Post by Leathurkatt on Aug 13, 2010 8:53:37 GMT -5
Transformers and Philosophy:
More than Meets the Mind
Pay close attention. The survival of our planetary civilization may hang upon correctly grasping the words in this book.
Transformers have transformed the way we think about First Contact with an alien civilization and so they have transformed the way we define ourselves as human. Futurists now believe that beings capable of interstellar travel will, at some point in their past, have transformed themselves from organic to robotic, though there's disagreement about whether such metallic mentalities will have saved a spot for morality.
For a marketing gimmick to sell children's toys, Transformers have rapidly evolved into TV cartoons, comic books, and live-action movies. Like the All Spark itself, they change everything they touch into something like themselves. AI mechanisms with souls, endlessly replicating and regenerating. Excepting only the Star Wars saga, Transformers have made more fans - and more real friends - on the surface of this planet than any other scifi story, and they are still multiplying their influence exponentially.
As we entrust the conduct of war to intelligent weapons, can we program them to make ethical judgments? Will highly advanced robots need relaxation and diversion? What's our optimal approach to contact with aliens? When we fleshlings transform ourselves into factory-built machines, will we retain romantic love, and if so, why? From a machine's point of view, could there be a real distinction between good and evil? Will machine civilizations develop machine mythologies and machine religions? Such issues have been probed by eighteen advanced intelligences, who deliver their momentous findings in 'Transformers and Philosophy'.
Making Proper Introductions
The search for extraterrestrial life is over. Aliens have been discovered in great numbers and in great variety. They exist, at the very least, in the human imagination. Their stories are told in novels, short stories, movies, comic strips, cartoons, and folklore. In science-fiction stories, aliens are often depicted as horrible little creatures who visit Earth to wreak havoc on its inhabitants. And a common theme of alien abduction stories is the horrific nature of the invasive experiments to which abductees are subjected at the hands of their alien captors. But the pervasiveness of all kinds of alien stories that exist in our culture today suggests that humans find these frightening stories far more compelling and spell-binding than the alternative – that there are no aliens at all and we are alone in the universe.
Transformers comprise a unique example of possible alien life for several reasons. First, they are robotic in nature and thus very different from the “little green men” cliché of mid-twentieth-century science fiction. Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, thinks that First Contact will be with a civilization of artificially intelligent robots. It’s quite likely that if an alien civilization has existed long enough to develop the technology for space travel, they will also have figured out how to build intelligent machines that are not subject to the limitations of biological life and are designed to endure the rigors of space travel. Second, while many traditional alien stories involve the good humans versus evil aliens dichotomy, Transformers are unique in having their own dichotomy to deal with – evil Decepticons and good Autobots. Humans immediately get caught in between, on a moral plane as well as a physical plane.
The fact that the Autobots remain on Earth to protect the planet and its people from the evil Decepticons makes them immediately endearing to us. They had an independent reason for coming to Earth, namely to recover the All Spark and restore peace on their own home planet of Cybertron. Yet they are now determined to protect the human inhabitants of the planet throughout their mission on Earth. In the 2007 movie we see the Autobots develop deep and moving relationships with a few humans and begin to witness in them a new kind of transformation: from mere machines or robots to more thoughtful, compassionate, humanlike subjects. Transformers bear little resemblance to the little green men of the horror-scifi genre that wanted to harvest the human race for food or make us their slaves; they are instead an admirable race of beings in their own right, with their own history and future, concerns and motives, one of which includes the protection of the young and weak human race from the tyranny of the evil Decepticons.
This book presents a collective inquiry into the nature of this alien, robotic civilization that so many have grown to admire and love. Its chapters take a close look at Transformers on a deeper, more philosophical level. They ask and answer many questions about their fundamental nature, such as: Do Transformers have moral status? Are they morally accountable for their actions? As smart robots, they can pass the Turing Test with flying colors, but do they have minds? How about souls? Are they heaven-bound? Are they capable of love, and if so, which kind of love: Platonic? Erotic? And what makes Optimus Prime always Optimus Prime, whether robot or vehicle? What makes him the same being despite his changing form? Some chapters adopt a particular philosophical stance from which to analyze Transformer nature, such as phenomenological or Aristotelian. And others chose to focus on a particular Transformer Character: John Shook’s chapter postulates that Megatron is best understood as a fascist, while Swan and Stillwaggon Swan’s essay portrays a broken down Optimus Prime seeking guidance through psychological counseling.
In our imaginations, Transformers are so real, so humanlike. But what does that really mean? One of the most significant features of Artificial Intelligence is that it objectifies what before was only subjective. AI creations such as robots provide a kind of mirror for us to see features of ourselves from a new perspective. It’s impossible to look into someone’s mind (which, you will note, is not exactly the same as looking into someone’s brain, which we can do!). Yet it is possible, and also fun and interesting, to watch robots do things that require what we think is going on in the human mind when humans do things. And Transformers are certainly no exception. By probing more deeply into the cognitive, moral, and metaphysical features of Transformers, we’re really probing more deeply into human nature, since Transformers are our creations after all!
And what a stunningly successful creation Transformers has been. From its humble beginnings as a marketing tool to sell some Japanese-made toys, the Transformers have used every modern media to expand into the planet’s collective consciousness. The recent Transformers blockbuster movie was a huge success in 2007, but many people still easily recall the original cartoon TV series (1984-1987) and also the comic books, which continue to be published around the world. Over fifty different series of Transformers toys and matching storylines have been released to date (see tfwiki.net/ ), and there are no signs of slowing down. Needless to say, Transformers now has an immense web existence as well, propelled by an amazing amount of fan energy.
Transformers turned out to be far more than a marketing ploy to sell children’s toys. Excepting only the Star Wars saga, no science-fiction story has reached as many people around the world. While countless science-fiction writers have explored future scenarios of humans encountering and dealing with robots, Transformers has been the single greatest entertainment vehicle to explore the potential scenario of humans confronting an alien robotic civilization in our own time. Their influence on the way that the world thinks about First Contact is undeniable. Furthermore, if Seth Shostak’s prognostications have any validity, Transformers may be prophetic as well. Our first communication and contact with an alien civilization may be with AI life forms. Are we ready?
There may be Megatrons out there… but hopefully there will be Optimus Primes, too. First impressions really will matter. Can we make proper introductions?
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The first part is transcribed from the back of the book, while the second part is the Introduction inside. For those of you who are interested, you can order this book from Amazon.com here or from Alibris.com here. The Publisher's list price is $19.95 for the 243 page perfect-bound trade paperback book. I have it and am reading through it currently. You'd be amazed at what you discover in this book.