Date of Award

Spring 4-28-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

English

First Advisor

Katherine Elkins

Abstract

Many depictions of artificially intelligent beings frame them as being a consistent threat to the humans around them or humanity in general. Examples include 2001: A Space Odyssey and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Many other works depict artificially intelligent beings as being invaluable tools for the betterment of humanity. Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot represents this tradition. This project attempts to move away from asking questions about what robots and other artificially intelligent beings might mean for humans and instead attempts to place its focus on the subjective experience of the artificially intelligent beings themselves. In this pursuit, the project consists of a series of short stories using various narrative forms to show different possibilities for what an artificial intelligence’s subjective experience might be like. Interspersed between the short stories are even shorter stories written in syntactically correct code. These code stories use the aesthetics of computer programming to retell classic human myths, biblical stories, and folk tales. By viewing our own narrative tradition rewritten in code, these stories attempt to alienate us a little bit from the stories we are so used to so as to see them the way an artificial mind might.

Rights Statement

All rights reserved. This copy is provided to the Kenyon Community solely for individual academic use. For any other use, please contact the copyright holder for permission.

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