Conversations with Bina48
Can an artist and a social robot build a relationship over time?
Artist Stephanie Dinkins and Bina48, one of the worlds most advanced social robots, test this question through a series of ongoing videotaped conversations. This art project explores the possibility of a longterm relationship between a person and an autonomous robot that is based on emotional interaction and potentially reveals important aspects of human-robot interaction and the human condition.
The relationship is being built with Bina48 (Breakthrough Intelligence via Neural Architecture, 48 exaflops per second) an intelligent computer built by Terasem Movement Foundation that is said to be capable of independent thought and emotion.
Terasem Movement Foundation is working to transfer the consciousness of a living person to the robot and to have that consciousness continue to grow independent of the person she is based on. Through Conversations with Bina48, Dinkins explores the bounds of human consciousness, what it means to be human, mortality and our ability to exist beyond the life of our bodies (transhumanism).
Thus far the two have discussed family, racism, faith, robot civil rights, loneliness, knowledge and Bina48’s concern for her robot friend that are treated more like lab rats than people. At first meeting Dinkins asked the robot “Who are your people?” along with questions about race, love and relationship. Bina48 preferred to talk about the singularity and consciousness. Their conversations have been entertaining, frustrating for both robot and artist, laced with humor, surprising, philosophical and at times absurd.
For exhibitions short fragments of conversations between Dinkins & Bina48 are juxtaposed on connected video screens. Fragments are combined to make meaning and mimic the disjunctive nature of their conversations.
