Theatricality and technology

pygmalion and the myth of the intelligent machine

Julian Hilton

pp. 55-71

in: Bo Göranzon, Magnus Florin (eds), Dialogue and technology, Berlin, Springer, 1991

Abstract

Can machines think? The Cartesian test lays down that to be deemed intelligent the machine must be independent of the programmer, otherwise it is merely imitating. One way of considering the issue of the simulation of human behaviour is to look at the theatre. The theatre is both simulated and real because the actors have to convince the audience that they are real. The theatre has been exploring the representation and simulation of people's behaviour for thousands of years. AI could learn from it. In the theatre art is enabled by technology — by staging, sets, lighting, costumes, effects and so on. It is a complex aesthetic machine. The effectiveness of simulation therefore depends on the imagination of the audience. The same may apply to the knowledge-based machine. The story of Pygmalion and the myth of the intelligent machine highlights the discrepancy between surface mimicry and depth. The myth included ideals which Pygmalion mistakenly held about women. The later work, in which Higgins taught Eliza to speak like him and assumed that he had taught her to think like him too, illustrates the danger of divorcing words from meaningful context. The teaching of Eliza took place from a linguistic knowledge base. The implication for AI of not considering the context and environment within which knowledge gains meaning is that the knowledge engineering approach may fail to deal with the complexity of knowledge transfer.