Published in The Startup
The state of modern artificial intelligence is nothing more than probability, machine learning, and statistical analysis, but people have thought over the ramifications of true artificial intelligence before computers even existed, like Samuel Butler’s 1872 novel Erewhon which drew on his own 1863 article “Darwin and His Machines.”
Since the loose introduction into media by Butler, the consequences of Artificial Intelligence has become a staple of pop culture and fiction. But where does technology end and intelligent cognizant beings begin? What makes us or anything else human?
This question is tackled by Detroit: Become Human, the 2018 game by David Cage and Quantic Dream. The story, set in Detroit Michigan, follows three main characters, Connor, Markus, and Kara, each of them ultra-realistic androids that eventually gain free-will and sentience along with many other androids in the city. The story focuses on the possible humanity of the sentient androids, and what the androids should do with their newfound sentience. Detroit gives you many options to alter the story, with branching paths and narratives that changes with the choices that you make. Something as simple as choosing to play the piano as opposed to reading a book could have lasting effects on the story.
The story of Detroit: Become Human is obviously impossible with current technology and based on this Forbes article on Artificial Intelligence we may never reach a true human-like artificial intelligence, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t gain anything from it.
Rene Descartes famously coined, “Cogito, ergo sum,” which translates to, “I think, therefore I am.” The phrase is one of the most famous philosophical sayings along with sayings like Nietzche’s “God is dead and we have killed him,” and Socrates’ “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Descartes’ saying has long been theorized to aim to solve questions of reality, humanity, identity, consciousness, and meaning, and is essential when it comes to examining the deeper meaning of Detroit: Become Human.
Human identity and consciousness have been a consistent point of contention for most philosophers since the days of Socrates because what exactly makes us, us? Look to the Ship of Theseus, a philosophical thought experiment in which every piece of a ship through wear and tear is eventually replaced on a ship, and then a new ship is eventually made from the discarded parts. The thought experiment then poses a question. What ship is the original ship? Think of us like billions of walking ships of Theseus, because in a similar way our bodies over a period of seven years replace every single cell that was previously there. After a period of seven years, not a single cell in your body is the same as it was seven years prior, therefore are we the same person? Most people would say, of course, that obviously, we’re the same, but why? Here we circle back to Descartes, “I think, therefore I am.”
So by following this logic, what makes an android in Detroit: Become Human any less human than a regular person? The androids have wants and needs, regrets and sadness, love and happiness, they have good and bad memories and have goals looking toward the future. An interesting wrinkle in this is the fact that the androids were created by humans, but to the religious among us how is that any different than a divine creator?
So then how should one treat a being that thinks and feels like a human?
The question of morality centering on the treatment of artificial intelligence has its roots in human history of mistreatment based on physical differences. In Detroit: Become Human the androids are disposable tools treated as less than human very similar to American slavery and the years of segregation following the end of slavery. But the androids strive for life, they want to stay alive, take, for example, the moment in which one of the main characters, Markus, is left to rot in an android scrap yard. Any of the androids that are still functioning in the scrap yard are wandering, scared, and even begging to stay alive.
Another of the main androids, Kara, is taken home by her owner, Todd, who threatens and berates her, and even before her sentience Kara displays some forms of fear.
Androids themselves are ruthlessly mistreated by their human owners even with the androids maintaining some basic form of sentience before the story kicks off. This hearkens back to American slavery, and slavery abroad, with very sentient, very intelligent humans being treated as lowly as cattle, being treated as disposable as property.
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