The Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is a piece I designed in response to today's developments in artificial intelligence. As human beings, we're supposed to possess wisdom, in contrast with every other organism on this planet, even if we don't clearly know where it originates. The origin of human intelligence and consciousness is still an unsolved mystery. Can wisdom and consciousness arise, eventually, from what we refer to today as artificial intelligence? One of the main motivations for Artificial Intelligence researchers has always been to match and surpass human intelligence with silicon-based machines.We face a controversial conundrum: should we push the boundaries of digital technology towards the creation of sentient beings that could, one day, take over our planet? This situation reminds that of Adam and Eve. When God gave them access to the Garden of Eden they weren't able to control their impulses and eventually were rejected from Paradise. We're now playing the part of God. How will our Artificial Intelligence creations behave in our world? And, if they get rogue, do we have a place where we can relegate them? My piece puts the viewer in the position of God. Here Eve is a robotic creature, and as such she's not alive. The forbidden fruit here symbolizes the singularity the moment when technology will become alive, and gain the status of species, rather than an object. Eve moves towards the fruit, shes attracted by it. But after all, shes governed by code deterministic reactions, not conscious thoughts. Why are we designing robots that behave and look like humans? What materializes the transition between mechanical and alive? How can we recognize and predict, for the sake of our own survival this change of nature? Those urgent questions are addressed in my The Garden of Eden piece, which explores the very moment this transition, probably irreversible, will eventually happen.