Sources of fascination (3) - Threat of automatons
At one point when Jaquet-Droz’s series of automatons were exhibited across parts of Europe, the creator and the creation were imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition for heresy. Although it is unclear whether the two were imprisoned separately in different cells or done so together, this action of the Spanish Inquisition represents the thoughts and feelings of general audience of the automatons at the time of the Enlightenment in a slightly exaggerated manner. Wood describes the conflicting feeling of the audience well in his book Edison’s Eve by saying; “Mixed in with the magic and marvel is a fear: that we can be replicated all too easily, and that we are uncertain now of what it is that makes us human.” (xvi, Wood) This, as Sigmund Freud describes is the feeling of the ‘uncanny,’ which, in the words of Freud, is “the feeling that arises when there is an ‘intellectual uncertainty about the borderline between the lifeless and the living.” (xiv-xv, Wood) In his essay The Uncanny, Freud describes the feeling of uncanniness to lead “back to something long known to us, once very familiar.” (1-2, Freud) Thus the feeling of the uncanny is evoked when a familiar situation is made repulsive because it results in feelings or reactions out of the norm. For the Spanish Inquisition, the feeling of the uncanny would have stemmed from the acquaintance of the humanlike activities performed by the automatons and the unfamiliarity of a “life” being created by a man. This feeling must have been threatening enough for the Spanish Inquisition to imprison not only Jaquet-Droz but also his creation.
But this somewhat humorous encounter of the Writer, an automaton, being imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition is an example of an extreme response of the feeling of the uncanny. For them, because their fundamental faith is placed on the fact that there is a single superior being entitle to the power to create life, thus leading to contradiction of their core beliefs, the feeling of fear would have overwhelmed the feeling of awe when encountered with the Writer.
It can be said that the machine is both the alterity and mimesis of humans. An automaton is a mimesis of a man as it mimics humanlike actions. But at the same time, we have a desire to distinguish ourselves from our mimesis because of the feeling of the uncanny, thus regarding and referring to them as the separate alter. Why do humans think it is necessary to distinguish themselves from their look-alike creations? Is it the simple fear of something alien becoming part of them? In order for a distinction between humans and automatons to be made, it is necessary for the criteria of what makes a human being “human” to be drawn out.
With the advancement of technology in creating a more lifelike and humanlike automatons, it has become harder than ever to distinguish between what makes a being human and not human, and thus was the Turing test created. The test allows a person to distinguish between a human and a robot in a blind setting. An automaton’s eventual passing of this test indicates that the boundary between automatons and humans will be totally erased and humans would not be able to distinguish themselves different from man-made creatures and creations. It is important to point out that the mere existence of such test indicates the implied understanding that the similarities between the automatons and humans are becoming ever so great.
But this somewhat humorous encounter of the Writer, an automaton, being imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition is an example of an extreme response of the feeling of the uncanny. For them, because their fundamental faith is placed on the fact that there is a single superior being entitle to the power to create life, thus leading to contradiction of their core beliefs, the feeling of fear would have overwhelmed the feeling of awe when encountered with the Writer.
It can be said that the machine is both the alterity and mimesis of humans. An automaton is a mimesis of a man as it mimics humanlike actions. But at the same time, we have a desire to distinguish ourselves from our mimesis because of the feeling of the uncanny, thus regarding and referring to them as the separate alter. Why do humans think it is necessary to distinguish themselves from their look-alike creations? Is it the simple fear of something alien becoming part of them? In order for a distinction between humans and automatons to be made, it is necessary for the criteria of what makes a human being “human” to be drawn out.
With the advancement of technology in creating a more lifelike and humanlike automatons, it has become harder than ever to distinguish between what makes a being human and not human, and thus was the Turing test created. The test allows a person to distinguish between a human and a robot in a blind setting. An automaton’s eventual passing of this test indicates that the boundary between automatons and humans will be totally erased and humans would not be able to distinguish themselves different from man-made creatures and creations. It is important to point out that the mere existence of such test indicates the implied understanding that the similarities between the automatons and humans are becoming ever so great.
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