Some thoughts on O Human Star
Aug. 2nd, 2015 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
p_h_leeFirst, O Human Star is really good and you should read it. I actually think it's worth shelling out for the paperback (also, if you live nearby, you can borrow my copy), but if web browsers are your jam, that's cool.
Hereafter are spoilers.
Second, I had some thoughts about how it represents artificial intelligence (and gayness), and how this representation makes it way, way smarter than almost all other science fiction about artificial intelligence, which is derived from either Terminator, unethical hucksterism, or both.
So, in short, the comic takes place (mostly) in an alternate future in which a neural upload technology was invented in 2002, along with a host of robot bodies which allowed the creation of new, artificial people based on initial humans. (I'm making some guesses, here: despite the fact that we see this technology being invented, Delliquanti wisely decides to omit some details.) The creator of this technology dies unexpectedly, only to be revived 16 years later in a robot body.
The story focuses on the relationships between Alistair (the inventor), Brendan (his lover/assistant who is now CEO of the robotic company they founded, and Sulla, Brendan's 16-year-old robotic daughter based on an imperfect duplication of Alistair's dying brain. There are also flashbacks to the past, with Brendan and Alistair working on the technology and dealing with each other.
In the future, robots are people, but they are very much second class citizens. They have second class citizen jobs (butlers, assistants, drivers) and, despite recent advances in civil rights, they are clearly somewhat discriminated against. Alistair and Sulla, being fairly "realistic," can pass, but most robots can't afford the material to pass and are relegated to ghettos.
Also, clearly, robots have some capabilities that humans do not (Sulla can fly, for instance), but this is the background.
Most AI stories seem to be focused on capability: that AIs are better-than-human in some capabilities, or worse-than-human in others. The assumption is that a computer program with sufficient capabilities is clearly a person. This is, of course, total bullshit.
Personhood isn't based on capability, it's based on social standing. You can see this in both modern day and historical civil rights struggles, which are very much struggles about "who counts as a person." We, as humans, are very capable of denying personhood to people just as capable as us (see: racism, slavery, patriarchy), and are just as capable of granting personhood to animals, plants and even inanimate objects.
While all the AI plot in O Human Star takes a backseat to personal relationships, the questions of AI are not about capability. Rather, they're about personhood and respect and civil rights. Delliquanti makes this extra explicit by mirroring with with the queerness of the main characters. In each character we see different generations of queer experience. Alistair, a generation older than Brendan, is absolutely closeted, ashamed, and largely celibate. Brendan is out, proud, and totally okay with it. Sulla (who is trans) has other problems, but is still aware that some of her peers might struggle with it.
We see the plight of the fictional people (passing, closeting, discrimination, taking steps, even fighting slurs) in a real-world analogue. It's absurdly well done, and so much smarter than other takes on AI that I don't even know where to begin.
I worry, in writing this, that I'm downplaying the best thing about the comic, which is the complicated emotional relationships between the leads, and their high-strung, intense personalities bouncing off of each other. I don't mean to say "read this; it's queer" or "read this; it's well done AI science fiction." Rather, read this; it's good.
Hereafter are spoilers.
Second, I had some thoughts about how it represents artificial intelligence (and gayness), and how this representation makes it way, way smarter than almost all other science fiction about artificial intelligence, which is derived from either Terminator, unethical hucksterism, or both.
So, in short, the comic takes place (mostly) in an alternate future in which a neural upload technology was invented in 2002, along with a host of robot bodies which allowed the creation of new, artificial people based on initial humans. (I'm making some guesses, here: despite the fact that we see this technology being invented, Delliquanti wisely decides to omit some details.) The creator of this technology dies unexpectedly, only to be revived 16 years later in a robot body.
The story focuses on the relationships between Alistair (the inventor), Brendan (his lover/assistant who is now CEO of the robotic company they founded, and Sulla, Brendan's 16-year-old robotic daughter based on an imperfect duplication of Alistair's dying brain. There are also flashbacks to the past, with Brendan and Alistair working on the technology and dealing with each other.
In the future, robots are people, but they are very much second class citizens. They have second class citizen jobs (butlers, assistants, drivers) and, despite recent advances in civil rights, they are clearly somewhat discriminated against. Alistair and Sulla, being fairly "realistic," can pass, but most robots can't afford the material to pass and are relegated to ghettos.
Also, clearly, robots have some capabilities that humans do not (Sulla can fly, for instance), but this is the background.
Most AI stories seem to be focused on capability: that AIs are better-than-human in some capabilities, or worse-than-human in others. The assumption is that a computer program with sufficient capabilities is clearly a person. This is, of course, total bullshit.
Personhood isn't based on capability, it's based on social standing. You can see this in both modern day and historical civil rights struggles, which are very much struggles about "who counts as a person." We, as humans, are very capable of denying personhood to people just as capable as us (see: racism, slavery, patriarchy), and are just as capable of granting personhood to animals, plants and even inanimate objects.
While all the AI plot in O Human Star takes a backseat to personal relationships, the questions of AI are not about capability. Rather, they're about personhood and respect and civil rights. Delliquanti makes this extra explicit by mirroring with with the queerness of the main characters. In each character we see different generations of queer experience. Alistair, a generation older than Brendan, is absolutely closeted, ashamed, and largely celibate. Brendan is out, proud, and totally okay with it. Sulla (who is trans) has other problems, but is still aware that some of her peers might struggle with it.
We see the plight of the fictional people (passing, closeting, discrimination, taking steps, even fighting slurs) in a real-world analogue. It's absurdly well done, and so much smarter than other takes on AI that I don't even know where to begin.
I worry, in writing this, that I'm downplaying the best thing about the comic, which is the complicated emotional relationships between the leads, and their high-strung, intense personalities bouncing off of each other. I don't mean to say "read this; it's queer" or "read this; it's well done AI science fiction." Rather, read this; it's good.
