Room 4
Post-human: AI, androids and cyborgs
Finding a sapient and sentient counterpart has been on human beings’ to-do list ever since they recognised themselves as intelligent beings. They once resorted to nature, and unfortunately discovered that it is not possible to teach other animals to speak; then they turned their eyes to extraterrestrial civilisations, who have not yet replied so far. The burning desire of an intelligent company finally drives human beings to create artificial beings that are able to work for them, play with them, and most importantly, understand them.
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The technology of Artificial Intelligence and manufacture of androids and cyborgs, however, is prone to misuse and abuse. When human beings have found the intelligent counterpart and an understanding company, technical concerns also grow. As artificial beings become increasingly able to be competent at jobs that human beings are not able to accomplish - such as explorations in extreme natural environments, industrial processes requiring great precision, or highly repetitive jobs that humans do not bother to undertake - it seems that they start to challenge the necessity of human beings, the natural beings who are proven to be interior to their artificial creature.
Exhibit 4.1
Prosthetic telecommunication devices
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Exhibit 4.4
A fossil of Human Audio Tooth Implants
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Further on, moral and ethical debates never subside. The competence of these artificial beings in certain areas also challenges the uniqueness and sacredness of human beings, asking if the creatures can become equal, if not superior, to their creators. Moreover, as trade unions and wellbeing organisations for androids and cyborgs will have been increasingly established, the artificial beings will have begun to reflect on the current societal system dominated by human beings and questioned the justifiability of it. Some pioneer AI right movement leaders even will have sought a social revolution for a more balanced order between themselves and human beings.
There is no, at least not yet, sharp conflicts between AIs and human beings, but in a foreseeable post-human future, the social order must have been reconsidered and rebalanced after the rise of a new species and the decline of an old one. As Mary Shelley has warned with discerning foresight in her prophecy Frankenstein, the Adam, once being misused and abused, is liable to becoming the fallen angel. 'Man,' they will have cried, 'how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!'
Exhibit 4.2
Electric sheep
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Exhibit 4.3
The Green Man
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