Turing Machines, U-Bombs, and yes, the obligatory hyper sensory savant. This must be philosophy + science fiction. Philip K. Dick presents more questions about machines in this piece, but most of the topics seem to revolve around the same things we've seen in all of his writings. There is uncertainty, and the question of memory being a great deceptor, but what sets this piece apart is the general sense of terror and hysteria that is caused during wartime. Surprisingly psychological, if you ask me. There is an extreme feeling of paranoia that comes in considering that perhaps realizing you are the planet's greatest threat to its own existence. Worse still that saying your own name causes its destruction. However, this raises an interesting question. If he concludes that he cannot be himself, who then does he conclude he is that causes the bomb to trigger? Does the robot's identity rise to the surface when his host's memory becomes compromised? If we were to find unquestionable evidence that we were not ourselves, would our true identities become clear?
A final note on robots before moving on to clearly the most interesting piece of the three. I've had experience working with Turing Machines and tests this past summer at the University of Chicago, so it was a special treat to find references to materials I had worked with. It is an exceptionally hard concept to grasp, that is the fact that we can represent with paper and pen the processes that computers and machines go through even with simple tests to compute a language. If my brain hurt so hard from trying to make it compute the string "1979" then what chance could we have to create fully capable robots. I don't think they're coming in this lifetime, and if they do, there better be an awesome explanation how.
Funes is the most interesting character we've met in Science Fiction this year. He's your typical case of the "Daredevil" Archtype who loses one capability to become infinitely more sensitive to another. What is fascinating about him is his desire to manifest his beliefs about the constantly changing world through creating a separate language. This is the first case of tangible response to existential doubts we've seen. He doubts the world is always as we see it, so he changes his tongue to account for this. Sure, perhaps he's crazy, but he's the only crazy so far who has made their beliefs really hit where we are the most expressive: in our mouths.
Oh, and then there's the obvious Turing Machine / Constantly changing language connection. Curious? I think so.
A final note on robots before moving on to clearly the most interesting piece of the three. I've had experience working with Turing Machines and tests this past summer at the University of Chicago, so it was a special treat to find references to materials I had worked with. It is an exceptionally hard concept to grasp, that is the fact that we can represent with paper and pen the processes that computers and machines go through even with simple tests to compute a language. If my brain hurt so hard from trying to make it compute the string "1979" then what chance could we have to create fully capable robots. I don't think they're coming in this lifetime, and if they do, there better be an awesome explanation how.
Funes is the most interesting character we've met in Science Fiction this year. He's your typical case of the "Daredevil" Archtype who loses one capability to become infinitely more sensitive to another. What is fascinating about him is his desire to manifest his beliefs about the constantly changing world through creating a separate language. This is the first case of tangible response to existential doubts we've seen. He doubts the world is always as we see it, so he changes his tongue to account for this. Sure, perhaps he's crazy, but he's the only crazy so far who has made their beliefs really hit where we are the most expressive: in our mouths.
Oh, and then there's the obvious Turing Machine / Constantly changing language connection. Curious? I think so.
posted by Graham Rosby at 7:50 PM
2 Comments:
I agree with you about Funes, at least in terms of him being the most interesting character. I've heard it said that every brain has the capacity to have a memory (at least almost as) developed as Funes's, but in few people is that potential actually fulfilled. I know that people with certain forms of autism ("savant syndrome," i think it's formally called) have that ability--I read about a boy who was able to recall the weather of any given day up to about 10 years back. I found an article about it:
'The fact still remains that even with a better memory, most humans would still be incapable of performing the types of tasks that autistic savants do naturally. The reason for this is related to the way by which we perceive the world. For example, when an image falls on the retina, much of the information is screened out, as we learned in class. Before this happens, however, all sorts of details are identified by various parts of the brain in ways that are eventually reconciled to assemble patterns. In savants, this reconciliation does not occur in the same way, and thus "see the picture in fantastically detailed components, like individual pixels in a photograph"'
...If the speed of reconciliation is the largest issue, then it follows that within every human, the possibility of savant abilities is present...The theory is further supported by the fact that autistic children often lose their abilities once their social interactions improve, much as children's savant skills deteriorate once they obtain a strong command of language.>
So perhaps Funes' newfound abilities to perceive and remember were due to neurological damage?
What I don't at all understand about his condition is why he would even bother creating a new number "system" or a new language. It seems like a maniacal and pointless thing to attempt--again, this could support the neurological damage idea. On page 136, Borges writes "Funes either could not or would not understand me."
p.s. if anyone's interested:
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro01/web2/Shah.html
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