under regular time controls. Kasparov was number 1 in the world for chess from 1985-200. Kasparov and Deep Blue played 6 chess matches and Deep Blue wins 4-2. Future is not in explicitly training a machine to do one thing but in training it to train itself to do anything. Kasparov said that playing Deep Blue was like playing an alien and it was like a wall was coming at you.

DeepMind

Founded in 2010, later acquired by Google in 2014. Created a neural network that learns how to play video games in a fashion similar to that of humans, as well as the Neural Turing Machine. Created the AlphaGo program that beat human professional Lee Sedol in a five game match.

AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol

* Landmark in artificial intelligence.


1. Game 1: AkphaGo dominates. 
2. Game 2: AlphaGo’s Move 37-> AlphaGo made an unusual move that shocked Go experts across the world as it was a move that no human would have ever considered because it had a one in ten thousand chance of winning the game. This won AlphaGo the game but also made Go players consider moves that they considered “bad” moves. This move was also monumental because it demonstrated that AlphaGo had creativity and uniquenesswith its moves, something that people were not expecting. 
3. Game 3: Sedol aggressively loses. 
4. Game 4: Sedol’s ‘divine’ Move 78-> described as a “divine move” as it was completely unforeseen by those watching and experts at the game. This was the only game that Lee Sedol won against AlphaGo. 
5. Game 5: Sedol loses a close game. 

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* Lee Sedol became more human through playing AlphaGo. 

ELIZA effect

ELIZA was an MIT text-based computer program emulating a psychotherapist. The first chat-bot. All it did was reflect your emotions back at you. ELIZA effect: when a person attributes human-level intelligence and understanding to an AI system; the tendency to unconsciously assume computer behaviors are analogous to human behavior.

Media Equation Test

* Got a bunch of people to come in and take a quiz about pop culture. People went behind one of the computer’s back and shit-talked it to another computer. 
* Computer 1: giving the quiz, got good reviews during the quiz. 
* Computer 2: the computer asked about the other computer after the quiz was done, and got bad reviews of the other computer. 
* We are programmed to empathize, millions of years' worth of manners.


1. Anthropomorphism: the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object.
2. Computer-as-proxy
3. Mindlessness

Blake Lemoine

A google software engineer who helped create its Lambda AI. Lemoine is VERY weary of the AI of the future and has expressed concerns over AI developments.

LaMDA

Short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications. Google’s new AI. Its main purpose is a conversation AI, currently able to make very human-like convo. 

Artifical Intelligence: Pros & Cons

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* Pros
* Medical diagnoses will save 1 million lives per year. 
* Automated, autonomous farms could solve world hunger. 
* Operates 24/7 without interruption or breaks; no downtime. 
* Reduced error due to lack of human error and increased time efficiency in performing tasks. 
* Cons
* Existential Risk Theory: AI could have the potential to eliminate all of humanity or, at the very least, kill large percentages of the global population. Hypothesis that substantial progress in artifical general intelligence could result in human extinction or some other unrecoverable global catastrophe. 
* Misaligned AI: a misaligned system is competent at advancing some objectives, but not intended ones. This occurs because AI designers to specify the full range of desired and undesired behaviors. “Make me paperclips” example: tell an AI to make paperclips and it will make paperclips out of everything forever because it doesn’t know when to stop or what the desired material is.
* Replacement: automation has the potential to eliminate 73 million US jobs by 2030. 
* Rogue State Theory: rogue states are defined as aggressive states that seek to upset the balance of power of the international or established system.
* An increase in human laziness. 

Humanism

The idea that humans are uniquely conscious and have agency, consciousness, choice, and the ability to make decisions. The opposite of this is anti-humanism. Believers stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasizing common human needs. An approach based on reason and our common humanity. Recognizes that moral values are properly founded on human nature and experience alone. A belief that emphasizes faith and optimism in human potential and creativity.

Posthumanism

Umbrella term: contains anti-humanism and transhumanism. Challenges the idea that humans are and always will be the only agents of the moral world. Post-humanists believe in a world without race or gender and argue that in our tech-mediated future, placing humans at the top of the moral hierarchy will not make sense. Treats animals and plants as companion species to humans. It is a  way of being and living where technology, human, and nature seep into each other. Never Let Me Go is an example of posthumanism.

Anti-humanism

Under Posthumanism. Rejects the idea of humanism, which is the idea that we are uniquely conscious and have agency, and are able to make decisions. Rejects consciousness, agency, choice, etc. At its most extreme, it embraces the idea that humans are a plague on Eartha and supports zero population growth and voluntary human extinction.

Transhumanism

Under Posthumanism. A movement that advocates the use of current technology to augment human capability and improve the human condition, longevity, and cognition. It answers the question of the next level of evolution and using tech to do evolution better and overcome human limitations. Contains genetic enhancement, bioengineering, mechanical enhancement, robotification, artificial intelligence, and neural enhancement.

Bioengineering

A part of transhumanism. The application of engineering to living things, such as humans and plants. A discipline that applies engineering principles of design and analysis to biological systems and biomedical technologies. Seeks to advance scientific discovery and create usable and economically viable products. 

Diamond v. Chakrabarty (1980)

Chakrabarty had created a bacteria that ate oil and wanted to have a patent on it even though it was living and genetically created. Chakrabarty won the case and the patent. The decision made it so that you can have intellectual property in a living thing if it is genetically engineered. The creation of a bacterium that is not found anywhere in nature constitutes a patentable manufacture.

GMO’s

Genetically modified organism but most commonly refers to food that has been created through genetic engineering by combining natural or synthetic genes. Has become extremely common. Percentage of GMO Acreage by Crop: Soybeans (945), Corn (92%), Sugar Beets (95%), Canola (90%), and Cotton (94%).

Gene therapy

Part of transhumanism. A form of therapy which attempts to replace a faulty gene with a healthy gene in order to cure genetic diseases. Insertion of working copies of a gene into the cells of a person with a genetic disorder in an attempt to correct the disorder. Used today to combat leukemia, lymphoma, spinal muscular atrophy, etc.

Genetic enhancement

Part of transhumanism. Also known as bioengineering. Refers to human enhancement by means of genetic modification which seeks to modify genes to enahve the capabilities of the organism beyond was is normal. Deals with ideas such as directed evolution and biohappiness. Surrounded by ethical controversy. Aims to maximize human capabilities.

Biohappiness

Created by transhumanist David Pearce who wants to end the suffering of all sentient beings. The elevation of the wellbeing or happiness of humans through biological methods, such as using drugs to rase baseline levels of happniess. This believes that every baby should be born with a baseline level of happiness.

Directed evolution

The holy grail of transhumanism. Lab process by which biological entities with desired traits are created through rounds of genetic diversification and library screening. Designer babies/cloned animals/etc. Mimic of the natural evolutionary cycle in a lab setting.

Wearable electronics

Any type of electronic that is designed to be worn. Examples include: fitbits, apple watches, VR headsets, smart contact lenses, etc. Usually provides intelligent assistance that helps with creativity, communication, physical senses, etc.

Internet of Things (IoT)

A kind of wearable electronic. Physical objects with sensors, processing ability, and software that connect and exchange data with other devices over the Internet or other communication networks. Part of Transhumanism.

Neuroengineering

A practice that uses engineering techniques to better understand, replace, repair, or improve the brain. Also applies engineering techniques to the study of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Involves AI/human hybridity, the right to marry androids, etc.