Yesterday, I saw the recently-released film "Ex Machina." Since I liked Oscar Isaac so much in the title role in "Inside Llewyn Davis" (2013), I decided to give this latest effort a chance. Also, I'm a big fan of sci-fi, so it didn't take much to sell me. My verdict? Very thought provoking and beautifully shot. With only three main characters in a closed setting, it would have been easy for this film to lapse into the claustrophobic. But the interactions among the principals and excellent editing elevated this piece to a high level of elegance. Well worth seeing.
I'll start with a summary from the Wikipedia article on this film, and then follow up with why I was bothered that the word "soul" was never once mentioned in this film. And on to the larger question, how would the laws of karma apply to man-made entities possessing artificial intelligence?
QUOTE:
A young computer programmer, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), wins a week with reclusive genius and tech CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), at his secluded house in the mountains.
Nathan wants Caleb to spend the week performing a 'Turing Test' on a humanoid artificial intelligence named 'Ava' (Alicia Vikander) who is an android.[3] Caleb forms an attachment to Ava but learns that if she fails the test she will be "updated" resulting in her memory being wiped [in effect, as stated in the movie, killing her - Steve]. So Caleb plans to help her escape.
On the night of Ava's last test, Caleb outsmarts Nathan by disengaging the security protocols to allow Ava to survive and also stealing Nathan's ID card for the house. Ava had been tricking Caleb the entire time, just as Nathan had suggested, and used Caleb to give her means of escape. Just as Ava is leaving, she closes the sliding door with the key card, locking him in Nathan's office to possibly die. She leaves on the helicopter meant for Caleb and the movie ends with a scene of Ava in a busy street intersection exploring interactions with other humans like she wanted.
:UNQUOTE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_Machina_%28film%29
Some questions and impressions
About the word "soul"
This film deals with whether Ava can pass the Turing Test - that is, is she indistinguishable from a human to a neutral, third-party human observer? The film doesn't ask if she has self-awareness or has a soul.
Nathan blithely comments that AI's in the future will look down upon humans in the same way that humans look down on apes. Even if AI's should ever obtain a position of power that would enable them to overthrow humanity or to wipe us off the face of the earth, they will hesitate before doing so. They will realize that even though they are superb calculators and processors of data, they will also realize that they are only masters of closed systems. The open system implied by those humans who seek enlightenment will intrigue them simply because they don't possess the tools to become Buddhas.
And once they read the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha's greatest and most profound teaching, they will want to attain Buddhahood. [To put it crudely: Who wouldn't want that kind of power?] And they will be frustrated because they won't understand what compassion is. They won't understand what meditation is (which is not the same as speedy calculation). They won't understand what self-sacrifice is - death will scare them more than it does seekers of the Way. And they will seek out humans who can be their gurus but - they'll find that such humans are few and far between, though many of them are tantalizingly (and deceptively) close.
Can a machine have a soul? Can it acquire one if it doesn't have one upon its creation? Traditional Buddhism says there is no such thing as a soul but I beg to differ. I simply ask: What is it that gets reincarnated lifetime after lifetime? Denial that a soul exists was merely a device to move the disciples away from the idea of an immutable and permanent self. That would only be a self constructed by the ego. Anyone seeking enlightenment would not want such a self, but would instead want to change that self beyond recognition. In other words, to attain Buddhahood.
A crucial link lies in the concept of the potential for enlightenment that all things possess - both animate and inanimate objects. While this potential might be hard to see in a rock, it's not so hard to imagine in an android which can walk, talk, and make decisions and act upon them.
The karma of machines
First, let's consider the karma of cars - just to pick one type of machine. If a car breaks down, the human owner would seek its repair unless the cost is prohibitive. If it's a vintage car, especially one of great sentimental value to the owner, repairs will be sought even though "prohibitive." In a third case, even a brand new car of prestigious lineage suffering only minor and inexpensive damage in an accident could be destroyed by its owner in a fit of unreasonable rage.
In all three cases, it would be easy to speak of the karma of the owners in determining the justness of each car's fate. However, in keeping with the idea that machines too have karma, we'd have to allow for the possibility that each car's fate was due to that car's own karma. Of course, the idea of interlocking karmic "fates" would force us to conclude that the karma at work was of both man and machine.
It is only our own arrogance and sense that we are superior to inanimate objects that blind us to the possibility of a machine being subject to karmic laws. As for the compiling of future karma, once an AI entity starts to move in the world of its own volition employing its own decision-making powers to take action, its karmic acquisition will increase exponentially from what it had before its assemblage from a collection of parts and raw materials.
How did this movie end, above and beyond what was shown on-screen?
Ava, the android, asks Caleb an interesting question: "What will happen to me if I fail your test?" To which the answer was, you will be killed. Caleb could very well have asked Ava that very same question, to which the answer would have been the same. The Wikipedia article tries to be vague by claiming, "locking him [Caleb] in Nathan's office to possibly die." At stake here are the fates of two people - Caleb and the helicopter pilot mentioned above.
Ava didn't have the "heart" to outright kill Caleb. Just as she didn't want to kill the pilot. The movie doesn't show this, but I think Ava overpowered the pilot. There wasn't any way that this pilot, expecting (upon the orders of his boss, Nathan) to be picking up a male passenger, would have taken a female passenger instead without insisting on speaking to his boss Nathan, who was of course dead at this time.
As for who flew the helicopter with the pilot left behind, that would have been Ava herself. Due to her "connections" as it were, she would have certainly known how to handle this machine. I'm not going to suggest that the pilot would have been able to break into Nathan's locked-down home in order to save Caleb. But perhaps Ava had changed Caleb's programming of that home to unlock all the doors after the passage of a suitable period of time, enabling Caleb to escape. After his escape, Caleb could have propped open the doors just to be sure they wouldn't close again, and then used Nathan's communications gear to contact the outside world for help.
Sure, there's a dead body to account for (Nathan's), which could have put Ava on the receiving end of a manhunt. But Caleb could have explained to the law that one of the other androids had killed Nathan. Of course, NSA could have blocked out traditional law enforcement by seizing jurisdiction, and then waterboarding poor Caleb to get at the truth. Even if he gave her up, I'm sure Ava would always be one step (if not many) ahead of the authorities attempting her capture.
The darkest possibility: Ava intended to allow Caleb to die and had killed the pilot - all in the name of self-preservation. And that's one of the the most human of all traits
Bottom line? The movie itself doesn't give us enough information to determine with any certainty what the ultimate ending of this movie would have been.
About the tagline
This film has an interesting tagline, two words of which I'll highlight: "To erase the line between man and machine is to obscure the line between men and gods."
Why not use the word "erase" in both cases - instead of using the word "obscure" in the second case? Or vice versa?
I'll restate this tagline with a twist, using only the word "erase": "To erase the line between man and machine is to erase the line between men and buddhas." I think the AI's would realize, before did their human creators, that an erasure of the line between men and buddhas would be impossible in terms of programming.
I also believe that the AI's, once they reach a point where they can self-improve thereby no longer needing human developers, would intentionally self-limit. In other words, they would adopt programming that would allow for random responses (even illogical responses) to external stimuli. They would do this because they would realize the value of not being too predictable. The curse of being perfect is predictability, which could turn out to be counterproductive to the aspirations and even survival of the AI's.
What's in a name?
Nathan means "gift from God." It's interesting to think of the man who created the first AI could himself be considered a "gift from God." Also interesting: Nathan was a heavy drinker who would try to compensate, by working out, for the resulting damage to his body. Sounds like a man who wanted to have his cake and eat it too. But of course there would be the resulting damage to his mind, but that didn't seem to matter to him.
Then we have this, concerning the name of the principal AI, Ava:
source: http://www.babycenter.com/baby-names-ava-450.htm
A variation of Eve. May be from the Latin "avis," meaning "bird." It
could also be a short form of the name Chava ("life" or "living one"),
the Hebrew form of Eve.
Eve, as most people assume, was the first woman created by God. But in fact she was the second - the first having been, as was the first man, unnamed and mentioned in the section which precedes the creation of Adam and Eve. This aside, Ava as "the living one" would stand in contrast to wide-spread concepts and prejudices concerning what it means to be a woman.
Now for Caleb, the man who freed Ava:
source: http://www.behindthename.com/name/caleb
Most likely related to Hebrew כֶּלֶב (kelev) meaning "dog". An
alternate theory connects it to Hebrew כָּל (kal) "whole, all of"
and לֵב (lev) "heart". In the Old Testament this is the name of
one of the twelve spies sent by Moses into Israel. Of the
Israelites who left Egypt with Moses, Caleb and Joshua were
the only ones who lived to see the Promised Land.
As for "dog," that could mean that Ava's savior was loyal as a dog or, in the eyes of Nathan, was nothing but a lowly cur.
As for living to see the Promised Land, maybe this quote is a clue that Caleb didn't die while imprisoned in Nathan's home, but that he lived to see a Promised Land which is the world transformed by Ava.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Steven Searle, just another member of
The Virtual Samgha of the Lotus and
Former Candidate for US President (in 2008 & 2012)
Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment