Science Fiction Tried to Warn Us about AI. Or Did It?, by Tom Gammarino Essay [email protected] Wed, 03/01/2023 - 03:46 Photo by NASA / Unsplash “All our AI Frankenstein stories,” the author writes, “warn us that AI will destroy us, but far louder than that, they promise that the future is going to be mind-blowing and epic.” Will we heed the warnings? Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the literary work that most clearly established the conventions of science fiction as we know it. Not only did the 1818 novel pioneer the archetype of the mad scientist, it also established one of the genre’s most important cultural roles: to warn us about ways humans, through our hubris, might create the very beings that eventually undo us. In subtitling the novel The Modern Prometheus, Shelley harked back to the Titan who stole fire from the gods and was punished by having his regenerating liver devoured every day by an eagle (since the liver was the seat of the emotions for the Greeks, we might as well translate it as “heart”). Inspired by the experiments of Luigi Galvani, who used electric current to stimulate the leg of a dissected frog, and his nephew Giovanni Aldini, who ran a similar experiment on a hanged criminal, Shelley had her mad scientist play God by endowing a patchwork of human remains with the spark of life. Two centuries later, the resulting monstrosity serves as a stand-in for any of our runaway technologies — the internal... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2023-03-01 09:46:57 UTC ]
Science fiction illustrates the perspective-bending challenge of conjuring intelligent life that’s radically different from humans. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2023-04-18 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-04-17 14:06:49 UTC ]
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Her science fiction writing won awards. Her tarot books won her a devoted following. And she created DC Comics’ first transgender superhero. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-04-13 20:05:34 UTC ]
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Back in 2021, the New York Police Department (NYPD) cancelled a planned deployment of the Spot robot dog [aka "Digidog"] following a public backlash. Now, New York City's current law and order mayor Eric Adams has brought the robot dog back for use in "hazardous situations," The New York Times... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-04-12 06:19:27 UTC ]
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The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-04-10 13:54:15 UTC ]
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Science fiction has always been good at predicting distant futures and now governments are turning to them to ward off possible threats. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2023-04-10 13:17:28 UTC ]
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Pollack, who created the first mainstream transgender superhero, Kate Godwin, had been fighting Hodgkin’s lymphomaRachel Pollack, award-winning author, leading authority on tarot and the occult, trans activist and comic-book writer who created the first mainstream transgender superhero, has died... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-08 10:45:56 UTC ]
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The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-04-03 14:22:26 UTC ]
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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Of all the writers of science fiction and speculative fiction writing in the twentieth century, a few names spring to mind as candidates for the most ‘prophetic’ writers in the field: William Gibson, who popularised the term ‘cyberspace’ and the idea... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-04-03 14:00:15 UTC ]
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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Of all the writers of science fiction and speculative fiction writing in the twentieth century, a few names spring to mind as candidates for the most ‘prophetic’ writers in the field: William Gibson, who popularised the term ‘cyberspace’ and the idea... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-04-03 14:00:15 UTC ]
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The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-03-27 13:20:56 UTC ]
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Red your way into the best realistic science fiction, ranging from well-known classics to lesser known gems. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-03-24 10:35:00 UTC ]
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Writers, publishers and agents pay tribute to a warm, generous figure, author of more than 50 books ranging from SFF to crime to children’s literatureEric Brown, a prolific, award-winning author who published more than 50 novels, children’s books and short story collections, and who was the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-03-23 13:58:10 UTC ]
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The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-03-20 13:42:08 UTC ]
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The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-03-13 13:58:47 UTC ]
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Want a glimpse into the future of SFF? We look at some of the weird and wonderful standouts from The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2023-03-10 17:00:00 UTC ]
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The 2023 Nebula Award Finalists were announced by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association this week. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-03-09 15:15:00 UTC ]
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This exciting mix of new science fiction and fantasy novels out in March 2023 will help you finish off the worst of the winter. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-03-09 11:34:00 UTC ]
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The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-03-06 14:26:01 UTC ]
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It is one thing to treat AI as a tool when it has no scope for emotion. It is quite another when AI has a full suite of emotional responses. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2023-03-05 19:19:51 UTC ]
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