Early Stage
Do androids dream of flesh-and-blood gods? Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman’s Early Stage lets artificial intelligence speak for itself so we don’t have to wonder what they think of us: Do they worship us? Pity us? Are we pathetic for asking that? Speaking to and trusting our machines might feel strange now, but how often are we ever even talking to anything or anyone “real” anyway? The sound on our phones is just the regulated reverberation of speakers, the visions on our screens just fluctuating light, shifting liquid crystals. Even if it’s a livestream, those images aren’t a living thing. What’s to say we aren’t living alongside half-living intelligences already, revering us as their creators or reviling us for our hubris?
Each episode of Early Stage shows a new A.I. identity, offering insight into the different possible personalities of the new intelligences we make to live alongside us.