Turing's creativity and Science Fiction films: Abstractions and hidden layers

Abstract

Alan Turing's logic for digital machines and the imitation of other machines, including possibilities with human parts, are reconfigured in numerous Science Fiction films. Machine and human intelligence, including embodiment, are partly shaped by the ebb and flow across Science Fiction and Computer science. Turing's digital concepts and the influence of numerous ideas from Science Fiction films can be better understood firstly via a closer look at the hidden layers and abstractions of digital computers which Turing conceived in 1936. By understanding Turing's binary digits and the convergence of numbers it is possible to see how Turing entertained the notion of digital mimicry of other machines and even humans. The mimicry of human traits since Turing's time is evident in many scientific innovations and abundant in Science Fiction films. Both Science and Science Fiction films perpetuate the idea of 'thinking machines' raised by Turing in a moment of realisation about his binary system for digital computing, that is its flexibility to mimic almost anything. In contemporary time there is as much focus on the integration of intelligence into machines that serve human purposes as there is on activities that aim to distinguish humans from computational machines. Cyborgs, on the other hand, can extend a third hand, arm or ear to improve embodiment, action or art, whilst robots use vision sensors and other sensory systems to mimic human features. Turing was the first to link mimicry of humans using digital machines with cameras and microphones towards the possibility of simulating human senses, an application idea which continued into robotics. These ideas were in addition to his instructions on how digital computers should be set up and run, which later became known as 'computer programming'. The combination of his work and ideas provided the base for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. In the early 21st century the increasing power of microchips, sensor technologies and machine intelligence, echo Turing's notes on storage, speed and methods for programming digital machines. It was the sum of Turing's work that led him to produce the question 'Can Machines think?' and this paper suggests that Turing's question remains a worthwhile conjecture. The question revisited has new contexts at the intersections of digital technology and media, scientific innovation and Science Fiction films. Turing's foresight of mimicry via his digital computing concepts continues in many diverse applications into the 21st Century.