Artificial Intelligence in Gibsons Idoru and Oshiis...

Artificial Intelligence in Gibsons Idoru and Oshiis Ghost in the Shell Introduction If people knew what scientists are up to, they would not be sleeping as calmly as they do today. If only they knew, they would read more carefully what the cyberpunk authors have to say. The purpose of this work is not only to compare the pictures of Artificial Intelligence (hereafter referred to simply as AI) included in two major works of cyberpunk genre, but also to show the connection between those images and the reality we all live in or its nearest future. So what is the future of AI depicted in cyberpunk works like? And if, as Sterling suggests, science-fiction writers pass on a cautionary message to the†¦show more content†¦A useful addition to it is provided by the author who is considered one of the founders of the genre, William Gibson. In one of his interviews he stated that it is about the present. Its not really about an imagined future. Its a way of trying to come to terms with the awe and terror inspired . . . by the world in which we live (Anonymous collective work). This opinion is in accordance with the opening quotation from Sterling. Both opinions, too, answer the question of why the examples from this particular genre were chosen for the sake of comparison shown in this very work. Indeed, there is a reason for doing this: the resemblance to reality cyberpunk works bear. Obviously, there are other genre-specific features that characterize cyberpunk: like the presence of the Internet (that is often combined into one entity with virtual reality and takes up different names: Cyberspace, Matrix, Multiverse, partly because it was invented in cyberpunk literature before it was invented in reality and named the Internet) or the influence of almighty organizations in the form of international corporations or mafia-like criminal orders of different kinds. These elements, too, appear in the works described herein, but they are just other elements of a picture already defined. Defining Basic Notions: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence Let us now consider the term Artificial Intelligence. What is AI then? And do we live