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Explorations of the ‘Transhuman’ Dimension of Artificial Intelligence 327

on beguiling, quasi-affective behaviour on the part of robotic beings; rather, she questions
the authenticity of such behaviour, ultimately stressing that it amounts to pre-
programmed ‘as-if’ performance, with no commensurate subjectivity. Taking cognisance
of the latest developments in the area of electronic communication, internet activity and
robotics, together with changing attitudes on the part of especially (but not exclusively)
young users, it is evident that a subtle shift has been taking place all around us, Turkle
argues. With the advent of computer technology, the one-on-one relationship between
human and ‘intelligent machine’ gave rise to novel reflections on the nature of the self, a
process that continued with the invention of the internet and its impact on notions and
experiences of social identity. Turkle traced these developments in Computers and the
Human Spirit (1984) and Life on the Screen (1995), respectively. In Alone Together she
elaborates on more recent developments in the relationship between humans and
technology, particularly increased signs that people have become excessively dependent
on their smartphones, and on what she calls the “robotic moment” (Turkle 2010: 9).
The fascinating thing about the book is this: if Turkle is right, then attitudes that we
take for granted concerning what is ‘real’, or ‘alive’, are receding, especially among
young people. For example, there is a perceptible shift from valuing living beings above
artificially constructed ones to its reverse, as indicated by many children’s stated
preference for intelligent robotic beings as pets above real ones. Even aged people
sometimes seem to value the predictable behaviour of robotic pets — which don’t die —
above that of real pets (Turkle 2010: 8). For Turkle the most interesting area of current
artificial intelligence research, however, is that of technological progress towards the
construction of persuasive human simulations in the guise of robots, and the responses of
people to this prospect. This is where something different from Gelernter’s findings about
the preoccupation of mainstream AI-research with a limited notion of the mind emerges
from Turkle’s work. It will be recalled that, according to Gelernter, those aspects of the
mind pertaining to medium and low-focus functions, like emotions, are studiously
ignored by computationalists in their development of AI. This appears to be different in
the case of robotics, which brings AI and engineering together. Particularly among
children her research has uncovered the tendency, to judge robots as being somehow
‘alive’ if they display affection, as well as the need for human affection, in contrast with
an earlier generation of children, who accorded computers life-status because of their
perceived capacity to ‘think’. That robots are programmed to behave ‘as if’ they are alive,
seems to be lost on children as well as old people who benefit affectively from the
ostensible affective responsiveness of their robotic pets (Turkle 2010: 26-32;
Olivier 2012).
But there is more. Turkle (2010: 9) recounts her utter surprise, if not disbelief, in the
face of a young woman’s explanation of her inquiry about the likelihood that a (Japanese)
robot lover may be developed in the near future: she would much rather settle for such a
robotic companion and lover than her present human boyfriend, given all the sometimes