Moving beyond the era of imitating analog space, we now find ourselves in a periodwhere digital technology is cultivating its own culture. The emergence of 'digital life', distinct from analog life, is imminent. A new culture is being born from the meeting of Dr.Songyee Yoon, a brilliant science student in her 20s leading the development of digitallife as portrayed in the TV drama 'KAIST', and Reporter Hyeong-chan Kim (Ph.D. inPhilosophy), a Korean philosophy student in his 30s determined to infuse digitaltechnology with humanistic spirit. We discuss.
Kim Hyeong-chan: When I visited the KAIST website, I noticed posts expressing envy towards friends and juniors due to their impressive careers and talents in painting and music. However, I believe the most significant achievement is the thesis presented in February. This paper earned the ‘Best Student Paper Award’, given to only one person annually, at ‘Agent 2000’, a conference organized by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the world’s largest association related to computing. The paper discusses characters that have the ability to develop their own characters, instead of functioning as programmed by humans.
Songyee Yoon: In the past, the focus was on speeding up complex logical operations and increasing their capacity to create characters that are more life-like. However, it's inefficient to program each one using logical operations. I believe that if you want to create something that resembles a living being, you should learn from actual living beings. Hence, I decided to concentrate on emotions, besides logical operations, as another way for living beings to sustain life.
Kim: So, is the Western heterocentrism of modern times collapsing? Recently, as the rational-based modern civilization in the West has created numerous problems, there has been a renewed interest in Eastern philosophies which prioritize emotions. The unconscious, which is much larger than consciousness, is being explored. Would you say your research exemplifies this trend in the humanities within the ‘mainstream’ natural sciences?
Yoon: When you look at the stages of brain evolution, the brain responsible for breathing, circulation, reflexes, and emotions is created first. The cerebral cortex, responsible for logical operations and reasoning, comes later. The remnants of this brain evolution continue to function in the human brain today. While past artificial intelligence and computer research have attempted to mimic the role of the cerebral cortex, I have concentrated on the role of the brain at the previous stage. Another key point is related to the mind-body theory. Previously, it was believed that the mind and body were distinct, but the mind's development is limited by the body's capabilities. Simply developing logical calculation functions does not mean a character can fulfill its role. Looking at animals, they react to their environment based on their muscle structure and bone connections, which also affect their mental state.
Kim: Even in the East, the mind and body are not considered separate. The body is also composed of the principle called Li (理) and the substance called Qi, and the mind and psychological processes are viewed as phenomena that appear depending on how Li and Qi are combined. The theory of Four Dans and Seven Emotions, the theory of human nature and material nature, and the theory of mind, which were debated throughout the Joseon Dynasty, were all about how to explain these mental and psychological processes through li and qi. At this time, the operating principles of mind and body are not fundamentally different.
Yoon: I wasn’t aware of that. I keep finding interesting parallels between engineering pursuit of understanding intelligence and the Eastern philosophy.
Kim: What is the basis for distinguishing between innate and other acquired qualities that the creator, the human, gives to the digital character? Which elements are given innately is a crucial factor in defining the character. The debate over whether human nature exists or not is still an ongoing issue. While there are cases where reason is recognized as human innateness, there are cases where innateness is denied, like Marx. In Confucianism, the morality of benevolence, righteousness, righteousness, and wisdom is established as innate. What basic elements does Dr. Yoon give when creating human characters?
Yoon: We certainly distinguish between innate ability (nature) and acquired ability (nurture). However, what I did was just a paradigm for creating an artificial character (or agent) that can learn and respond independently. We will need to discuss with humanities and social scientists what kind of nature it would be appropriate to assign to it.
Kiim: Ultimately, humans want to create a new form of life, but doesn't that conflict with Western Christian creationism? Besides, I heard that Dr. Yoon is a Catholic. From the perspective of Buddhism, which does not recognize the creator, it is rather easy to explain. The Buddhist theory of dependent origination is that one creates oneself by responding to others and the environment in a state of nothingness, building up karma and relationships. There is no problem in applying this method of explanation to the growth and evolution of Dr. Yoon's character.
Yoon: I believe God sets certain boundaries. This means that He does not control everything in detail. But perhaps more importantly, religion lies outside the realm of logical understanding.
Kim: One could say it aligns with deism. But what is the actual level of development of this technology? Is it possible to create digital characters that genuinely resemble life forms?
Yoon: We succeeded in implementing behavioral judgment and emotion by using the program created by our team on a representative robot made by the team of Rodney Brooks, director of the MIT AI (Artificial Intelligence) Lab, a world authority in robotics. And I’m currently creating Shakespeare’s 'Hamlet.' Not only the character Hamlet, but also other characters, lighting, music, etc. are all characters. As they interact, they create a story. Through the interaction among the characters and with the audience, the story unfolds as each character acts and reacts.
Kim: In the digital world, even the distinction between living and non-living things is broken down. I look forward to endless stories.
The digital life created by Dr. Yoon is an intelligent subject that interacts with the object using four elements and creates its own character. These elements are 'perception', which selects and accepts necessary information, 'action judgment', which analyzes and judges inputted information to take action, 'action', which specifies actions, and 'emotion', which motivates appropriate behavior and learning across all fields. What is unique is that 'emotion', rather than 'logical reason', governs the whole process.
This theory explores the relationship between the human mind (spirit) and body (physical body), and how they operate. Aristotle divided the mind and body into elements of form and matter, and Descartes split them into two completely, but established an imaginary connection line called the 'pineal gland' in the brain. Based on this, mind-body dualism has become mainstream in the West, but has been constantly controversial.
This theory posits that God created nature and its laws, but does not influence what happens in nature and history in detail. In particular, it gained attention during the Age of Enlightenment, which aimed for a rational religion, asserting that God did not reveal things supernaturally.
Hyeongchan Kim: The character that Dr. Yoon has been working on recently, Hamlet, is it true that not only people and animals, but even things like music and lighting become characters, learning and changing on their own to create the plot? Does this mean that non-living things can also be characters?
Songyee Yoon: Yes, have you seen Apollo 13? It's a movie starring Tom Hanks about the challenges of space travel. The story is about machines malfunctioning and causing problems, but humans overcome the difficulties and return to Earth. When people build spaceships, they try to anticipate everything that will happen during space travel and program accordingly. But we don't know what will happen when we actually leave the Earth. Now let's imagine that we give the spaceship some emotions. It can feel joy when we safely travel through space, and sadness when we face interruptions. This spaceship will then engage in actions or situations that bring joy and learn to adapt by dealing with actions or situations that bring sadness.
Kim: It's a surprising idea to develop independent survival skills by prioritizing emotions for survival rather than rational judgment. But won't we soon learn to be selfish like humans and live only to satisfy our own greed? So in society, we try to control our emotions through education rather than letting them rule us. This is a theory similar to Mencius's belief that human nature is inherently good. Mencius believed that human nature is inherently good, and Xunzi believed that humans have a strong tendency to be evil. Therefore, Mencius's educational method is to develop morality so that good nature can overcome and demonstrate against evil habits, while Xunzi's educational method is to control evil tendencies and develop the ability to lead a socially acceptable life.
Yoon: What I'm referring to are the early steps to survival. For example, a cat that has touched a hot stove learns to be cautious about hot things from then on.
Kim: I see. It was with the creation of surplus products and the development of storage methods that humans began to seek to satisfy their own greed, even at the expense of others. From this point on, there are people who can live without working. However, if there's no surplus product, everyone must make efforts to survive from moment to moment.
Yoon: Exactly. The key point is that this spaceship-like character isn't just an extension of the human body that expands the scope of human activity, but becomes a companion that helps humans or a friend that communicates with humans. Ultimately, the reason people create these characters is to make companions and friends like these.
Kim: So, are you suggesting you're going to create a new character that's a spaceship?
Yoon: Spaceships are still too complex. What I'm trying to convey is that the character's body doesn't necessarily have to resemble a human or animal. Whether it's a spaceship, music, or lighting, it just needs to express itself and perform its function. The body is just a medium through which one's emotions and intentions are revealed. It doesn't necessarily need arms, legs, eyes, a nose, or a mouth. Regardless of the type of body one has, if one has the ability to control their own functions, adapt to situations, and learn, one can become an independent character that doesn't rely on humans.
Kim: If spaceships, music, and lighting become characters, then the standards for what is considered living or non-living will also have to change.
Yoon: That's right. Have you seen the animated movie Aladdin? Do you remember the carpet from there? That little carpet expresses a range of emotions. It gets angry, dances, and so on. That carpet is the kind of digital life character I'm talking about. Apollo 13 is not just a spaceship, but if it could become a companion or friend like the robot R2D2 in Star Wars, we would be able to rely on them emotionally and overcome difficulties more easily.
Kim: We then need to redefine what a living thing is. Rather than trying to classify digital life based on living things in the analog world, we could reverse our thinking and consider the analog world based on the digital life that Dr. Yoon talks about. Life is something that changes and responds to the environment with a desire to survive. Mountains, forests, soil, and the atmosphere also change in response to the environment. We look at a broken tree and say, ‘It's dead’ or ‘It's now non-living,’ but the tree still interacts with mushrooms and bacteria and continues decomposing to return to the soil. The only things that do not respond to the surrounding environment are non-living objects created by humans as tools according to their standards. Items like glass cups, plastic plates, and ballpoint pens do not change and eventually harm nature by not interacting with the surroundings or deviating from the natural cycle.
Yoon: Items like cups and spoons that we use now are considered non-living because they have no emotions or a means to express themselves, but if you give them emotions, self-expression capabilities, and learning abilities, then items like forks, lamps, sofas, and music can all become living characters.
Kim: That could be possible. According to the Eastern traditional view of nature as an organism, everything in nature lives in interaction. The ‘Gaia’ theory, recently advocated by James Lovelock, is a hypothesis that Earth is a superorganism that makes every effort to maintain perfectly suitable conditions for life to thrive. This theory is used by environmental movements and new science movements to criticize anthropocentrism or an instrumental view of nature that only emphasizes humans. However, it is not yet recognized as an established theory in academia. The traditional Eastern idea is that not only plants and animals, but also sunlight, rain, dew, and wind are all full of life. In the ‘Book of Zhou,’ this phenomenon is referred to as ‘vivid life.’ This is a word from the ‘Gyesa’ section of the ‘Book of Zhou,’ and it means that constant creation is the providence of the universe. Cheng Mingdao, a thinker from the Song Dynasty, interpreted Confucius's core teaching, benevolence, as the meaning of life or creation. Nature is full of vitality that continuously creates life. According to what Dr. Yoon said, humans who have only made ‘dead tools’ can now live together by creating living friends and colleagues. This might lead to a fundamental paradigm shift from the Western modern instrumental view of nature, which has led to serious ecological destruction.
Yoon: Now, would you like to see my ‘Sydney’? Since it's still in the early stages, I created a character based on man's best friend, a dog. ‘Sydney’ walks, runs, rolls, barks, and moves its ears like a real dog. It has hearing and sight, but no sense of smell yet. The sense of smell is a bit complicated. It likes playing with butterflies and snacks shaped like bones. It also gets bored easily.
Kim: That’s a cute puppy. So let’s see how ‘Sydney’ learns to live in the future.
Mencius believed in the inherent goodness of human nature, while Xunzi held that humans had a strong tendency towards evil. Consequently, Mencius's educational approach aimed to nurture morality so that this innate goodness could overcome and regulate evil habits. On the other hand, Xunzi's method sought to control evil tendencies and develop the capacity to lead a virtuous social life.
This theory was proposed by James Lovelock, a fellow of the Royal Society of London. It posits that the Earth is a super-organism striving to maintain perfectly suitable conditions for life to flourish. As such, the environmental and new science movements have used Gaia Theory to challenge anthropocentrism and the instrumental view of nature that emphasizes human importance. However, it is not yet widely accepted as a well-established theory in academia.
This phrase originates from the 'Gyesa (繫辭)' section of the 'Book of Zhou': 'Birth and giving birth are the laws of change in nature (生生之謂易)', signifying that continual creation is the universal providence. Cheng Mingdao, a Song Dynasty thinker, interpreted Confucius' central teaching of benevolence as the meaning of life or creation.
Hyeongchan Kim: Now that our digital dog, Sydney, has been created, what's next? If left to its own devices, will it learn to survive on its own?
Songyee Yoon: Just like a newborn puppy or kitten, Sydney needs guidance. It learns from its mother in the early stages. Sydney also requires this learning process.
Kim: If we prescribe what Sydney should learn, wouldn't it be just like a programmed robot? Shouldn't we create a normal environment and allow it to learn what's necessary on its own?
Yoon: Interaction with the environment is crucial. Consider training a puppy. I trained my dog, Jerry, by commanding it to "sit," "stand," or "roll over," rewarding it with a click sound and a treat when it obeyed. Eventually, just the sound of a click would be enough. Jerry learned to understand my feelings and emotions because its environment and mine were closely intertwined. The same goes for Sydney. This method utilizes the basic desire for food to stimulate voluntary motivation, which is an effective educational tool.
Kim: If we extend this concept to humans, rewarding good deeds is a common educational method. However, we often perform these 'good deeds' for the 'reward' rather than out of a genuine desire. From a Confucian perspective, this approach has its flaws. It could be argued that it fosters a desire for rewards rather than encouraging moral behavior for its own sake. If education's goal is to prepare children for society, some level of rote learning is inevitable.
Yoon: The socialization process is indeed necessary. It's not about doing whatever you please, but about using desire to effectively learn the skills needed for future life.
Kim: What kind of education did you receive, Dr. Yoon? According to your background, it seems you were educated under favorable conditions.
Yoon: My education primarily fostered voluntary motivation. From a young age, I loved conducting science experiments. My teacher allowed me to use the science lab after school and my mother would buy me the necessary equipment. The schools I attended also encouraged students to pursue their interests. Professors at MIT were open-minded. They believed that rules were there to aid research, so if you could justify why something was necessary, they would find a way to accommodate it. The same applied to company representatives who took students' opinions seriously, fostering an environment where good ideas could naturally arise.
Kim: Voluntary motivation isn't just about physical desire. It's about encouraging and aiding people's genuine interests. As a student who had to self-study due to the school's focus on rote learning, I'm envious of your experience. It wasn't until graduate school that I found my own path of study. Formal education did not stimulate my voluntary motivation.
Yoon: Education is a product of evolution. As society evolves and knowledge accumulates, the need for education grows. However, newborn humans lack this knowledge. The speed of DNA evolution cannot keep up with social evolution, so education has become a societal solution to this gap. Utilizing voluntary motivation is an especially effective method of teaching.
Kim: Your viewpoint could be seen as dangerous. Sydney might evolve in a direction we didn't anticipate and end up overpowering us. Unlike humans, digital beings like Sydney can accumulate and pass on information through their DNA. If we extracted useful information from various digital DNAs to create new ones, the rate of digital DNA evolution could soon surpass that of natural DNA. There might be a competition between analog and digital DNA, spurred by the results of the Human Genome Project.
Yoon: I believe analog and digital life forms should cooperate and complement each other instead of competing. That's why research on ethics and social responsibility is so important. It's a task that we must tackle alongside humanities scholars.
Kim: As a humanities student, I feel a sense of responsibility. However, in a world where science and technology are prioritized over the humanities, can the humanities play their intended role?
The concept of identifying an individual's interests, stimulating them, and actively supporting these elements to promote autonomy. This contrasts with the method of externally instilling knowledge.
A technique used in dog training. Upon issuing a command, a clicker sound and treat are provided the moment the command is obeyed. This method clearly communicates the desired behavior, whether it's 'sitting down' or 'wagging the tail'. Eventually, the clicker sound alone achieves the desired behavior without the need for a treat.
Neo-Confucianism, a form of Confucianism, believes in the innate morality of human nature. Confucian education is based on expanding this moral nature. Neo-Confucianism criticises religious teachings that promote good deeds as a means to attain heavenly rewards or escape reincarnation, viewing them as undermining righteousness in favor of profit.
Hyungchan Kim: How long will it take for Sydney, the digital dog, to learn everything she needs to live? I worry Sydney might get bored if we continue teaching her.
Songyee Yoon: Humans need years of education to live in society. However, dogs only need to learn how to walk, run, and eat. They can pick up the rest gradually as they live.
Kim: So, it's crucial to create an environment for Sydney to learn and live in.
Yoon: Instead of creating a complex new environment, why not put Sydney in a movie with a specific setting? Sydney could become a movie star.
Kim: A movie star? I'm worried that a bad actor might ruin the movie.
Yoon: You're underestimating Sydney. She can do it. In my opinion, movies aren't about acting according to a script, but about the characters interacting to create the plot.
Kim: I've heard about novels, internet movies, and games that allow readers or audiences to select the storyline. For instance, in ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms,’ the story unfolds differently depending on who wins each critical battle.
Yoon: In that case, the writer creates several plots, and the reader chooses from them. However, the movie I'm talking about is one where the characters create a story among themselves. People can also participate as characters and contribute to the story by interacting with other characters.
Kim: Considering that people watch movies and read novels to experience various lives indirectly or to be moved emotionally, participating as a character would have a significant impact. But if the story is created through character interactions, isn't there a risk that it could develop in a completely unexpected way? Plausibility may be lost.
Yoon: Of course, if there's no ‘probability,’ no one will empathize. For a character to function as a character, there must be consistency in emotions, thoughts, and actions. A plausible story is naturally created when consistent characters interact. Society is also created and functions as its members interact. As long as each personality is consistent, it won't develop in the wrong direction.
Kim: Indeed, all social phenomena occur through interactions between participating entities. From a Buddhist perspective, not only social actions or phenomena, but even the ‘subject’ is not a fixed entity, but a phenomenon that constantly changes through interaction. However, there are many cases where humans, animals, etc. fall into unexpected situations due to sudden or strange behavior. If you leave the development of the story to the characters' interactions, there's a risk that the humans participating as characters could be in danger.
Yoon: I don't think it's very likely, but for now, let's limit the interaction to the characters in the movie.
Kim: Then, how about casting Sydney in an animated movie? Like Tarzan?
Yoon: Let's consider the scene where Tarzan meets Jane. In the original movie, Tarzan falls from a tree while playing with a cheetah and accidentally meets Jane. If Sydney had been there, Tarzan and the Cheetah might have struggled to teach her how to climb a tree, and she might not have met Jane. As a result, Tarzan's life would have been completely different from the existing story.
Kim: Depending on the kind of relationship you have with an object, you can change, the other person can change, and the events you create can also change. This will be a simulation that realistically verifies which social phenomena to focus on. We can examine in advance the problems that arise when digital life and analog life coexist.
Yoon: How about adding Sydney to ‘Hamlet,’ which I’m currently making? If Hamlet had a digital dog friend from his childhood, he could have run, played, and hunted together and would have become a more culturally adaptive Hamlet than the one created by Shakespeare. These stories are holograms, a method of capturing and reproducing three-dimensional images using lasers. If humans directly enter this story, interact with the characters, and create the story, they will be much more moved and have a real indirect experience than merely watching a movie or reading a novel.
Kim: Even in movies, the boundaries between actors and audiences, and between information providers and recipients, are broken down, creating a greater impact. Anyway, we should congratulate Sydney on her successful debut as a movie star. Dr. Yoon and I will soon make our debuts too.
Hyeongchan Kim: Can't we turn Sydney into our colleague or friend in real life instead of just seeing her in movies?
Songyee Yoon: What if we utilize the dog's skill in catching thieves and make it a parking lot attendant? Sydney could guard the parking lot.
Kim: So, this involves parking cars for people and preventing theft?
Yoon: Since we haven't yet developed a body that can move freely, let's assign it the task of monitoring the parking lot and preventing theft. To accomplish this, it must first have sensory organs like eyes or ears. This way, when a car suddenly pulls in, it can recognize the characteristics of that car (bottom up) and also locate and check the previously seen car (top down). These are ways of processing sensory information.
When an unexpected situation is sensed, finding and recognizing what is necessary is called ‘bottom up’. Meanwhile, looking for the target with a specific intent is ‘top down’. For instance, spotting something moving on the street and recognizing it as a taxi is ‘bottom up,’ whereas searching for a taxi on the street to catch it is ‘top down.’ Both of these functions are necessary to correctly recognize and respond to objects.
It should also be able to make ‘common sense’ judgments, such as distinguishing between a car and a person, and differentiating between the normal walk of a car owner and the suspicious walk of a thief. Oh, and why not make Sydney female?
Kim: Why are we suddenly differentiating between male and female?
Yoon: I want to discuss vision. Did you know that women are sometimes more sensitive to color than men?
Kim: Is it because women are naturally more emotional?
Yoon: It's hard to definitively say whether they are more emotional or not, but in humans, the way colors are distinguished can sometimes depend on gender. Visual perception is processed through sensory cells called rods and cones, which distinguish between light and dark, and colors, respectively. According to recent research, women sometimes have an extra cone that responds well to yellow light.
Kim: So, you're saying that women are better at distinguishing colors? In that case, it would be beneficial for Sydney to have the eyes of a woman who is sensitive to color. But isn't it complicated? All we need to do is put cameras in her eyes and earphones in her ears.
Yoon: It’s not as simple as that. We must select the necessary information from the vast amount coming into our sensory organs. The visual information received by the eyes and the auditory information received by the ears must be recombined in the brain (binding problem). Information from each sense organ comes in separately.
Kim: You mentioned that the sense of smell is a bit complicated and difficult to create yet, right?
Yoon: It might be challenging, but adding another sense organ isn't usually problematic. Although Sydney's perception of the world will vary depending on what kind of sensory abilities she has, for now, we should ensure that Sydney only has sight and hearing.
Kim: Strictly speaking, the question is whether Sydney can be called a dog. The world perceived by human sense organs is not the same as the world perceived by dog sense organs. Each species lives in a distinct world perceived in their own way. We cannot be certain that the world any species perceives is accurate.
In philosophy, some argue that the world is as it is perceived by human sense organs, while others, like Kant, claim that the 'thing in itself' is the cause of 'phenomena'. According to Kant, 'phenomena' is what our sensory organs recognize, while the ‘thing itself’ is the cause of such a phenomenon. Since we do not perceive the ‘thing itself’, we cannot say whether it exists or not, but this also explains that ‘truth’ exists beyond human perception. Some even argue that it is unrecognizable. This is a long-standing debate in epistemology. Perhaps later, it will be claimed that only digital life with the most delicate sense organs can properly perceive the world.
Yoon: To be more precise, even within the same species, perception will vary depending on height and level of vision, which will also affect the formation of personality and intelligence. Depending on what kind of body you have, your senses, personality, and intelligence will vary. And Sydney doesn't necessarily have to be a dog. When we create digital life, we are not just trying to imitate life in this world.
Kim: But isn’t there a problem with making decisions based solely on such imperfect senses? In traditional Eastern philosophy, there was a strong tendency to believe that perception coming through sense organs is not accurate and is also influenced by subjectivity, so it actually hinders correct judgment.
Yoon: Yet, isn’t human thinking based on information received through sense organs? Considering the limitations of the sense organs and the influence of subjectivity, the senses can be said to be imperfect, but that imperfection itself affects the intelligence and personality of the characters. I believe such influences are also a part of life.
Kim: If this is applied well, it will be possible to study the effects of height, weight, or vision on personality, intelligence, and values. Recently, there have been claims that beauty is closely related to evolution, so it would be worth verifying this as well.
Hyungchan Kim: What is Sydney’s IQ? If it were a digital life, it would never die, and what it learned would be stored in memory indefinitely, so its IQ would be very high, right?
Songyee Yoon: There is a limit to memory capacity, so not everything can be remembered. Forgetting is just as important as memory, and how to store information efficiently is also important. It's worth considering whether you need to remember so many things in life. I think I also heard that carp fish can only remember 3 seconds.
Kim: 3 seconds? No matter how smart you are, can you survive with a 3-second memory?
Yoon: It's worth considering why memory is needed to survive. If you are a fish living in the deep sea, all you need to remember is ‘dark and blue are good.’ You may not need to remember anything new because that fish will always be born, live, and die only in that place. So, we are born with everything we need programmed into our DNA. Many creatures are equipped with memories that are suited to their specific circumstances. However, humans do not just live in one place, but adapt to various conditions. So, although there are things that are hard wired in ourselves, we are able to live by learning new things. Only the bare minimum is programmed into our DNA so that we can adapt to various environments.
Kim: So, humans are made to live by learning many things. Is there a way to use this limited memory effectively for learning? For example, by selectively erasing unpleasant and bad memories, you can use your memory efficiently and avoid forgetting what you really need to remember.
Yoon: I should start by explaining the types of memories. Memory includes short term, intermediate term, and long term memory: three ways of organizing memory. Short-term memory refers to memory for a short period of time, such as remembering a phone number after hearing it once. The reason phone numbers are 6 to 8 digits is because the capacity of short-term (working) memory is 6±2. People who are good at remembering can remember up to 8 digits, and people who are not good at remembering can only remember up to 4 digits. Remembering a movie for a few days is called medium-term memory, and remembering it for years or decades is called long-term memory. Evolution is a sequence of short, medium, and long-term memory. The duration of the memory determines its type, and these three types of memory must be appropriately distributed according to the characteristics of the individual and its environment. Choosing what to remember also depends on this.
Kim: It would be a good idea to have as much long-term memory as possible. But how do I remember it into long-term memory?
Yoon: Having a lot of long-term memory is not always good. There are many things to remember for a short time and then forget. However, to remember something for a long time, you need to receive a lot of emotional stimulation. If you say “sit,” and give Sydney a cookie each time she makes the sitting motion, she remembers the word sit and the motion associating it with the cookie. But, if you tell her to sit down about 100 times without giving her a snack, she won't sit down even if you tell her to later. However, if you ask her to sit down once and give her a box of cookies while she does so, she is so emotionally stimulated that she will sit even if you tell her to sit about 100 times without giving her any cookies. This is called the gambling psychological phenomenon (Jack potting phenomenon). This is the mentality that, once you win money in gambling, you ignore the odds and keep betting in the hope of winning again.
Kim: Then, there must be a limit to using long-term memory. You can't continue to receive strong stimulation. However, memory is not limited to simply learning. Memories create the identity of that life. What we learn and remember from birth through relationships with others and the environment defines our existence. For example, by being born as a Korean, being educated, and growing up in Korea, you have the identity of ‘Korean.’ So, serious forgetfulness, such as amnesia, can sometimes be felt with the same level of fear as the destruction of identity.
Yoon: Your identity will also change depending on how long your memory lasts. If a creature only has a short-term memory of 3 seconds, its identity would be formed for 3 seconds, but if it had a long-term memory that lasts for decades like humans, its identity would be formed by accumulating decades of memories.
Kim: In the case of digital life, considering that learned memories can be passed on to other digital life, its identity could be an accumulation of hundreds or thousands of years. Evolution will be much faster than that of humans, who cannot naturally pass on the learnings of the previous generation to the next generation. If this is a digital life, we might look down on humans who live for only about a hundred years, have only a few decades of identity, and require education for ten years after birth to survive. So, wouldn’t it be possible soon for a digital life to dominate humans to emerge, like in the movie ‘The Matrix.’ Dystopia, which many people are concerned about: A utopia that modern people believe is a combination of the humanism of ‘Utopia’ written by Thomas More in the early 16th century and the technocraticism of ‘The New Atlantis’ written by Francis Bacon in the early 17th century. I dream of However, on the other hand, as a result of the development of human society and science and technology, there is a possibility that a society will emerge in which a dictatorial power that dominates science and technology dominates humans. This negative utopia is called ‘dystopia’. The movie ‘The Matrix’, released in 1999, shocked people by vividly depicting a dystopia in which computers developed and operated on energy extracted from human bodies, creating a virtual world and ruling over humans. This means that the possibility is very high.
Yoon: Just because you have great abilities doesn't mean you can dominate other races. Even if they have the ability and desire to dominate, they only dominate humans when the environment dictates that dominating them is ‘necessary’ for evolution. If it is not necessary for evolution, you will end up being eliminated by pursuing such desires.
Kim: If we think about the history of humans satisfying their desires even while destroying nature and other living things, I think there is a good chance that digital life will feel the need to control humans for its own evolution.
Hyungchan Kim: We need to ponder how we can coexist with digital life.
Songyee Yoon: Moving forward, instead of trying to fit digital life into the analog world, we should focus on the specific relationship between analog and digital life, and how they can co-create a world.
Kim: Let's start by considering the relationship between Sydney, a digital dog, and Jerry, an analog dog who lives with Dr. Yoon. Can they love each other? Sydney is a female and Jerry is a male.
Yoon: Love between digital and analog life won't be easy. To love, you must be capable of sharing feelings. However, Sydney doesn't have a sense of smell. Imagine Sydney and Jerry visiting a place with beautiful scenery, sweet birdsong, but also an unpleasant odor. Their experiences would be different. Jerry wouldn't comprehend why Sydney is happy to frolic in a place with such a bad smell. Seeing Jerry frowning, Sydney might think Jerry doesn't want to be with her.
Kim: Do senses dominate the emotion we call love? Sure, if the disparity in sensory experiences is too vast, it might hinder emotional connection. However, people often feel attraction or like each other regardless of the senses the other person possesses. Moreover, the desire to compensate for one's deficiencies through another person who has the missing traits can also be an opportunity for love.
Yoon: However, if the difference in feelings is too wide, understanding each other becomes challenging. Emotional expression, which helps communicate feelings, is vital for species survival. For instance, grimacing or waving hands when sensing danger serves as a warning to others to keep their distance.
Kim: But aren't there cases where individuals from different species, like monkeys and pigs or dogs and cats, become friends despite their differences? I once saw a male lion courting and following a female tiger at a zoo on TV.
Yoon: That's likely due to 'communication' that establishes a 'relationship' between the two entities. Through various forms of communication, we see the other in their entirety, including not only their present but also past experiences, knowledge, and future dreams. Differences in senses and ways of thinking are resolved through communication. It means being able to view things from the other's perspective.
Kim: So, why do we fall in love with a certain person? It seems difficult to explain falling in love with a specific individual solely based on the desire to procreate.
Yoon: Our experiences shape our preferences. If you've had a positive experience with something in the past, you'll likely be drawn to similar things. For instance, if you've felt comfort from looking at the color blue or from touching something soft, you'll start to like similar things, eventually leading to love.
Kim: That could also explain why some people are influenced by their parents and see them as their ideal partners. But how do we explain falling in love due to beauty?
Yoon: It can be explained from an evolutionary perspective. Standards of beauty vary over time, but research suggests symmetry is a common characteristic appreciated across eras. Symmetrical faces often indicate symmetrical, and thus healthy, internal organs. Preferring beautiful women can be seen as a way to meet healthy and excellent genes.
Kim: So, enhancing one's appearance or considering one's job, education, family background, etc. isn't just vanity, but an evolutionary effort to find a better partner. However, can it only be explained from an evolutionary perspective? According to what Dr. Yoon said, in socially incompatible pairs in terms of family, education, job, looks, etc., one partner has made a disadvantageous selection for evolution. There are many such pairs, aren't there?
Yoon: Indeed, there are. That's the rational explanation, but I don't believe love can be entirely explained through evolution. There can also be fate-driven love like in the movie 'Ginkgo Bed'. Honestly, I think love is ultimately 'random'. How can you logically explain everything?
Kim: Even modern Western philosophy, which emphasizes reason, often explains love through desire rather than logic or excludes it from discussion altogether. Even though the beginning of love can be random, a rational approach is necessary for it to last. Love is a roller coaster of emotions, so communication is crucial.
Yoon: 'Communication' and 'understanding' are key in all 'relationships'. However, there is no rational explanation as to why you fall in love with a particular person, so I can only say it is 'random'. Love is ultimately a random function with different initial seed.
Hyungchan Kim: You mentioned that Sydney, a digital lifeform, and Jerry, an analog dog, might face difficulties in bonding due to their divergent sense organs. However, they can overcome these challenges through communication, correct? Why not allow Sydney to speak to facilitate this? Jerry may not be able to speak, but Sydney could express more emotions and thoughts through basic language. Wouldn't Sydney be able to deepen his bond with people if he could speak?
Songyee Yoon: Speaking would certainly aid in understanding each other. But before we artificially endow language functions, let's consider how language is formed. We encounter concrete events; the feeling of falling from a rock, a tree, or a wall onto different surfaces creates the representative concept of 'pain (when falling from a height)'. Even if we don't explicitly teach language to digital life, concepts are categorized in the brain based on environmental responses. This enables efficient learning, memory, and communication.
Kim: Language, however, is often inadequate in encapsulating reality. Human thoughts, emotions, objects, and phenomena are significantly more diverse and intricate than our language. Lao Tzu's saying, “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao," illustrates the imperfections of language.
Yoon: Indeed, human thoughts and feelings are complex, often beyond what language can express. But language probably evolved because it served necessary functions. For communication and conveyance efficiency, it's more practical to identify commonalities and compress and abstract them, rather than expressing all the diversity.
Kim: Western tradition, beginning with Plato, views conceptualization favorably. It acknowledges a range of objects and phenomena in the physical world, but the most ideal and complete forms of these reside in the world of ideas, symbolizing abstracted concepts. This thought process, which views the physical world as incomplete and the world of ideas as complete, endorses the abstraction of concepts. On the other hand, Eastern tradition, while using language, remains aware of its imperfections. Though the Western tradition doesn't necessarily prioritize language as conceptualized, Eastern philosophy emphasizes the 'experience' of feeling the rhythm of the universe's constant creation and change. Understanding this rhythm by dissecting it using coarse language concepts is considered a lower-level understanding.
Yoon: Differences in language perspectives likely led to philosophical variances. Language is necessary not just for external communication with others, but also for internal communication with one's thoughts. External communication involves conveying and understanding messages through words, facial expressions, and gestures in interaction with others. Internal communication, by contrast, involves solitary feeling and thought. Our thought processes are influenced by our vocabulary and sentence structures, both when communicating with others and when thinking alone. This means your thinking is affected by the language you use and how accurately you use it.
Kim: So, while Western philosophy developed analytical synthesis and logical reasoning, Eastern philosophy emphasized understanding the universe's undivided nature as a whole. Why then, do only humans possess such complex language? If language cannot express everything anyway, wouldn't a language more complex than necessary for minimal communication be inefficient? There seem to be too many words in the world.
Yoon: Complex language likely evolved because it's beneficial to establish deeper relationships and communicate more accurately using words or sentence structures that can encapsulate nuanced concepts rather than coarse ones. Once something good and useful emerges, it develops further. Unlike animals, who are 'specialists' that exist within certain conditions, humans are 'generalists' that adapt to diverse conditions. Therefore, humans have a more urgent need for language to respond to various environments and live efficiently by accumulating and transmitting new experiences and knowledge.
Kim: What about Sydney? If he had vocal cords capable of speech, how much language could he learn?
Yoon: It would depend on how diverse the expressions his vocal cords could produce. He might want to express 'apples' and 'peaches' as one concept - 'fruit', and then differentiate between them. However, if his vocal cords can't distinguish and express such concepts, they wouldn't occur due to limitations in his physical expressive ability. Even if he could distinguish a hundred things mentally, if his vocal cords could only express two things, his thoughts would be restricted.
Kim: This seems to align with the mind-body theory that the mind and body influence each other.
Yoon: It’s like software and hardware co-develop, each limiting the other's development. If the mind is software, the body is hardware.
Hyeongchan Kim: It's said that Sydney, a digital life form, learns how to live independently through learning and memory. Could Sydney, therefore, not just learn, but also engage in creative pursuits, such as creating art?
Songyee Yoon: Creation differs from learning or memory, making it challenging to implement on a computer. However, it's not impossible.
Kim: Creative work is one of the most difficult tasks not only for digital life, but also for humans. Perhaps, it's for this reason that individuals who engage in creative work, not just in art, but across various fields, are particularly respected.
Yoon: Even though artistic creation doesn't significantly contribute to people materially or economically, it's encouraged in every society and people themselves are very eager to engage in it. It has persisted throughout history, probably because artistic creation has facilitated human evolution and development.
Kim: Indeed, the perception of beauty differs from everyday perception. When we recognize objects daily, we consider their functionality based on our needs. Even when we see a tree on the street, we focus on its functionality - providing shade, a source of oxygen, or lumber - rather than the tree itself. However, the perception of beauty appreciates the object's intrinsic value, not its function. Thus, creating art that generates beauty is on a different plane from work based on practical necessity. The way you view a tree when attempting to draw a picture is entirely different from when you view it functionally. But, can such impractical artistic practices directly contribute to evolutionary development?
Yoon: Everyday activities are confined to leveraging what you've learned and remembered in real life, but creative work is a kind of ‘leap’ that stems from your current ordinary life. A leap creates an opportunity to achieve rapid progress from ordinary life.
Kim: Essentially, you're suggesting that you'll use the knowledge and experience you've amassed over time in a different way from how you've learned it up to that point.
Yoon: You can't make rapid progress just by repeating what you've already learned. You can simply ‘exploit’ existing knowledge, or you can ‘explore’ by applying it to a new context. Exploitation and exploration are two ways of applying the knowledge or experience you possess. ‘Use’ means applying existing knowledge or experience to reality as is or with slight modifications, while ‘adventure’ means challenging a new area based on existing knowledge and experience. If you embark on an ‘adventure’, the chances of success are slim and the risks are high, but the chances of seizing the opportunity for rapid evolution increase compared to simply ‘taking advantage’. For example, if a dog that has only learned to follow path A continues to follow that path throughout its life, it will be safe, but it won't make much evolutionary progress. However, if it ventures down paths B or C that it hasn't learned, there will be ample room for new development despite the high risk. Choosing a new path means breaking away from the repetitiveness of everyday life and engaging in some form of creative work. This is also connected to one's inclination to be progressive or conservative. Depending on the balance of ‘exploitation’ and ‘adventure’ tendencies, one’s progressive or conservative tendencies are revealed.
Kim: Aren’t you attempting to explain this too much from an evolutionary perspective? What if we focused on the desire to create art itself? The murals in the Altamira Cave, which are believed to have been painted by human ancestors, are interpreted as depictions of animals they desired to catch. Couldn't we find a starting point for artistic creation in trying to virtually embody something that cannot be easily obtained in reality, as a way of possessing it? There are always imperfections and aspects of reality that one does not like. It's challenging to make them satisfactory in reality, so one tries to embody one's ideals through paintings, music, sculpture, etc. Furthermore, isn't the joy of creating and achieving something that doesn't exist in the world why people want to create art?
Yoon: However, creating something new like that requires ideas and courage. It's not something anyone can do. Such creative work presents a new direction to society, but when it diverges from the existing social trend, the consensus of members, or the thoughts of those in power, it's rejected, and in severe cases, suppressed.
Kim: What if we consider it from the perspective of appreciating art rather than creating it? Most people derive great pleasure simply from appreciating works of art. Can this appreciation contribute to our evolution?
Yoon: Art also has a very practical function. For instance, music is a tool for learning the concept of time. We learn the concept of time through the repetition of long and short melodies. It's like a young child learning spatial concepts by stacking blocks. We also learn spatial concepts through paintings and sculptures. Additionally, the emotions that works of art evoke are vital in the process of character development. When children are very young, their thoughts are entirely self-centered, but around the age of two, they start being able to think from other people's perspectives. This is the ‘theory of mind’, which is acquired at a certain stage of personality development and refers to the interest and consciousness about the state of the mind of an object. For example, ‘I hit you, so it will hurt’, ‘I petted you, so you will like it’, etc. It's about understanding the feelings of others in relationships with others. Sometimes, it can also be applied when you objectify your own mind. As a newborn progresses through the socialization process, they move away from self-centered thinking, understand others' minds, and acquire a kind of ‘social moral’. It's said that people with autism lack this mindset. Through the moving experience of a work of art, you learn that people other than yourself have certain thoughts and feelings, and what those are. Art is a tool for ‘adventure’ and at the same time serves as a means of learning the protocols of communication.
Kim: If art has practical educational effects for evolution and socialization, in addition to functions such as emotional purification or propaganda, then education in art appreciation and creation would be important not only for Sydney but also for human evolution.
Hyeongchan Kim: If digital lives live together in our society, shouldn’t we also think about their deaths? If Sydney, your digital dog, gets hit by a car and has serious functional problems, you might want to consider whether you can just throw him in the trash like a broken toy, or take off his brain, which has accumulated learning and experience, and put it in another body.
Songyee Yoon: The big difference between digital and analog is that in digital, there is no difference between the original and the copy. This means that there is no concept of aging in digital life. When your body gets worn out, you just need to replace it, like changing clothes. So, it is unreasonable to apply the concept of death in its everyday sense to digital life. Not long ago, when a toy doll called ‘Furby’ became popular in the United States, a father bought his child a Furby and said, “He’s your friend, so you should get along well with him.” But when the toy doll broke, my father threw it away. Then the child thought his father had made a big mistake and reported his father to the police. The child really thought of Furby as a living friend. The father and the child had different thoughts about Furby's death. The new generation who will live with digital life will think on a different level from how we understand digital life in the analog world.
Kim: Instead of just throwing away digital lives like buying a toy robot, we need to create moral standards and social consensus on how to live with them. Analog life cannot be created at will, but digital life can be recreated at any time, so people will not take its death seriously. In the case of digital life, the fact that what has been accumulated in the brain can continue to be used regardless of the replacement of the body is another reason why the death of digital life is not recognized as true death. This is because people have long thought that although the body is finite, the spirit is eternal and noble. In fact, being able to live for a long time even by supplementing or replacing the body is something that humans are quite envious of.
Yoon: Living long is not necessarily a good thing. If you watch the movie ‘Bicentennial Man,’ you see a digital life that does not age even after living for 200 years. However, he is distressed that his loved ones are getting old and dying and not dying alone, so he chooses aging and death like an analog life. It is a matter of reconsideration whether the absence of death and aging for digital life is truly a good thing for them.
Kim: But isn’t the story set based on current human emotions? Humans have been continuously trying to overcome aging and death for thousands of years. However, if everyone could live together for a long time, digital life would not have the same concerns as Bicentennial Man.
Yoon: We need to reconsider whether living a long life is the only good thing. Suppose humans live for a thousand years. Not only will there be a population problem, but there will also be problems with evolution and the efficiency of knowledge transfer.
Kim: Isn’t digital life, which can pass on accumulated knowledge to the next generation, shorten the training time and easily pass on a lot of knowledge? If such a method could be used, Zhuangzi's worries that humans, who only live for only a hundred years, would struggle to know all the knowledge in the universe would be unfounded. Humans can only live for about a hundred years even after twenty years of education, but digital life can have thousands of years of knowledge and memories. If you look at it that way, the problem will be how humans, who create digital life but will be inferior to digital life, can live together with them.
Yoon: If digital life copies what it has learned and passes it on to the next generation, it will only change the body and not a true generational change. Copying all materials as is in one's head may not be more advantageous than passing on materials such as text or pictures to the next generation and having them use them as indirect materials. If something is copied as is, you may become passive in trying new things due to memories of previous experiences. This means that the spirit of exploration can be weakened.
Kim: If we see that even now there is a generation gap between the younger generation and the older generation, and there is a division between progressive and conservative tendencies, it would seem that if people live to be 300 or 500 years old, society could become quite conservative compared to now. The same would be true if the knowledge and experience accumulated over 500 or 1,000 years were copied in the brain, with only the body changing.
Yoon: If you look at it that way, it would be most suitable for knowledge accumulation and evolution when you have a certain lifespan.
Kim: Anyone who is frustrated with the conservatism of society should wish for the human lifespan to become shorter, but it will be difficult to suppress the human desire to live longer. In addition, attempts to excessively extend human lifespan may lead to the destruction of humanity. However, even if life expectancy increases, if transportation and communication develops, broadening the scope of human activities, and experiencing various phenomena and cultures in the world and the universe, we will not be obsessed with existing ways of thinking.
Summary: Hong Ho-pyo, Deputy Director of Culture Department