The Robot Torture Experiment

Abstract

     The "Pleo" project has for purpose to raise awareness in regards to the subject of robot torture in relation to animal abuse and other similar ethical issues. In a workshop where Kate Darling, research specialist at the MIT Media lab, experimented on the matter regarding robot ethics, there were 4 groups of people that were given a Pleo. This robot uses technology that allows autonomous behaviours, which is not anticipatable, and which makes it more life-like than a toaster, for instance. Hence, the Pleo is able to tie relations through physical iterations with the human being and stimulate sympathy, as well as one's social side. After letting the participants "play" with the Pleo, they were asked to torture/destroy it, which disturbed them emotionally and lead them to refuse partaking in such action. Due to the reactions of the participants, this technology raises questions as to whether or not Aritificial Intelligence should be treated like human beings and pets.

Do you think that we should treat AI like human beings or pets?

     Personally, my primary opinion right off the bat was that robots with IA were objects, and that objects shouldn't be treated like humans for the simple fact that they are objects and, according to Kant, solely have instrumental values, in contrary to humans who have intrinsic values(good in themselves). Although, after my listening to the interview, it was made clear to me why AI should be treated likewise to humans/pets. As explained by Darling, if abusing robots traumatizes us and disturbs us emotionally, those feelings can be correlated to our feelings regarding animal abuse. Moreover, I agree with Darling on the fact that we should protected AI in a similar fashion than live beings, and we should do it not because robots are approaching an era of consciousness, but instead recognize that it's about what we do for us and not what we do for the robots. In fact, animal rights arguments from Kant help support my position. If the mistreat of robots trigger similar feelings than animal abuse, then we can apply his argument to AI; if you torture animals, you're stepping over some piece of yourself that feels empathy for them and your consequently turning that off, which will, in the end turn you into a cruel person. Hence, the way someone treats animals will show whether they're a good human being or not, and in this case the same could apply to things that simulate pain or emotions, things like AI. Therefore, if you are willing to abuse a robot or cause a reaction in it, it means that you need to turn off a part of yourself that is going to be protesting against that act. As explained by Kate Darling, there is some danger in doing such act; "science shows that behaviours may translate and that if you teach yourself to overcome that emotional response, the same type of behaviour may translate to living things or other things." This is why I think AI shouldn't be treated as simply objects, as it is a tool for learning about the power of our subconscious in relation to our behaviours.

Class Notes

Vjing: Real time visual performance with interactive tools

involves:
- creation or manipulation of video for audience
- live multimedia performance including video, actors, dancers, etc
- real time mix of different media
- real time processing of video

Granular Synthesis
meaning: sound design
- use of light, video &audio > melt/combine sound and image together > image composed like music
- based on the same principle as sampling but the samples are not played back conventionally
> are split into small pieces of around 1 to 50 ms

small pieces = grains
> multiple grains may be layered on top of each other
> may play at different speeds, phases, volume, and frequency, among other parameters

MaxMspJitter

- visual programming language for music & multimedia 

- developed and maintained by software company Cycling '74

- during its 20-year history has been used by: composers, performers, software designers, researchers, and artists for creating recordings, performances, and installations

Pure Data

- alternative for Max 

- developed in the 1990's

- visual programming language for creating interactive computer music and multimedia works

- runs on GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, iOS, Android and Windows

Netochka Nezvanova 

translates appropriately as "nameless nobody" 

- name itself is adopted from the main character of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's first novel Netochka Nezvanova (1849)

- stems from the complex and intricate online behaviour she displayed through her various identities on countless mailing lists and websites, by which she mesmerized and vexed internet users and the operators of her software products alike
- the language used is interspersed and infiltrated with characters and computer metaphors

Ryoji Ikeda
Japanese sound artist
- his music is concerned primarily with sound in a variety of "raw" states, such as sine tones and noise, often using frequencies at the edges of the range of human hearing
> is highly imaginative, exploiting beat patterns and, at times, using a variety of discrete tones and noise to create the semblance of a drum machine
- work also encroaches on the world of ambient music; many tracks on his albums are concerned with slowly evolving soundscapes, with little or no sense of pulse

Live Coding
- programming practice centred upon the use of improvised interactive programming
> is often used to create sound and image based digital media, and is particularly prevalent in computer music, combining algorithmic composition with improvisation.
- the process of writing is made visible by projecting the computer screen in the audience space, with ways of visualizing the code in an area of active research
- techniques are also employed outside of performance, such as in producing sound for film or audio/visual work for interactive art installations

Class Notes

Origin of art games

Dada (dadaism):

art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, begun by a group of artist & poets

> primarily involved: visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre, and graphic design

> concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works - & anti-bourgeois; with political affinities with the radical left.

> activities included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art/literary journals

surrealist games of the 1920s

Fluxus (1960s)

Marcel Duchamp
- French-American painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Dadaism & conceptual art

- regarded as one of the three artists(along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse) who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the twentieth century

& is responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture.

OULIPO

Ian Bogost

Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames
> how video games make arguments: rhetoric, computing, politics, advertising, learning

his theory: 

- videogames make arguments and influence players; they are capable of informing and persuading as well as entertaining; they possess the power of rhetoric

- thanks to their basic representational mode of procedurality, videogames open new domain for persuasion; they realize a new form of rhetorics.

Procedural Rhetorics: a type of rhetoric tied to the core affordances of computers: running processes and executing rule-based symbolic manipulation. 

> areas in which videogame persuasion has already taken form and shows considerable potential: politics, advertising, and education

alternate reality game (ARG): interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and uses transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions.

> defined by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real-time and evolves according to players' responses

> it is shaped by characters that are actively controlled by the game's designers, as opposed to being controlled by artificial intelligence as in a computer or console video game.

Blog Questions

Tactical Media

Why is alexa.com useful when doing research online?
It is useful as a tool to see if a website is trust-worthy or not, which would be calculate by the site's traffic, and is also useful to find out who is visiting a site and what drove them there.

What kind of tactics do Tactical media artists use to reach their audience? They use digital media such as e-mail and the internet to reach their audience as to gather for online/electronic disobedience acts such as virtual sit-ins where people gather virtually/on the net to protest, cause disturbance, raise awareness and cause annoyance with the help of software such as Floodnet and its domain's techniques.

What kind of tone and aesthetics or style The Institute of Applied Autonomy use in the video presenting their work?Their video was made in the style of a news casting show in which they made use of techniques such as irony, sarcasm, humour and parody to convey their ideas.

What interactive media is used by the Electronic Disturbance Theater, the Institute of Applied Autonomy and the Yes Man?
The institute of Applied Autonomy made use of TXTMob, which is a registration system for cell phones to allow protest groups rapid and anonymous communication between each other, and i-See, a decentralized CCTV map distribution software containing user-generated data. The Electronic Disturbance Theater made use of the software called Floodnet which is Java applet based tool. The Yes Man made use They create and maintain fake websites similar to ones they intend to spoof and use Elaborate props (e.g. Survivaball) and collaborate with other groups of similar interest, like Improv Everywhere (improvisation).

What is the difference in the way they use it? How effective are these tactics?
The Electronic Disturbance Theater use their Software in such way to disturb without causing any actual damage, while the The institute of Applied Autonomy use theirs to enhance their effectiveness during protests and to access and collect data. On the other hand, the Yes Man use theirs to raise awareness about what they consider problematic social issues with a goal of exposing the truth with the use of physical props, websites, films and operate in front of audiences/in the public( e.g. conferences). All tactics used by the different artists are very effective, like Floodnet as used for the virtual sit-ins, the cellphone systems used during protests, and the impersonation of entities "identity correction".

What are your thoughts about these artist groups and the way they try to rich a large audience?
I find Tactical Media and these artist groups really interesting, intriguing and clever. I find their ways of reaching a large audience, making statements and addressing problematic matters innovative and effective. I like the causes for which they are taking/have taken action against and the different ways and media they've used to do so.

Class notes

Tactical Media
uni dimensional media like radio TV and the web first popularized in Europe

Ricardo Domingez and the Electronic Disturbance Theater

Floodnet = Virtual sit ins
> use of digital media for online/electronic desobedience acts
> virtual sit ins: people gather virtually/on the net/protest through the Floodnet software

 members of electronic disturbance theater: Ricardo, Carmen, Bret, Stephen

How does flood net work?
Software that rapidetely reload a website/server targetted causing problems to server and stopping access to it

Does it damage anything?
No

How does it differ from a bot?
doesn't takes over control of user's computer without permission what is its purpose cause distrubance, raise awareness and cause annoyness

Is Flood net art? what type? interactive? when did it take place?
Yes. Internet Performance Art. Yes it is interactive. In 1998.

The Institute for Applied Autonomy 

activist group which focused on dissemination of knowledge, autonomy, and methods of self-determination > through artistic expression & application of military-like technology > topics of Criminal Mischief, decentralized systems and individual autonomy

i-See: a decentralized CCTV map distribution software containing user-generated data

TXTMob: a registration system for cell phones to allow protest groups rapid & anonymous communication.

The Yes Men

Cultural jamming duo
Operate under the mission statement of lies and exposing truth.

> make satire websites
> Elaborate props are sometimes part of the ruse
>impersonate entities that they dislike, a practice that they call "identity correction"

Online Research

Few tips and tricks on how to properly search the web

URL
1. check URL - personal page or not

2. type of domain - Is the domain extension appropriate for the content?

3. Who "published" the page? - You can rely more on information that is published by the source.

Page 
1. Scan perimeters 
2. Who wrote the page? author? name of the organization? institution? agency?
3. Is the page dated? Is it current enough?
4. What are the author's credentials on this subject?

Sources

1. Are sources documented with footnotes or links?

2. Are there links to other resources on the topic?
-links work? well chosen? well organized, and/or evaluated/annotated?
Do the links represent other viewpoints/unbiased?

What Others say
1. Who links to the page? What do they say? Are there many links? - Do link search & 
google/look up author 

Add up
1. Why was the page put on the web? -Inform, give facts, give data? Explain, persuade? Sell, entice? Share? Disclose?

2. think about the tone -sarcastic? saritical? ironic? parody?

(source: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html)

How Proper Online Research Works

1. Decide if the Topic Is 'Hard Research', 'Soft Research', or Both.

A) 'Hard research' describes scientific and objective research, where proven facts, figures, statistics, and measurable evidence are absolutely critical > the credibility of every resource must be able to withstand intense scrutiny.

B) 'Soft research' describes topics that are more subjective, cultural, and opinion-based. Soft research sources will be less scrutinized by the readers.

C) Combined soft and hard > broadens your search requirements - need to find hard facts and figures & debate against very strong opinions to make your case.

2. Choose Which Online Authorities Are Suitable for Your Research Topic.

A) Hard research topics require hard facts and academically-respected evidence.

B) Soft research topics are often about collating the opinions of respected online writers.

3. Use Different Search Engines and Keywords

> start with broad initial researching

>narrow and deepen your Visible Web searching

>go beyond Google, for Invisble Web (Deep Web) searching

4. Bookmark and Stockpile Possible Good Content.

5. Filter and Validate the Content.

> Carefully consider the author/source, and the date of publication.

> Be suspicious of personal web pages, and any commercial pages that have a shoddy, amateurish presentation.

> Be suspicious of scientific or medical pages that display scientific or medical advertising.

> Be suspicious of any ranting, overstating, overly-positive, or overly-negative commentary.

>Commercial consumer websites can be good resources, but be skeptical of every comment you read.

> Use your intuition if something seems amiss with the web page. Perhaps the author is just a little too positive, or seems a little too closed to other opinions. Maybe the author uses profanity, name-calling, or insults to try to make his point.

> Use Google 'link:' feature to see the 'backlinks' for a page. This technique will list incoming hyperlinks from the major websites that recommend the web page of interest.

6. Make a Final Decision on Which Argument You Now Support.

7. Quote and Cite the Content.

(source: http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/navigatingthenet/tp/How-to-Properly-Research-Online.htm)

Blog Questions

Network Literacy

What is the “end to end” principle and how does it affect the network and its users?
End to end principal: design principal in computer networking where the end users keeps control and keeps neutrality provided that they can do so completely and correctly.

Reeds Law: the utility of large networks, particularly social networks, can scale exponentially with the size of the network.

Sarfons Law: # senders valued by the # of receivers > value of a broadcast network is directly proportional to the number of viewers

Metcalfs Law: value of a network is directly proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system > value rises with the number of nodes.

Who is David Reed?
David Patrick Reed is an American computer scientist, educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, known for a number of significant contributions to computer networking and wireless communications networks and is the inventor of Reed's Law.

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_P._Reed)

What are your thoughts about Network neutrality? Why is it an important issue?
I believe that all data should treated equality and that the gouvernment and internet service providers should have no control over it. I believe that it is an important issue because network neutrality preserves users' freedoms. Going against net neutrality would be a violation of people's right to access information, whether or not it has to do with the service providers' competition or not.