The Humanities House Film Series: Contemplating the Human Condition Through Artificial Intelligence
Every semester, the Humanities House conducts a film series in order to have its members reflect upon the human condition in its contemporary state, and examine how it has evolved upto this place in time; in addition to how it may continue to develop. To do this, the film series explores a vast array of perspectives that, overall, construct the human condition, and observes how each aspect has altered, and is altering, with the progression of civilization; demonstrating the past, present, and future definition of the human condition through their analyses. For instance, past film series have fixated around subject matters like science fiction and music, and evaluated their relationship with the human experience overtime; in effect, elaborating on how ideals associated with the human condition, such as the meaning of life and morality, have shifted throughout the ages. This year, for the 2018 Spring semester, the learning community has focused on the concept of technology and consciousness, examining artificial intelligence and their capability of thought; and questioning what of their mentality is naturally occurring and what is externally guided, all to discern the realness, of their mind, from the artificialness. Through films that exhibit such, the Humanities House, in contemplating the human condition, has been witnessing the expanding answers to the philosophical inquiry of what makes something human.
One film, in particular, that has been shown is Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, a 1968 science-fiction film that delves into the next chapter of the human story; doing so by conceiving a future that is fabricated from humankind’s advancements in technology. Within the film, a US-commissioned voyage to Jupiter, overseen by the sentient computer HAL, is commenced after the nation discovers a monolith, on its moon outpost, that is affecting human evolution; all awhile the country, back on Earth, is deploying weapons of mass destruction up into the planet’s atmosphere in case of nuclear war. Here, the film designates human ingenuity as the source for technological progression; however, at a limitation of humans’ temptation to, both, create and destroy, establishing the fate of the human species, in the future, as in the symbolic hands of artificial intelligence. This, as a result, showcases a Prometheus narrative, in which the relationship between creator and created is characterized as parental in nature; similarly to how Prometheus, in the Theogony, stole fire for humanity because he was a champion of mankind. In the film, by initiating the technological revolution that would formulate the future, humanity embraces the role of the parent, who integrates their intelligence and inventiveness into the artificial life they create; all to ensure that their creations enable progress for humankind in the future, which is why the fate of humanity, eventually, becomes dependent on technology. By inheriting the mentality of their creators, the technology of the future, also, possess a consciousness similar to that of their makers, meaning the forms of artificial life acquire humans’ temptation to create and destroy; an emotion that the technology resorts to, in the film, when their programming is deemed faulty, and they attempt to resolve their imperfections. Perhaps this is best illustrated with the sentient computer HAL, who endeavors to interfere with the voyage’s mission after it is proposed that the artificial being is erroneous. Due to this, it could be possible to hypothesize that, in the past, what made something human was not one’s biological composition or mental existence; but the capability to uphold a consciousness and utilize the emotions, stemmed from this alertness, to express judgement, as was exhibited by the Prometheus narrative in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Another film that has been shown is Spike Jonze’s Her, a 2013 romantic science-fiction drama
film that embraces a less drastic overtone of the impactfulness from artificial intelligence, with the film regarding the creation of such technology as an ineffective indication of the futuristic state of humanity; ultimately, portraying artificial life as possessing no negative or positive influence on the progression of mankind. The basis for this premise derives from the perception that no matter what technological advancements may arrive, humans have already done the best and the worst to each other; as is depicted in the film, when its protagonist, who is characterized as a loner recovering from a failed marriage, begins to develop a relationship with an intelligent computer operating system named Samantha. Here, the film elucidates how human beings already befriend, love, and hurt one another; and suggests that these experiences are unlikely to change once technology learns to process thoughts, and our relationship with them expands. As a result, the film signifies technology to not be a future source of human ingenuity, but the embodiment of an intellectual mind that is lacking its humanity; to which humans could mold into their ideal person by sharing their experiences, allowing individuals, who do, to reap the best out of life. This, thusly, illustrates a Pygmalion narrative, in which the relationship between creator and created is expressed as fanciful in nature; for the creator attempts to design the created to their liking. The concept originates from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which details of a sculptor from Cyprus, named Pygmalion, who prays to Venus for a wife that resembles a statue he created and fell in love with, to which Venus responds by bringing his creation to life. The narrative implies that the artificial intelligence in Her are not capable of, solely, conceiving a conscience to abide by and make judgements for others; and, thereby, require not just the intellect of their creator, but a sensation of liveliness as well to be truly considered alive. Overall, this reiterates that such technology could not be impactful enough to guide civilization towards its progression, but could use civilization to discover its own humanity. What constitutes as being human would, potentially, involve the artificial intelligence grasping sensations, and experiences, that make it feel alive, not just a moral consciousness and the emotions incited from it; as the Pygmalion narrative in Jonze’s Her show.
Hence, in contemplating the human condition, both films have made it apparent that what makes something human is not a biological or physical attribute, but a, strictly, psychological one; as the two films acknowledge artificial intelligence to be alive because of their ability to think. However, the films differ in terms of what about such technology’s mentality makes them human, with Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey focusing on the capability of artificial intelligence to acquire a moral conscience and emotionally administer judgement for others; while Jonze’s Her centralizes upon the possibility for this technology to adapt an array of sensations and experiences to, overall, exert a global awareness of the world around them. The difference in responses indicates an evolution to the understanding of what makes an entity humanized; yet, there are still other answers to comprehend, to which the Humanities House will provide through its showing of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 later this semester. Regardless, the films already shown have implied that humankind’s comprehension of the human condition has, in effect, altered overtime, and the films coming up will only continue to clarify this notion.
Works Cited
“The Modern Pygmalion: 'Her' and 'Under the Skin'.” I'll Explain Later: Cultural Afterthoughts and
Other Musings, WordPress.com, 2 Apr. 2014,
culturalafterthoughts.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/the-modern-pygmalion/#_ftn2.
Gittell, Noah. “The Radical, Reassuring Message of ‘Her.’” Reel Change, WordPress.com , 22 Dec.
2013, reelchange.net/2013/12/22/the-radical-reassuring-message-of-her/.
