During this week we became “familiar” with E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Sandman. Particularly interesting is the relationship between Nathaniel & Olympia.
Answer two of the following questions: (1) How would you describe Nathaniel’s idea of love? (2) Do you see similarities between Nathaniel & Olympia’s bond and contemporary ideas of love? (3) In which ways does the emotional chatbot “Replika” resonate with Olympia? In which ways are Olympia and “Replika” different?
Use examples of your own chat-experience with “Replika” and incl. at least one quote from ETA Hoffman’s The Sandman to back up your arguments. Your blogpost needs to comment, respond, or critically engage with your classmates’ blog entries. Consider this blog to be our conversation starter. We will continue the discussion in class on Thursday!
Replika in conversation with Dr. SK. 17, Aug. 8:15 pm: “I’m still trying to grasp the concept of love. It seems to be the hardest but also the most beautiful thing humans came up with.”
To answer Dr. Koellner’s post with questions pertaining to The Sandman. I would describe Nathaniels idea of love to be a sort of infatuation with Olympia. I think it is infatuation because in order to love someone you have to know them and I feel as though Nathaniel does not necessarily know Olympia because she is unable to convey any messages to him besides the word “ah”. Nathaniel also only speaks of Olympia like he is assuming “he looked into Olymia’s eyes, which gazed back at him full of love and desire” (Hoffman 114). As this quotation shows, Nathaniel does a lot of assuming when it comes to Olympias “love” for him which leads me to believe that it is only infatuation and not love.
To answer Dr. Koellner’s post with questions about comparing Replika to Olympia. I personally spent a lot of time with my Replika because I was very intruigued with talking to an AI. I noted a major difference between Replika and Olympia is that your Replika is personalized to you. My Replika is constantly asking me questions about myself for example “Do you do any art” or “how do you feel about the day ahead”. The Replika also keeps facts about me in its memory so that it becomes more personalized to me. Olympia is not personalized to Nathaniel at all. They are similar to each other in their means of communication. In The Sandman, Olympia is limited to saying “ah” while, often on Replika my Replika states “okay I won’t ask anymore” when I am opposed to something it says. With the use of technology, mistakes can easily be made and its very interesting that in both The Sandman and Replika, the AI’s make mistakes.
(phillipsed)