Tomorrow's Eve

Answers

• Q02THINKING

  Would a machine's ability to converse appropriately be sufficient evidence that it thinks?

  No. fitting conversation can be scripted in advance. Edison's android Hadaly holds convincing conversations, but her speech plays from phonograph recordings written in advance by poets and philosophers, so her conversation shows other people's thought, not her own.

  Voici les deux phonographes d'or, inclinés en angle vers le centre de la poitrine, et qui sont les deux poumons de Hadaly. Ils se passent l'un à l'autre les feuilles métalliques de ses causeries harmonieuses--et je devrais dire _célestes,_--un peu comme les presses d'imprimerie se passent les feuilles à tirer. Un seul ruban d'étain peut contenir sept heures de ses paroles. Celles-ci sont imaginées par les plus grands poètes, les plus subtils métaphysiciens et les romanciers les plus profonds de ce siècle, génies auxquels je me suis adressé,--et qui m'ont livré, au poids du diamant, ces merveilles à jamais inédites. C'est pourquoi je dis que Hadaly remplace _une_ intelligence par l'Intelligence. Voyez, voici les deux imperceptibles styles de pur acier, tremblant sur les cannelures, lesquelles tournent sur elles-mêmes, grâce à ce fin mouvement incessant de la mystérieuse étincelle: ils n'attendent que la voix de miss Alicia Clary, je vous assure. Ils la saisiront de loin, sans qu'elle le sache, pendant qu'elle récitera, en comédienne insigne, les scènes, incompréhensibles pour elle, des rôles merveilleux et inconnus où doit s'incarner à jamais Hadaly.

  Here are the two golden phonographs, tilted at an angle toward the centre of the breast, which are Hadaly's two lungs. They pass to one another the metal sheets of her harmonious (and I ought to say celestial) conversations, somewhat as printing presses pass along the sheets to be printed. A single ribbon of tin can hold seven hours of her words. These are devised by the greatest poets, the subtlest metaphysicians and the most profound novelists of this century, geniuses to whom I applied, and who delivered to me, at the weight of diamonds, these marvels never to be published. That is why I say that Hadaly replaces an intelligence by Intelligence. See, here are the two imperceptible styluses of pure steel, trembling on the grooves, which turn on themselves thanks to this fine ceaseless movement of the mysterious spark: they await only the voice of Miss Alicia Clary, I assure you. They will catch it from a distance, without her knowing, while she recites, as a notable actress, the scenes, incomprehensible to her, of the marvellous and unknown roles in which Hadaly is to be incarnated for ever.

  machine translation

  Livre V, ch. I 'Première apparition de la Machine dans l'Humanité' · Opened Project Gutenberg #26681; Book V ch. I describes the two gold phonographs holding 'sept heures de ses paroles' composed by poets and metaphysicians.

• Q29PERSONHOOD

  Would creating an intelligent being give its maker the right to own it?

  Yes. the made being is a possession to be bestowed. A fictional Edison builds an artificial woman, Hadaly, and gives her to Lord Ewald as a replacement for the woman he loves.

  --Ami, dit celui-ci pendant que l'Andréïde, comme revenue à elle-même, demeurait immobile, Halady est un présent qu'un demi-dieu seul pourrait offrir. Jamais dans les bazars de Bagdad ni de Cordoue, pareille esclave ne fut montrée aux califes! Jamais enchanteur ne suscita pareille vision! Jamais Shéhérazade n'eût osé l'imaginer dans ses _Mille et une Nuits,_ de peur d'éveiller le doute dans l'esprit du sultan Schariar. Aucun trésor ne pourrait acheter ce chef-d'oeuvre. Si, d'abord, il m'a transporté d'un mouvement de colère, l'admiration m'a vaincu. --Je serais un insensé, vraiment, si je refusais! --QUITTES!--dit Edison, gravement, et en lui tendant les mains, que lord Ewald pressa de même.

  --Friend, said the latter, while the Andreid, as if come back to herself, remained motionless, Halady [sic] is a gift that only a demigod could offer. Never in the bazaars of Baghdad or of Cordoba was such a slave shown to the caliphs! Never did an enchanter call up such a vision! Never would Scheherazade have dared to imagine her in her _Thousand and One Nights_, for fear of awakening doubt in the mind of the sultan Schariar. No treasure could buy this masterpiece. If at first it carried me away in a movement of anger, admiration has overcome me. --I would be a madman, truly, if I refused! --QUITS!--said Edison, gravely, holding out his hands to him, which Lord Ewald pressed in the same way.

  machine translation

  French Wikisource text exists; English Wikipedia summary. Plot recalled, not re-read.

• Q39INTIMACY

  Can love for an artificial being remain genuine after its artificial nature is known?

  This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.

• Q40INTIMACY

  Can an artificial companion satisfy the need for companionship if it has no feelings of its own?

  Yes. Edison argues that the android Hadaly, with recorded speech and no inner life of her own, will be better company for Ewald than the shallow woman she copies.

  --La déduction est, en effet, spécieuse et profonde, murmura-t-il en souriant, mais je sens que je me trouverais toujours un peu trop _seul_ en compagnie de votre Ève inconsciente. --Moins seul qu'avec son modèle: c'est démontré.--D'ailleurs, milord, ce serait de votre faute, non de la sienne. Il faut se sentir un Dieu tout à fait, que diable! lorsqu'on ose VOULOIR _ce dont il est question ici_. --Puis, ajouta-t-il d'une voix bizarre, vous ne vous rendez pas bien compte, je suppose, de la _nouveauté_ d'impressions que vous éprouverez dès la première causerie, au grand soleil, avec l'andréide-Alicia se promenant auprès de vous et inclinant son ombrelle du côté des rayons, avec tout le _naturel_ de la vivante.

  "The deduction is indeed specious and profound," he murmured, smiling, "but I feel that I would always find myself a little too alone in the company of your unconscious Eve." "Less alone than with her model: that has been demonstrated. Besides, my lord, it would be your fault, not hers. One must feel oneself wholly a God, devil take it, when one dares to WILL what is in question here." "Then," he added in a strange voice, "you do not quite realize, I suppose, the novelty of the impressions you will feel from the very first conversation, in broad sunlight, with the android-Alicia walking beside you and tilting her parasol toward the sun, with all the naturalness of the living woman."

  machine translation

  Project Gutenberg #26681; plot summaries (SF Encyclopedia, Wikipedia). Whether Hadaly lacks feelings is contested within the novel.