Science Fiction as stated by Robert A Heinlein is “realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method.”It differs from fantasy because, within the context of a story, it’s imaginary elements are largely possible.

According to Asimov and Carl Sagan, Kepler’s Somnium was considered to be the first Science fiction story. It depicts a journey to the moon and how the Earth’s motion is seen from there. In the early 19th century, Mary Shelley’s books Frankenstein and The Last Man helped define the form of the science fiction novel.

Some of the subgenres in Sci-fi include- Hard SF, Soft and social SF, Cyberpunk, Artificial Intelligence, Time travel, Alternate History, Military SF, Superhuman etc.

Artificial Intelligence

“Artificial intelligence” the term was coined by John McCarthy, is defined as the capacity of a device to perform functions that are normally associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning and optimization through experience. It is the branch of computer science that attempts to approximate the results of human reasoning by organizing and manipulating factual and heuristic knowledge.

In the middle of the 20th century, a few scientists began exploring a new approach to building intelligent machines, based on recent discoveries, and especially the invention of the digital computer, a machine designed to simulate the process of human mathematical reasoning.

In the early 80s AI research was revived by the commercial success of expert systems, a form of AI program that simulated the knowledge and analytical skills of one or more human experts.

In the 90s and early 21st century AI achieved its greatest successes. It was used for logistics, data mining, medical diagnosis and many other areas through out the technology industry.

Approaches to AI

• Traditional Symbolic AI• Cognitive Simulation• Logical AI• Knowledge based AI

Theory and PhilosophyDoes AI imply artificial self awareness and artificial consciousness?

It should otherwise , it’s nothing more than an advanced machine.However, some would disagree and say that the issue of consciousness is unimportant, the point is to build an expert system to simulate human intelligence for practical purposes. Some say that AI will be achieved this century and will pose as a huge threat to human supremacy on this planet.

Yet another point: it is possible, in the more distant future, that machine automation may advance to such an extent that automated self-adjustments and adaptations start to bear close analogy to biological evolution.

In this case, the idea of "artificiality" is shunted further into the background, for machines in effect become part of nature, responding to natural conditions just as other creatures do. This idea is brilliantly portrayed in the Poul Anderson story, "Epilogue" (1962).

AI, by claiming to be able to recreate capabilities of the human mind, is both a challenge and an inspiration for philosophy. Like-

Turing’s “polite convention”If a machine acts as intelligently as a human being, then it is as intelligent as a human being. Ultimately, we can only judge the intelligence of a machine based on it’s behavior. This theory forms the basis of the Turing Test.

To carry out the test, somebody questions both an unseen human and an unseen machine, and tries to distinguish between them by the quality of their answers. If the machine answers so well that it cannot be told apart from the human respondent, it has passed the test and can be viewed as a successful imitator of the human mind.

The Dartmouth Proposal stated- Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.

Searle’s strong AI hypothesis- The appropriately programmed computer with the right inputs and outputs would thereby have a mind in exactly the same sense human beings have minds.

Characteristics of AI

• Deduction, reasoning, problem solving.• Planning- automated planning and scheduling.• Natural language processing.•Motion and manipulation- robotics.•Perception- deduct aspects of the world.• Social intelligence- predict the actions of others. Also needs to display emotions.• General intelligence.

Literature and Movies

In literature, artificial intelligence is portrayed in 2 ways. • Benevolent- Helpful and productive. The AI here,

concentrates on serving humanity as opposed to ruling it. E.g.- Neal Asher’s Polity Series.

• Malevolent- Here AI plays the villain. Sometimes even creates a robotic army like in Frank Herbert’s Dune (prequel), where the AI set themselves out to exterminate humanity.

Isaac Asimov is regarded as one of the corner stones of Artificial Intelligence in Sci-fi. He devised the 3 laws of robotics that are as follows-

• A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.• A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.• A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Movies include-