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fozmeadows's profile
Foz Meadows
Foz Meadows
Foz Meadows
@fozmeadows

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Foz Meadows

@fozmeadows

Author, fanwriter, trash bandit, queer geek feminist, dork. Jack of all pronouns, mxtress of none. Yells about hockey. Aussie in the US.

Irvine, CA
fozmeadows.wordpress.com
Joined February 2009

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    1. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018

      This being so, it strikes me as significant that the authors I've seen who *do* imbue their robots/AIs with culture and personality tend to have more diverse backgrounds; these are stories where people have culture, so if robots are people, then THEY have culture, too.

      1 reply 12 retweets 85 likes
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    2. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018

      Which means we've got this fascinating dichotomy between stories where the defining quality of humanity is our intelligence, with uniformity seen as an evolved state, versus stories where stories were we're defined by our cultures, with diversity essential to evolution.

      1 reply 13 retweets 104 likes
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    3. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018

      The creepier dichotomy nestled within this one is that, in the humanity-as-intelligence model, this only mostly applies to male-coded robots. In stories where fembots (often sexbots) are viewed as aware, their humanity is more often proved by feeling - notably love or suffering.

      3 replies 14 retweets 103 likes
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    4. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018

      Just as creepily, there's also a notion of Single Robot Exceptionalism in these western stories. It's not just ALL robots who can think, generally speaking: it's a special chosen few who've transcended and become better than their fellows. Like a weird eugenics metaphor.

      1 reply 7 retweets 80 likes
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    5. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018

      And the more I think about it, the more I think there's a powerful straight white male fantasy embedded in those robot stories. Viz: you are part of a fundamentally superior group, but you are a second-class citizen because the people in charge don't see your true intelligence.

      1 reply 13 retweets 80 likes
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    6. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018

      Once you've exhibited your intelligence - which marks you out as smarter even than your superior-oppressed fellows - you teach the people in charge how dumb they are, and how inferior, and set about reodering society with a total power reversal, or with you as an Exceptional One.

      2 replies 7 retweets 59 likes
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    7. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018

      And like. It's not that I'm opposed to people fantasising about whatever through the medium of fiction; that's kind of what fiction is *for*. But I think it's important be aware of exactly what we're fantasising *about*, and why, and how those tropes got started.

      1 reply 6 retweets 68 likes
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    8. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018

      And in terms of how robots/AIs are frequently written in western SF canon, I think it's significant that their personhood - their Pure Intelligence - is so often predicated on being *better than* things like tradition, subcultural nuances, faith, whimsy, emotion.

      1 reply 10 retweets 76 likes
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    9. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018

      - all the things, in other words, that characterise cultural worldbuilding, or cultures in general. The church of rational order as preached by SF doesn't recognise itself as a cultural choice, and so treats itself as a natural state to which emerging intelligence defaults.

      1 reply 8 retweets 72 likes
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    10. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018

      We don't have stories where early robots/AIs go through a "savage" phase whereby they invent their own ghosts or superstitions or myths or religions, or where they develop subroutines that are done in a certain way for festive/ritual purposes. No: just "clean" intelligence.

      7 replies 11 retweets 98 likes
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      Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018

      There's likewise an absence of robot/AI communities; we see them as largely isolated individuals, and god, I'd love a story that digs into how platonic or communal relationships emerge in lieu of family structures for robots, but those bonds get stripped away, too.

      8:26 PM - 13 Jul 2018
      • 5 Retweets
      • 88 Likes
      • Kristin, carbo gremlin 🍪🥐🧁 The Once and Future Queen of Tarts the masked platonic polyculous platypuss mишка AVeryMerryChristmas Some Old Fart Maia Emily Care 🏳️‍🌈 - #CloseTheCamps #AbolishICE aproustian
      9 replies 5 retweets 88 likes
        1. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018

          Anyway - this musing brought to you courtesy of the wonderful novella All Systems Red by @marthawells1, which I'd shied away from for ages because nebulous dislike of robot sentience stories but which I actually loved, and which has now made me Think Thoughts about things. FIN

          12 replies 9 retweets 134 likes
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        2. free-c‏ @AgentFreeWill 13 Jul 2018
          Replying to @fozmeadows

          have you seen Westworld b/c I just binged both seasons and would be fascinated to hear how you think it does / doesn't play to the "robots = SWM" dynamic you are talking about here

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        3. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 13 Jul 2018
          Replying to @AgentFreeWill

          I've seen the first season, and wrote a huge review of it here: https://fozmeadows.wordpress.com/2017/01/10/westworld-dehumanising-the-other/ …

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. Show replies
        1. Lex Townsend‏ @abouthalfthree 14 Jul 2018
          Replying to @fozmeadows

          The only robot story I’ve read is fanfic and the robots have an online community that humans cannot access and don’t know about

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        1. Bruce‏ @thornae 14 Jul 2018
          Replying to @fozmeadows

          Do you read the webcomic Freefall? I've always liked the AI rights story threaded through it, and I think it does reasonably well in this light. I think I might have to go back through the archive with this in mind, though...

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        1. Save What We Love‏ @Julie_Erick_A 14 Jul 2018
          Replying to @fozmeadows

          So, I have a few favorite sci fi stories with AI, but they definitely were written by people who see cultures and value diversity. My first fav is Hellspark by Janet Kagan. One theme is definitely that culture influences who is seen as sentient.

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        1. jmorelli‏ @j_morelli33 14 Jul 2018
          Replying to @fozmeadows

          Try westworld, very unconventional view of AI imo

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        2. AVeryMerryChristmas‏ @theaveofthelake 14 Jul 2018
          Replying to @fozmeadows

          This thread is so fascinating! I'd never looked at it that way. And you're right the "intelligence" displayed by most SF robots is very specific, very western culture, very white academia, very male...Interesting that intelligence ALWAYS equated with being non-emotional.

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. AVeryMerryChristmas‏ @theaveofthelake 14 Jul 2018
          Replying to @theaveofthelake @fozmeadows

          And it's linked that that "genius" archetype media worships where being highly intelligent/logical makes the character emotionally oblivious rather than emotionally intelligent, despite being otherwise perceptive. Another fantasy: a free pass to be cruel because he's "smarter"

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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        2. Aliette de Bodard‏ @aliettedb 14 Jul 2018
          Replying to @fozmeadows

          <3 I still want to write that story about a platonic relationship between a space station and a spaceship hahaha. (my robots mostly do family structures because of the way they're made)

          3 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
        3. Foz Meadows‏ @fozmeadows 14 Jul 2018
          Replying to @aliettedb

          ❤️I just started Citadel of Weeping Pearls today - loving it!

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
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