Abstract
The director, Alf Sjöberg, attempted to interpret the epistemological effects of the picture of the world proposed by the modern natural sciences. He wished to produce on the stage a picture of the existential issues raised. Despite all the precise technical instruments which help us to make ever more exact definitions, there is always something which remains indefinable. This is the paradox of critical knowledge. Aware of this, Sjöberg wanted to see drama as a means of ‘burning your way through reality to reach an inner truth’, even if the answer thus arrived at is only a tentative one.2
One should not look for an historical portrait of Galileo, but for an analogy based on the contradictions which still exist within us, and to strive to overcome them.... The play begins with the potential of the instrument that was to hand — it begins with the telescope. And the telescope is the instrument which makes it possible for Galileo to think and see as he does; this shows that we cannot exclude the instrument from our calculations.1
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GORANZON, Bo Ideologi och systemutveckling. Bidrag till diskussionen om vetenskap, teknik och samhälle Studentlitteratur, 1978 (andra upplagan), p. 31.
EK, Sverker R. Spelplatsens magi. Alf Sjöbergs regikonst Nordstedts, 1988. As a mature artist, Alf Sjöberg developed a method of working in which he verbalized the idea behind his interpretation. He readily corrected it, and gave more precise and profound explanations of it. Many of his notes bear witness to the way in which he constantly refined his interpretation in the course of producing the play. This form of working in writing became so important for him that he expanded the sketches of his ideas for different productions into full-scale essays. See SJOBERG, Alf Teater som besvärjelse Nordstedts, 1983. See also Laurikainen, K.V. Vetenskapens möjlighet och dess gränser, published in GORANZON, Bo (ed) Den Inre Bilden Carlssons Bokförlag, 1988, pp. 19–36.
SJOBERG, Alf Galilei och forskningens frihet published in Göranzon 1978a, pp. 10–29.
Lennart Torstensson, the management consultant at the Swedish Immigration Board, referred to Sjöberg’s introductory address in an article called Utredaretik i statsförvaltningen published in GORANZON 1978a, pp. 52–70.
One example was that the National Board of Agriculture was represented by Gunnar Rosquist, a forestry officer who was a colleague of Per-Johan Age. These two officers were responsible for the development of the forest valuation method. Here, Rosquist had a opportunity to reflect on the conflict among the staff at the national office on the implications of the responsibilities of civil servants. See Göranzon 1978a, pp. 81–83.
GORANZON, Bo, JONSSON, Inge and MELBERG, Arne (eds.) Konst och samhällsförändring Ett samtal i Sigtuna 7–8 October 1977, Report No. 10, SALFO.
See GORANZON, Bo Konstens pedagogiska funktion — nägra exempel and Melberg, Arne Estestisk verkan — nägra problem published in Göranzon, Jonsson and Melberg, 1978b, pp. 8–36.
TURING, A.M. On Computable Numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem London Math. Soc. (2), 42 (1937), pp. 230–265.
GODEL, Kurt Collected Works Vol. 1, publications 1929–1936, Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 136.
WHITEMORE, Hugh Enigmakoden The Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, 1988 (Translated into Swedish by Per-Erik Wahlund), p. 26. Published in English as WHITEMORE, Hugh Breaking the Code Amber Lane Press, 1987.
The play is based HODGES, Alan Alan Turing, The Enigma of Intelligence Counterpoint Unwin Paperbacks 1983. A Swedish radio programme on Alan Turing was broadcast in the series Vetandets värld on Programme 1 on July 19th, 1988. It was called Jag vili bygga en hjarna (I want to build a brain), and presented the ideas contained in the Andrew Hodges’ biography of Turing.
Whitemore Swedish translation, 1988, p. 26.
WEINER, Norbert Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and machine M.I.T Press and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1961 (second edition), p. 23.
ROSENBLUTH, Arthur, WEINER, Norbert and BIGELOW, Julien, Behaviour, Purpose and Teleology, Philosophy of Science, 10, (1943), pp. 18–24. The interest focuses on a characteristic of teleology or, in other words, ‘appropriate behaviour’. This requires a classification of the term behaviour. In this classification the word teleological is used as a synonym of ’intention controlled by negative feedback’. It means that a stated goal gradually affects the sequence of events with the aim of attaining the goal. See also PRINTZ-PAHLSON, Göran Turingmaskin published in the anthology of poetry Säg, Minns Du Skeppet Refanaut? Bonniers, 1984, p. 96.
WIENER, Norbert Materia, Maskiner, Människor. Cybernetiken och Samhället Forum, 1952. Early in his research programme, Wiener established contacts with the prominent social anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson (see Wiener, 1961, p.18). Gergory Bateson published his collected articles on cybernetics in a book Steps to an Ecology of Mind Chandler Publishing Company, 1972. See also the chapter headed Den kritiska rationalismen: Karl R Popper, in JOHANNESSEN, Kjell S. Tradisjoner og skoler i modern vitenskapsfilosofi Sigma Forlag A.S., 1985, pp. 92–115.
Wiener, 1961, p. 12.
GUILBAUD, G. T. H. Cybernetik Aldus/Bonniers, 1962.
John McCarthy coined the phrase ‘artificial intelligence’ as a title for the first research seminar at Dartmouth College, USA, in 1956. Those attending included Minsky, Allen Newell and Herbert Simon. See PRATT, Vernon Thinking Machines: The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence Basil Blackwell, p. 203, 215. See also BOLTER, David Turing’s Man. Western Culture in the Computer Age Duckworth, 1984, p. 193.
TURING, Alan M. Computing Machinery and Intelligence Mind, October 1950, pp. 433–460. This work is published in Swedish as Kan en maskin tänka? in Sigma Vol. 6, Forum, 1960, pp. 2202–2228.
HODGES, Andrew Turing’s Conception of Intelligence published in Gregory Richard L. and Marstrand, Pauline K. Creative Intelligences Francis Pinter Publishers, London 1987, p. 84. The English philosopher A. J. Ayer discusses this paradox of Turing’s in the preface to Bolter, 1984, p. XI. The most remarkable thing in this context is, however, Kurt Gödel’s refutation of Turing’s article Computing Machinery and Intelligence, in which Gödel expresses ‘opposition to Turing’s mechanistic view of mind’, Gödel 1986, p. 25. Wittgenstein made an ironic comment on Turing’s article. See GÖRANZON, Bo Turing’s möte med Wittgenstein, published in Dialoger 5/87 Artificiell Intelligens, p. 43. See also the American philosopher DREYFUS, Hubert L. What Machines Can’t Do: The Limits of Artificial Intelligence Harper Colophon Books, 1979.
Whitemore, Swedish translation, p. 56. Compare with the following quote: We may hope that machines will eventually compete with men in all purely intellectual fields. But which are the best ones to start with? Even this is a difficult decision. Many people think that a very abstract activity, like the playing of chess, would be best. It can also be maintained that it is best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English. This process could follow the normal teaching of a child. Things would be pointed out, named, etc. Again I do not know what the right answer is, but I think both approaches should be tried. (From Turing Computing Machinery and Intelligence Mind, October 1950, p. 460.)
von NEUMANN, J. A General and Logical Theory for Automatons Swedish translation, Sigma, Vol. 6, Forum, 1960.
Descartes designed a tougher version of Turing’s test, which we discussed in the previous chapter. The Cartesian test looks like this: before it can be judged to be intelligent, a machine must be capable of language actions and sensible actions independent of the programmer. Descartes arrived at a completely different conclusion to Turing’s. The difference between man and an animal - machine is that because he has a language, man is able to develop his thinking and the way he formulates concepts.
Bolter, 1984, p. 13.
SEARLE, John Kognitivism och datormetaforer published in Dialoger magazine, No. 7/8, Artificial Stupidity, 1988.
BUTTIMER, Anne Creativity and Context Lund’s Studies in Geography, Human Geography No. 50, The Royal University of Lund, Department of Geography, 1983, p. 17.
SÄLLSTRÖM, Pehr editorial comments in Dialoger magazine, No. 5, Artificiell Intelligens, 1987, p. 4.
WEIZENBAUM, Josef Computer Power and Human Reason: from judgment to calculation W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco, 1967. Weizenbaum’s application demonstrates that the Turing Test is not a satisfactory one. It can be misleading. This gave Weizenbaum an insight into a fundamental problem: human beings are liable to attribute to new technology, in this case a diagnostic programme in the field of medical care, more intelligence than it possesses. We lose our distance. We fail to realize what the limitations are. This is a feature of the emergence of a technological culture.
Buttimer, pp. 14–15. See also the editorial comments in Dialoger No. 1, Dialogens väsen and Denett, Daniel The Role of the Computer Metaphor in Understanding the Mind published in PAGELS, Heinz R. Computer Culture: the Scientific,Intellectual and Social Impact of the Computer Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Volume 426, New York, 1984, p. 274.
HILTON, Julian: Teater och teknologi: Pygmalion och myten om den intelligenta maskinen, published in Dialoger 6/8, Tyst kunskap.
JANIK, Allan The Role of Literature in the Theory of Knowledge published in Göranzon and Florin, 1990b. The value of literature in understanding the changes in society and working life was an idea which interested Joseph Weisenbaum (Weizenbaum, 1976, 16, pp. 3).
An important early inspiration for this orientation was SCHOPENHAUER, Arthur The World as Will and Representation. In two volumes, Doyen Publications, 1969, and JANIK A. and TOULMIN S. Wittgenstein’s Vienna Simon & Schuster, New York, 1973.
DIDEROT, Denis Brev till Sophie Valland translated into Swedish by Olof Nordberg, Atlantis, 1987, letter of September 2nd, 1762, pp. 192–196.
See GORANZON, Bo Att se Calibanmetaforen i var teknologiska kultur published in Dialoger 9/88 Den andre pp. 17–21. Noel Cobb, Noel Prospero’s Island Coventure Limited, 1984. The Royal Dramatic Theatre Stormen (The Tempest) Programme, 1968. Larsen, Steen Den arbetande hjärnan. Sammanhanget mellan arbetets organisation och hjärnans funktion, Prisma, 1982.
YATES, Frances Shakespeare’s Last Plays Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975, p. 85.
de MONTAIGNE, Michel en presentation in Idehistorisk läsebok, Vol. 1, Gidlunds, 1982, p. 127.
Ibid. p. 127., HAFSTROM, Jan Praktiken i mäleriet, KRIS No. 25/26, 1983.
Shakespeare, William The Tempest. Compare the meaning of this quote with FROSTENSSON, Katarina Spräket och den andra, published in Dialoger, 9, 1989.
Ibid. p. 255.
ZERN, Leif Älskaren och mördaren. Shakespeare och den andra spelplatsen. Alba, 1984, p. 17.
Kline pp. 156–165.
See SJOBERG, Alf Ögats roll (Troilus and Cressida), published in SJOBERG, Alf, 1982, p. 98.
DAHL, Eva-Lena Overideologi och politisk handlingsprogram. En studie i Lockes och Rousseaus tänkande Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1980, pp. 179 and 307.
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Göranzon, B. (1993). Literature, Language and Learning: Turing’s Paradox and the Metaphor of Caliban. In: The Practical Intellect. Artificial Intelligence and Society. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3868-6_4
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