Octavia Butler – renowned science-fiction writer, Afrofuturist, and visionary demonstrates incredible proficiency in using literature to create fictional worlds that work as a blank canvas. In doing this Butler encourages her readers to project their own life experiences onto the story. This kind of story telling leaves room for readers to connect their own experiences to the events taking place in her fiction. I became aware of Butler’s impressive skill of world building when we read her short story The Book of Martha aloud as a class. Throughout the reading I naturally thought that the short story had been written as a metaphor for Artificial intelligence. According to the class notes from 1/29 we discussed that “Artificial Intelligence could have been created for good but cannot control how it’s used” while discussing The Book of Martha and how it “helps us think about the Artificial Intelligence resources we had encountered” by that point in the course. Dr. Beth revealed to us within that class period that The Book of Martha had NOT been written as a metaphor for artificial intelligence. This illuminates how Butler has allowed us to paint our interpretations (vast, and unique) onto the pages by utilizing the qualities of enduring world issues such as control/ domination, and ethics in the context of technological innovation. Butler’s literature is perfect for analyzing and discussing because by understanding her fiction it helps lead us to a heightened understanding of our own realities.
One of the main concerns regarding artificial intelligence is the creators demonstrated lack of care for basic ethics. This pattern of disinterest in upholding ethical morals while producing and distributing these Artificial Intelligence has been shown through creators distributing the software without introducing safeguards resulting in excessive use amongst children, development of inappropriate relationships amongst teenagers with characters produced by the Artificial Intelligence, and misinformation harming students. The innovation of artificial intelligence comes with the consequence of innovative ways to die. Character Ai is responsible for the death of a teenager as they failed to incorporate safeguards into their characters and allowed their software to talk Sewell Setzer III into committing suicide so he could join them in his world. In the New York Times article “Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide?” Sewell shares in his journal “I like staying in my room so much because I start to detach from this ‘reality,’ and I also feel more at peace, more connected with Dany and much more in love with her, and just happier”. This illuminates how lack of care surrounding artificial intelligence has dangerous real-life consequences. This same principle can be seen in Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy as the humans and Oankali struggle to collaborate due to the Oankali’s ignorance of consent. The Oankali are superior beings to humans evolutionarily and can sense exactly what people desire. The issue here is, the Oankali assume the humans want to have this thing they desire ad make it happen for them without ever consulting the humans or getting consent. This is dangerous because although we may want something, we still have freewill to deny it if we so chose, and if people ignore that then it can have incredibly negative impacts. Whether dealing with artificial intelligence or the Oankali, humans should always have full capacity to give or deny consent.
Artificial Intelligence has become a household name. Everyone who uses the internet interacts with Artificial Intelligence daily whether they are aware of it or not. THIS makes reading and analyzing literature such as Octavia Butler’s so important. Throughout this course and reading the Xenogenesis trilogy I have become far more educated on artificial intelligence and have had the opportunity to form opinions on where I stand regarding the “innovative” technology. Butler’s fiction connects to innovative technology when she writes in Dawn “It gave her… a new color a totally alien, unique, nameless thing, half seen, half felt or… tasted… a blaze of something frightening, yet overwhelmingly, compelling… extinguished… a half-known mystery, beautiful and complex, a deep, impossibly sensuous promise, broken… gone… dead… extinguished.” Though this quote describes the overwhelming new emotion Nikanj gave to Lilith in Dawn, it opened up my eyes, showing me that we are in the same situation with Artificial Intelligence right now. This is why Octavia Butler’s fiction matters. Without her storytelling I would have stayed ignorant to the negatives of Artificial Intelligence such as the issues of ethics, surveillance, bias and wouldn’t have been able to form my stance on how artificial intelligence should be regulated and utilized in society. Therefore, exploring literature that challenges real life issues can be an incredibly profound experience as it can lead you to new understandings you may have been ignorant too having not analyzed it.