Minds, Bodies and Machines: From the Industrial Revolution to AI

Speaker: Sally Shuttleworth

Venue: Room 201, East No.5 Teaching Building, Zijingang Campus

Abstract: When the film “RoboCop” was first released in 1987, the publicity slogan was “This cop does not stop for donuts.” Its comic phrasing encapsulates many of our current debates about the differences between man and machine. In this talk I look at the ways in which contemporary concerns around AI are prefigured in the nineteenth century, when the rise of industrial machinery, and also the Darwinian revolution, led to new ways of conceptualizing the operations of the human mind and body. Fears that machines might supersede humans are not new.The talk concludes with reflections on current ambitions in AI, and the impact of science fiction on Silicon Valley tech bros’ visions of the future.