Artifact 003 · The Human Condition // 001
Mind Without Matter
Can consciousness exist independently of biology?
- Composition
- A Renaissance bust turning into a computational lattice.
- Animation
- Marble becomes a network, node by node.
- Character
- Quiet unease.
The idea
A bust in the Renaissance manner, a celebration of the individual mind, gives way at the shoulder to a lattice of nodes and connections.
Machines now reason, write and paint. Whether anything is experienced inside them is a different question, and one nobody yet knows how to test.
Sources & claims
- History
Alan Turing proposed the imitation game in "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" (1950).
- History
Thomas Nagel, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" (1974), on the subjective character of experience.
- Interpretation
Intelligence and experience may come apart: a system can do the first without anyone knowing about the second.
Every statement is labelled: History is documented, Science is current understanding, Interpretation is the artwork's reading, Speculation is imaginative.
The physical artifact
Printed large on the back. Marked small on the chest.
Heavyweight 7.5 oz garment-dyed cotton in a slightly oversized fit. The museum placard under the artwork carries a permanent QR code that opens this artifact's exhibit.