ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN SCIENCE FICTION AS A MODEL OF THE POST-HUMAN SITUATION OF MANKIND

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AS A SCIENTIFIC FIELD AND FICTION The article1 maps a range of topics and contexts which, in my view, necessarily come into play when one of the most frequent science fiction topics – artificial intelligence – is to be thoroughly considered. The main paradox the reader faces (however indirectly or unconsciously) while reading a story making use of artificial intelligence is that he or she is confronted with a concept that views the features of human mind and intelligence as identifiable, fabricatable or programmable – the paradox stemming from the fact that it is exactly these features that enable him or her to read and interpret the given story. Implicitly, the suggested answers indicate the difference of such a self-referential structure from that of self-conscious fiction, meta-novels, and anti -illusive narrative in general. In today’s cultural situation it is almost impossible to have clearly defined borders between scientific “concepts and terms” and their “vulgar” usage in everyday discourse. Considering the proliferation of technology in everyday life, transforming the very cognitive capacities of the human mind (especially through changing the ways people experience the physical world), this situation can be seen as especially relevant if we want to discuss “intelligence”, “mind”, and “cognition” and its relevance as far as its role in constructing human identity is concerned. At the same time, language used in “everyday discourse” is not in any way naïve, innocent or uninformed, but forms a complex cultural construct that incorporates the beliefs and values of a given society (say: Western society of the last seventy-five years). Simultaneously, it also influences the use, functioning, and definition of these beliefs and values – in other words: cooperates in codifying them. My question is: what is the function of science fiction in shaping people’s ideas about the plausibility of constructing an artificial intelligence and hence the knowability of the processes that define the human mind, further evolution of the human race, and so forth? There were several questions I asked myself before writing this article. Firstly, what allows me to talk about “artificial intelligence” as a scientific field (in itself a rather unstable domain where psychology, computer sciences, neurology, genetics, study of perception, semiotics, information theory, and linguistics intersect and influence each other) and science fiction at the same time? Can anything relevant be concluded