Abstract
One of the defining characteristics of our species is storytelling. It is partly abstract, sometimes dependent on actual experience and at other times completely fictional, But, all storytelling engages a human experience in some way, requiring that the teller be “in the world.” We discuss that among all creatures, only we tell stories in a way that forms civilization and defines its humanity. We use specific opening lines from classical literature to make the point that AI cannot possible appreciate context as it relates to the intangibility of human experience.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Consider how story telling has mushroomed: Facebook, 2.2 billion messages/mo.; Instagram 800 million messages/mo.; Twitter 15 billion messages/mo. See, https://www.internetlivestats.com/.
- 2.
Tettamanti, et al. in 2005, performed fMRI experiments where participants listened to sentences describing actions performed with the mouth, hand, or leg. The results showed that listening to action-related sentences activated the left fronto-parieto-temporal network (the pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus [Broca’s area], sectors of the premotor cortex, the inferior parietal lobule, the intraparietal sulcus, and the posterior middle temporal gyrus), providing evidence that listening to sentences engaged the visuomotor circuits which subserve action, execution and observation.
- 3.
The Neukom Institute awards for 2017 were announced at the Music Metacreation Workshop (MuMe), part of the International Conference on Computational Creativity (ICCC), in Atlanta, Georgia.
- 4.
Written language begins to appear 5000–6000 years ago.
- 5.
This is simply a corollary of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution where organisms that possess heritable traits that enable them to better adapt to their environment compared with other members of their species will be more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass more of their genes on to the next generation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Carvalko Jr., J.R. (2020). Storytelling. In: Conserving Humanity at the Dawn of Posthuman Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26407-9_41
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26407-9_41
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-26406-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-26407-9
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)