“I, Robot”: Artificial Intelligence and Fears of the Posthuman

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has frequently been discussed with reference to questions about what it means to be human. A fear of dehumanizing technology and its simultaneous attraction are represented in the fiction and films chosen for this paper. I look at Elmer Rice's play The Adding Machine (1923) and elaborate on how the introduction of technology costs Mr. Zero his job and his boss his life. Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) plays with the indistinguishability of humans and androids and the latter's desire gradually to replace human beings. Dave Eggers's The Circle (2013) and Ernest Cline's Ready Player One (2011) reveal the simultaneous existence of a fascination with and a fear of technology in the form of new and social media. The machine(s) pull(s) human beings into the world of virtual reality in a process that takes possession of the human and successfully erases free will. The films AI (2001), I, Robot (2004), and Ex Machina (2014) expose the increasing human fear of being overpowered by robots and being unable to distinguish between machines and human beings, that is to recognize the robots' passing as humans. This fear of what we can call the posthuman, with all its ambiguities and impreciseness, will be the focus of my presentation.