by Alyssa Brown
Faculty mentor: Dr. Brenta Blevins
Virtual reality is recognized as an immersive technology that separates its user from their current, fixed reality. VR is still very young. The shoes that it is expected to fill are waiting patiently in the future, knowing its potential has yet to be reached. The VR concept that I introduce with my project, fills these metaphorical shoes. The user is not aware of a heavy headset weighing down on their face. Instead, they are projected into darkness, and expected to quickly adapt. I present, through photographs that I have taken and edited, a void, much like the black dreamscape in Stranger Things. Through this digital project, I want to introduce a concept that would remove bias of artificial intelligence in an unanticipated manner. The user believes that they will be playing an advanced version of the Turing test in a virtual environment, but come to face a deeper truth inside of themselves. In other words, the game starts simply, and ends with a lesson. As Turing suggests, aren’t we also machines of a similar nature? Flesh and bone rather than wires and circuitry? Instead of holding a pessimistic viewpoint that is spiteful towards the presence of AI in our future, we should attempt to open our eyes to the coexistence of man and machine as well as the bond that we could share. It is okay to acknowledge with some fear, and an even greater hope, that we are different from one another, yet so entirely the same.
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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yPM9Hlqa8G_z1FYWQkZQq-tOx0AjBIGzC0zM9CnyTUg/edit?usp=sharing
I just finished viewing the (wonderful) senior art exhibition, and I have to say that this would fit right in, even if it’s really a DR project. Very visually interesting!
Thanks for sharing your presentation, Alyssa, and your work with Professor Blevins! I’m still struggling to come to an understanding of VR–I clearly need to take a course with Professor Blevins!–but I do know that I find you images absolutely haunting and fascinating at the same time. Congratulations! Professor Richards
Great work, Alyssa. What a cool concept- putting the Turing test into VR. This is not an environment that I think Turing could have envisioned, and it really changes the nature of the test. Reminds me of this article I read recently about a man who created an AI bot to replace him during Zoom meetings: https://mashable.com/video/zoombot-artificial-intelligence-zoom-call-video/
If played more seriously, I wonder how long such a bot could fool other meeting participants?
Nicely presented with beautiful images. Well done!
I like the hopefulness of this project. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the notion, recently proposed by scientists (I gather), that we may well inhabit a simulation. It scared me at first, and then I wondered, but what would the difference really be? I like that you’ve challenged your viewer to approach these questions “with some fear, and even greater hope,” rooted in recognition of difference. Fascinating project!
Fascinating project indeed! That you challenged your viewer with these important questions makes this a strong work. Well done.
Hi Alyssa,
Thanks for sharing your work with us! Your project work here brings together so many different elements that we’ve discussed in our Virtual and Augmented Reality class—such as digital ethics, representations of bodies in digital environments, and the future of VR. You’ve also added on the question of how we’re going to prepare for this medium in an era where we already have trouble discerning what truth is through the digital media that we are so increasingly reliant on. I appreciate the point you’re making with the Turing Test: we’re going to need to prepare for this new reality we’re instantiating–along with the new challenges it may present. Your project makes me think: Blade Runner meets The Matrix? Except with a much more lovely aesthetic (and one quite suited for the new capabilities of VR)!
This was a really fascinating project. You did a lot of great work! I like the positive outlook you spoke about for the future, where man and machine could possibly co-exist. It is interesting to see if we were able to do this simulation, would one be able to identify which voice was man and which was machine. Great job! The pictures look amazing!