- Title: Sublime Cognition and Strange Tools
- Speaker: Matthew De Abaitua (University of Essex)
- Time and date: 1pm to 2pm, November 24th, 2021 (Wednesday)
- Room: Virtual (Zoom)
The Game AI Research Group is glad to announce a (virtual) talk by Matthew De Abaitua on Wednesday November 24th 2021 at 13:00.
All welcome (especially students), no pre-booking required
Abstract
The philosopher Alva Noe suggests that art is a strange tool that alters our relationship with the tools and technologies that are embedded in our lives. In this brief talk, I will consider Artificial intelligence as a strange tool, thereby placing it in relationship to the art form of the novel. This opens up a consideration of whether the novel as a form is a proto-AI: the two strange tools share similarities in terms of the role of probability, evidence or data, and the modelling of human behaviour in the form of character.
Bio
Matthew De Abaitua is a senior lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Essex. His debut science fiction novel The Red Men was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award and adapted into a short film ‘Dr Easy’. His science fiction novels IF THEN (Angry Robot, 2015) and The Destructives (Angry Robot, 2016) complete the loose trilogy. His book Self & I: A Memoir of Literary Ambition (Eye Books, 2018) was shortlisted for the New Angle Prize for Literature, and his memoir and social history The Art of Camping: The History and Practice of Sleeping Under the Stars (Hamish Hamilton, 2011) was one of The Economist Books of the Year.