Holeton, Composing Cyberspace

Forward Thinking about Chapter 1

In May 1997, what many were calling an epic battle between human and machine took place across a chessboard in New York City, while a global audience followed the game, move by move, on the Internet. "Big Blue" -- a state-of-the-art IBM computer with capabilities barely dreamed of only a generation ago -- defeated defending world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game contest. Was this a watershed event in human history, finally proving that computers have overtaken their creators, that science fiction fantasies of superior artificial intelligence are coming true? Or was the "battle" overhyped and not a true test of, or threat to, human intelligence and human identity?

Our answer depends, of course, on how we conceive our intelligence and our identity, and on how we view our relationship to our technologies. The Tony Auth cartoon in the paper version of Composing Cyberspace (p. 2), published about a year before the Kasparov-Big Blue duel, captures the same set of dilemmas. Again the contest is chess, by reputation our most intellectual game. Humankind -- or at least the thinking, contemplative part of human beings -- is represented by Auguste Rodin’s famous 1880 statue The Thinker; his robot opponent looks like R2D2, the droid of Star Wars fame. The robot, not the statue, reveals its thoughts -- thoughts which reverse the influential dictum of French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes (1596- 1650), "I think, therefore I am." Descartes’ assertion encapsulates a rationalist philosophy, the view that human identity depends on our intellectual capacity. The robot’s playful reversal of Descartes’ dictum suggests that its own identity arises from that same rational capacity, although the larger question posed by Rodin’s sculpture -- just what exactly is The Thinker thinking about? -- is left open.

If we focus on The Thinker’s attributes as a statue, then the cartoon takes on other dimensions. A statue can’t move or act, while the robot is shown to be moving a chess- piece as well as thinking like a person. Which one is closer to having a human, physical body? Are people at the dawn of the 21st century becoming more passive, objectified, or disembodied, while our machines become more "human"? This exchanging of characteristics between people and machines is only one aspect of identity in the computer age explored in this chapter.

How are electronic technologies affecting our ideas about what it means to be human? Based on her studies of how people use computers, Sherry Turkle suggests that "windows" -- the spaces on computer screens where one views different application programs, texts, and files -- offer a new metaphor for the multiple identities we may bring together as the idea of a single "self." Charles Platt explores the question "What’s It Mean to Be Human, Anyway?" by participating in a version of the Turing Test, a method proposed by computer pioneer Alan Turing to evaluate how well computer programs -- not unlike the IBM "expert system" that beat chess champion Kasparov -- can emulate human intelligence.

In an interview with Iain A. Boal, linguist George Lakoff disputes the mind-body split suggested by Descartes’ rationalist philosophy and suggests that emotions are an integral part of human identity inextricably linked to the human body; further, he argues that our usual ways of talking about information and communication are based on faulty, machine-based metaphors. Ellen Ullman also examines, through an e-mail relationship with a fellow computer programmer, the electronic and embodied aspects of human relations. "Which set of us is the more real," she asks, "the sleepless ones online, or these bodies in the daylight?" Likewise, in the dark, near-future world of William Gibson’s science fiction story "Johnny Mnemonic," the distinction between people and technology is far from clear; cyborgs -- part human, part machine -- are the norm.

Before you read these selections, you might take some time to think about how you conceive your own identity and relationship to technology, especially the computer technologies that increasingly impact our lives:

1. Consider the different "selves" that make up who you are. How do you act differently in different contexts, such as a family dinner, a party with friends, a day at work, a traveling vacation? How might people from different parts of your life describe your personality in different ways?

2. How do you behave or interact with others differently when you are "live" or face-to-face with them, when you talk on the telephone, when you exchange letters, and when you use a computer (for e-mail or another form of computer-mediated communication )? Compare your experiences using these different media with those of fellow readers.

3. How would you define intelligence or what makes you intelligent? In your experience, can machines (such as computers) be intelligent in some of the same ways as you? In what ways can computers be less intelligent than people? To what extent do you think that human intelligence requires a physical body or human emotions?

4. Cyborg is short for "cybernetic organism," meaning a combination of artificial and biological systems. What artificial aids or prosthetic devices, if any, do you have or regularly use as extensions or enhancements to your physical body? Make a list of all such aids -- don’t forget common items such as dental fillings and eyeglasses or contact lenses -- used by a group such as your extended family, fellow workers, or classmates (bear in mind that some people may not wish to discuss personal things like hairpieces, hearing aids, or surgical implants). How many people depend on no such technological aids or prosthetics?

5. If you have access to a computer lab, classroom, or networked computers equipped with electronic discussion software, hold a discussion in which everyone logs on anonymously. Before you begin, make sure you agree on some ground rules for netiquette or online politeness. Invent a pseudonym for a character different from you; for example, if you’re usually shy, play a gregarious role, or if you have a good sense of humor or tend to be warmly emotional, act serious or distant. Discuss, in the voice of your invented character, one of the issues raised above or another topic suggested by your peers or teacher. Afterwards, talk face-to-face about the experience. How liberating or how constraining did you find the role-playing experience?

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