Computing Machinery and Intelligence

The First Day

Today was the first day of the rest of his life. He knew it was a clichéd thought, a hackneyed, awful, and empty thought, but he could do nothing to cease its progress across his mind if only because, for all its unoriginality and corniness, it was exceedingly apropos at describing his feelings at thatContinue reading “The First Day”

Feminism and the Figure of the Fembot (Part 7 of 7)

VII. The Fembot and Humanity’s Future: Conclusion American feminist and activist Susan Brownmiller once said that “Women are all female impersonators to some degree” (“Feminization”). Judith Butler would certainly agree with this statement. Butler, when read through a feminist point of view, argues that the socially acceptable persona of femininity is completely constructed for theContinue reading “Feminism and the Figure of the Fembot (Part 7 of 7)”

Feminism and the Figure of the Fembot (Part 6.2 of 7)

VI. Phyllis, Ellery, and Landon: The Transgression/Failure of the Fembot However, in Landon’s reading of Adventures of the Artificial Woman, the critic believes the subversion comes not from Phyllis’ status as a machine performing femininity, or even as a machine developing its own consciousness, but from her rejection of the male authority of her maker.Continue reading “Feminism and the Figure of the Fembot (Part 6.2 of 7)”

Feminism and the Figure of the Fembot (Part 6.1 of 7)

VI. Phyllis, Ellery, and Landon: The Transgression/Failure of the Fembot This trope of newly created ‘intelligent’ machines exposing human failings is exercised quite starkly in a novel written by the prolific science fiction author Thomas Berger, titled Adventures of the Artificial Woman. In this work, as in the Battlestar Galactica example above, the Fembot hereContinue reading “Feminism and the Figure of the Fembot (Part 6.1 of 7)”

Feminism and the Figure of the Fembot (Part 5.2 of 7)

V. Fembot Fatale: Gender and Consciousness Performance in Battlestar Galactica Sharon, the other Cylon character mentioned previously, is also a character highly coded with ideas of motherhood. Unlike many of the other female characters on the show, the audience never sees Sharon act sexually. At most, Helo and she share a few on-screen kisses, butContinue reading “Feminism and the Figure of the Fembot (Part 5.2 of 7)”