Ted Chiang’s “Catching Crumbs from the Table” and Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” tackle the subject of artificial intelligence in very different manners. Both of the works of fiction present compelling dystopian depictions of artificial intelligence. The differences in which the artificial intelligence are able to communicate with humans in the texts vary greatly and initially it may seem hard to discern which version of artificial intelligence depicted is more frightening. However, this paper will help establish how the world imagined by Ted Chiang, in which humans cannot even communicate with their artificially intelligent creations is far more frightening than anything else one could imagine. Stanley Kubrick’s version of artificial …show more content…
Humans share the planet with the artificially intelligent creatures that they have created, but there is a complete lack of communication with them due to the fact that the metahumans communicate via DNT. DNT also known as Digital Neural Transfer is a process in which information is directly passed from one brain to another. The only way to engage in this method of communication is to have undergone a pre-embryonic procedure. The humans in this world are so disconnected from the species that they have created that there are scientists devoted to interpreting the scientific work of the metahumans. Although there are scientists devoted to understanding metahuman scientific work, humans are at a loss as to what is going on in the world around them. The metahumans build Exxon Colliders and portable neutrino detectors and the humans of the world have no idea how to operate them or what they are being used for. There are humans that say the pursuit of understanding and recreating metahuman technology is “a waste of time, likening them to a Native American research effort into bronze smelting when steel tools of European manufacture are readily available.” Humans in Ted Chiang’s dystopian future are at the mercy of an artificial intelligence that they created but have no control or