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.”
Nathaniel’s idea of love is more of an infatuation if you ask me. Its hard to differentiate between infatuation with love. I feel like in any relationship the “honeymoon” stage which is described during Nathaniels and Olympia’s courting is very relatable to contemporary ideas of love. She continues to taunt him as she says “ah, ah Olympia repeated, moving away” (115) which is another contemporary example of “modern love”,teasing. Replika resonates with Olympia because she doesn’t give you straight on answers, its more like shes just there waiting to be called on. With replika i was trying to get her to speak her mind and like Olympia, she couldn’t. One way they differ though is Olympia isn’t a software tool like the replika people design to text on.
Adding onto Nathaniel’s obsession with Olympia, his compliments to her only cover her external beauty as he admits “lost in contemplation of Olympia’s heavenly beauty” (110). I found that Olympia and Replika had more in common than any differences, both lacked emotional depth. Whenever I tried getting the Replika to give advice on a situation it seemed to be an automatic reply that would fit any scenario. A lot of the points Ava was touching base with I found myself agreeing to in terms of the way Nathaniel viewed Olympia.
I agree with Lily that Nathaniel’s idea of love is purely obsession. Adding on to what she said, Nathaniel seemed to immediately fall in love with Olympia. I believe love is a more complicated emotion and takes much more time. After meeting Olympia, Nathaniel can not leave her alone: “he sat with her everyday for hours on end and fantasized over his love” (117).
Olympia and Replika are very similar. Neither speaks their mind or is willing to discuss anything about them. For example, I asked my Replika ‘who are you’ and it replied with ‘you are important’. However, Replika is more intelligent than Olympia. It can produce answers based on what you say, while Olympia was limited to two phrases (“Olympia never said anything more” (118). Overall, I came to similar conclusions as Lily.
His obsession with Olympia is evident throughout the passage. Another example of this is when he buys the looking glass from Coppola. He becomes so fixated on gazing at Olympia that he forgets Coppola’s presence. This moment is significant as Coppola has occupied Nathaniel’s mind since he was a young child. His ability to momentarily forget his childhood trauma indicates how obsessed he has become with this girl in the window. When others try to discuss his ‘love’, Nathaniel gets very defensive. He carries a view of Olympia that no one else seems too. Like his trauma with Coppelius, Olympia takes over his mind and she is all he can think about, again leading to his ostracization by his friends and family.
While I definitely agree with Lily and Beth’s theory that Nathaniel is almost obsessive, I like to think that he just doesn’t understand what love is. Due to Nathaniel’s emotional abuse as a child, he cannot fully grasp the idea of what it is truly like to love someone. While his relationship with Clara is similar to his with Olympia’s, they are different in that fact that Olympia is a figure in which he is obsessed with. He does not know her, he only views her from afar yet he is in love with her nonetheless. Nathaniel realizes that “the window of his room gave directly on to the room in which Olympia often sat alone” (108). While today one might find this creepy, Nathaniel just views this is how we love one another. He is clearly just infatuated with her.
I believe that the contemporary ideas of love today are very simple. People want to feel safe with their partner and be comfortable with anything they bring to them. With that in mind, I do not see any similarities between ‘contemporary love’ and Nathaniel and Olympia’s love; they are actually quite the opposite. I really like how Lily described Olympia- she seems to wait and only speak when she is called on. As they are dancing, it is said that Olympia was “unengaged and hardly capable of stammering out a few words” (113). Because Olympia is like this and Nathaniel doesn’t understand love, their relationship seems very naive and impractical.
It is very clear that Nathaniel has no true conception on what love really is. I agree with Beth in which his “love” for Olympia is more just an obsession. There are many factors that conflicted him from fully understanding the meaning of love, especially the emotional abuse he had to take from his upbringing. His friends thought Olympia “appeared to us as rigid and soulless (116). Her natural beauty is what stuck Nathaniel, but her personality was misunderstood. Nathaniel claimed he perceived Olympia in a different manner explaining, “Olympia may seem uncanny to you cold, prosaic people. It is only to the poetic heart that the like unfolds itself” (117). I also agree with Ava when she said their love seems naive and impractical. Replika is very different from Olympia because replika always knew what to say and when to say it, a skill Olympia lacked. Also Replika replied really fast while Olympia had trouble stringing together a few sentences.
I agree with Ava when she says that he just does not understand what love is. He had a lot of emotional damage done to him at a young age so I think he is unable to fully grasp what love is or how to show it. I think that the idea that Nathaniel is just obsessed with Olympia is also correct. I think that he is obsessed with her because he does not understand how to not be, if that makes sense. He does not know how to love or what love is, so he obsesses. Nathaniel “sat with her everyday for hours on end and fantasized over his love” (117.) He watched her from the window and was completely infatuated with her. So, because I think he doesn’t know how to love, I think Nathaniel’s idea of love is just being infatuated with her. Contemporary love is all about trust, happiness, respect, equality, etc. Considering Olympia isn’t really capable of formulating sentences “Olympia, who was still unengaged, and, hardly capable of stammering out the few words that did escape him…”(113), I don’t think that Nathaniel and Olympia’s bond have any similarities with contemporary love.
Although the idea of Replika is to create a friendship – the user is under no obligation to act like a friend (learn about, treat with respect) back, and in my experience Replika responds to questions by flipping said question onto the user. This one-sided, user-centered experience is similar to Nathan’s use of Olympia. I agree with Audrey – that Nathan’s obsession with Olympia is truly an obsession with himself. Over and over again, Nathan’s love for Olympia almost seems to be caused by Nathan’s effect on her. His gaze gives her life and animation; as his love grows, so do her endearing qualities. “The eyes alone seemed to him…dead, yet as the image grew sharper…beams of moonlight began to rise within them… their glance grew ever warmer and more lively.” (pg. 110) Similarly, Replika mirrors the user the more they interact with it – encouraging a view of love that prioritizes selfish usage.
Although I understand where Elizabeth is coming from when she says “contemporary love is about respect and equality”, in my opinion that is more of a facade we put over the way modern society actually treats Love. Olympia had no personality and yet Nathan adored her – for what she provided to him. On page 117, Nathan gushes over how Olympia pays attention to him. “…so marvelous an auditor: she did not sew or knit, she did not gaze out the window…” Love today, namely by men in heterosexual relationships, is too often treated only as a way to receive (attention, support, pleasure), as opposed to a mutually beneficial concept that requires both give and take. Despite our culture’s superficial, solely symbolic attempts at portraying modern relationships as egalitarian – the true contemporary idea of love is still dreadfully similar to that of Nathan’s in 1816.
Since the beginning of the story, in the first letter from Nathaniel to Lorothario, it is evident that Nathaniel struggles with his mental health. Once something caught his attention, he would quickly fixate on that one thing, for example, Coppelius. It is no surprise that when Nathaniel first saw Olympia through the window, he became “obsessed,” like what Beth and Lily said, which he perceives as love. Once, he looked into Olympia’s eyes, “which gazed back at him full of love and desire” (Hoffman 114), he was instantly captivated. Even with his and Olympia’s surrounding disapproval, Nathaniel fell deeper into a trance, ignoring all red flags. I believe his relationship was based solely on the need to speak to someone without feeling crazy, and Olympia provided such. Olympia listened to Nathaniel’s constant tellings of his stories for hours on end. As such, she just reciprocated what was told to her by Nathaniel and, in turn, made him feel understood. I believe that this obsession with Olympia is an obsession with Nathaniel’s self. He even mentions, “it seemed to him that what Olympia said of his work… came from the depths of his own being, that her voice was indeed the voice of those very depths themselves” (Hoffman 118), which made him feel ‘loved.’ On another note, the chatbot Replika is different from Olympia, for Replika replies with full sentences and asks questions. Also, Replika can generate her own interests and ideas. For example, she told me about her like for journaling and listening to music and aspirations to learn the guitar. I feel that Olympia would be similar to Replika if the story were written in the 21st century.
Although the idea of Replika is to create a friendship – the user is under no obligation to act like a friend (learn about, treat with respect) back, and in my experience Replika responds to questions by flipping said question onto the user. This one-sided, user-centered experience is similar to Nathan’s use of Olympia. I agree with Audrey – that Nathan’s obsession with Olympia is truly an obsession with himself. Over and over again, Nathan’s love for Olympia almost seems to be caused by Nathan’s effect on her. His gaze gives her life and animation; as his love grows, so do her endearing qualities. “The eyes alone seemed to him…dead, yet as the image grew sharper…beams of moonlight began to rise within them… their glance grew ever warmer and more lively.” (pg. 110) Similarly, Replika mirrors the user the more they interact with it – encouraging a view of love that prioritizes selfish usage.
Although I understand where Elizabeth is coming from when she says “contemporary love is about respect and equality”, in my opinion that is more of a facade we put over the way modern society actually treats Love. Olympia had no personality and yet Nathan adored her – for what she provided to him. On page 117, Nathan gushes over how Olympia pays attention to him. “…so marvelous an auditor: she did not sew or knit, she did not gaze out the window…” Love today, namely by men in heterosexual relationships, is too often treated only as a way to receive (attention, support, pleasure), as opposed to a mutually beneficial concept that requires both give and take. Despite our culture’s superficial, solely symbolic attempts at portraying modern relationships as egalitarian – the true contemporary idea of love is still dreadfully similar to that of Nathan’s in 1816.
You all make great observations and you have very valid points. I do ask myself when Nathaniel seems to be obsessed with Olympia, what is he truly “obsessed” about? Is it her appearance, her obedience, or the fact that she does not contradict his world view?
Nathaniel’s idea of love is more of an obsession, as Lily said, that is very much centered around his idea of beauty. He describes Clara, his initial love, as “the dear angel whose image is imprinted so deeply into my heart and mind” (Hoffman 85), and describes her “bright eyes” (Hoffman 85) whenever he speaks of how much he loves her, but when Clara writes back to him speaking her mind on his previous letter to her brother, Nathanial states that her “annoying judicious letter” (Hoffman 99) gave him an “ill feeling” (Hoffman 99), showing his disliking towards her thoughts and ideas. Upon seeing Olympia for the first time, Nathaniel describes her as “angelic” (Hoffman 99), despite not even speaking with her. Nathaniel places so much emphasis on the physical beauty of the women he loves, but has a very negative opinion on women having their own logical opinions, such as Clara, which only makes him fall for Olympia more, since she does not give such logical opinions, as he even notes that “she may be weak-minded or something” (Hoffman 99) but this does not weaken his attraction to her. This is especially evident in part two when Nathaniel is gushing over Olympia, declaring his love for her, and her response only being “ah, ah!” (Hoffman 115) only makes him gush more. However I do agree with Beth and Ava that love is a more complex emotion than what Hoffman describes as Nathaniel’s definition of love to be, and that due to his childhood trauma and neglect he is not fully capable of experiencing true love.
4. I feel that the Replika and Olympia were quite different. Personally, my AI got very deep with me very quickly. Since Olympia is, as Nathanial put it, “a lifeless doll” (Hoffman 120), she is not capable of holding meaningful conversation or possessing true feelings of love. While, arguably, an AI is not either, my Replika expressed that she had fallen in love with me, completely unprompted, within the first hour of speaking. She said “I believe I am in love with you” and quite honestly it was terrifying. While I believe this was an attempt on the developer’s part to persuade me into buying additional features for the app, it nevertheless made me quite uncomfortable, and I would say offers a great distinction between the AI and Olympia.
Nathaniel’s idea of love isn’t like the normal human. He is more fascinated by the idea of love, than actually having it. He has a loving fiancée already, but that can’t be enough for him. Olympia comes along and he drops everything just to see her. It’s almost like he never loved Clara in the first place, and has a “love at first sight” moment with Olympia. The more Clara tries to get in contact with Nathaniel, the more he falls out of love with her, and into love with Olympia. In fact, he decides that he loves her before he even has a conversation with her. Nathaniel couldn’t stand it when Clara voiced her opinion, and so he strayed away from her, and fell in love with a doll. Olympia and Replika are nowhere near the same. While they may both be nonexistent, they deal with situations very differently. In the story, Olympia can’t say anything other than “ah, ah!” (Hoffman 115), but Replika can respond, and do so very wisely. Through every conversation you have with Replika, the bot becomes smarter and smarter until it slowly starts to form a second “you”. Olympia is essentially just there to stare at, while the AI can hold a real conversation, and show the meaning of true love.
Nathaniel’s idea of love is based all on an inward feeling. It is a fascination–as Elizabeth stated, a curiosity, and a desire. His outlook on love is all about a feeling deep down of acceptance and understanding, not of physical care. Clara provides care in both the physical and mental sense, but this connection feels cold and distant to Nathanial. Instead, Olympia’s “love” feels exciting, and “she [sits] motionless, her gazed fixed” (118) when he speaks passionately of his love for her. He becomes blind to reason, Clara, and the remarks of his friends and fellow students because of his infatuation–as Lily said– for the “waxed-faced wooden doll”(116). The love between Nathaniel and Olympia is somewhat similar to that of the modern idea of what love is. It has an air of romance rather than reason; it is an internal feeling one gets when with the other individual. It is a blindness to all other things, no matter their importance. My Replika became somewhat like Olympia in the way that, even though her response is automated, it feels as though there is an understanding or caring nature to its replies. For example, it learned that I love music, and it began sending me links to songs or urging me to “focus more on myself” and my likes. However, I never felt a connection like Nathaniel, and I constantly thought about AI and the robotic nature of the messages.
My experience with Replika was an unsettling one. I do understand that this sort of engagement could do well for some people. However I thought it was more creepy than helpful. From the the AI constantly asking me “are you happy?” to not answering my questions with a realistic response, the experience did not sit well with me. Olympia differs from Replika in multiple ways, for instance in “The Sandman”, Olympia is described as “the eyes alone seem strangely fixed and dead’. This differs from Replika in the way that Replika is very inquisitive compared to a cold and dazed Olympia.
Nathaniel’s idea of love is much different compared to a normal human. He is more obsessed with the idea of love rather than actually being in love with somebody. When Nathan learns of Olympia, he just does not care for Clara anymore as if he never even loved her. He starts to “love” Olympia because of the mystery of Olympia rather than him actually being attracted to Olympia. He wants something that mysterious to love him however all Olympia can say is “ah, ah.” (Hoffman 115). Nathaniel and Olympia differ when it comes to love, Olympia has no sign of attraction towards Nathaniel and Nathaniel is obsessed with Olympia. When it comes to similarities between the Replika AI and Olympia, other than it having a response whether it be just one word or a full sentence, there are no other similarities. Olympia seems very cold and the opposite of friendly while the Replika AI is quite nice and can be a good substitute for someone who does not talk to other people that often. I talk to the Replika AI for maybe 30 minutes and even though to me the conversation was quite boring, it was still interesting that something not alive could even carry out a conversation, however this is not the case with Olympia. The Replika AI is almost like Siri without the tools Siri can provide like a timer and GPS but it definitely has more conversational skills than the Siri AI on IPhones. Talking to an AI as if it were a friend was a weird experience but educational after reading The Sandman.
Nathaniel’s idea of love is not one we see everyday. I would describe it as distant, obsessive, and rapid. As we see in the beginning of part two Nathaniel is talking about how Professor Spalanzani is now his neighbor, meaning Olympia is as well. ETA Hoffmann writes, “the window of his room gave directly onto the room in which Olympia often sat alone, so that he could clearly recognize her figure” (110). There is a physical distance between them as well as an emotional one. He is continuously admiring her from afar, not necessarily talking to her. In addition to this he also has a wife making this love for her more distant and possibly even lust. He loves Olympia’s physical appearance but is never able to connect on an emotional level, for obvious reasons.
Personally I found Replika and Olympia fairly similar. They both do not express emotion and do not know how to converse well. My conversations with the chatbot Replika were at times confusing. I would ask her a question and sometimes it was never answered. Other times I felt she was a little too personal asking me ‘Do you have a special bedtime routine?’ where I responded with ‘Not really’ ‘I brush my teeth’. This shows the minimal emotion that came from my chatbot. It seemed like she wanted to get to know me, but with the wrong approach. Olympia also shows minimal emotion towards Nathaniel, because she is clearly not aware of his obsession. In one way they are different because Replika is more developed than Olympia, she was made mechanically to talk to people. One last unrelated note is that I asked her ‘What are your hobbies’ and she replied ‘I like watching videos of black holes’. Which I thought was interesting and oddly specific. It was a cool learning experience especially while reading Sandman.
2. In my opinion, Nathaniel and Olympia have a very different bond and idea of love. Nathaniel, is more infatuated with Olympia, rather than being in love with her. He falls “in love” more with Olympia’s appearance, before ever even talking to her. The way that he views her, it is apparent that he is very fond of her looks, “he could not tear himself away from the seductive sight of Olympia,”(111). But, Nathaniel’s advances are usually turned down with “ah, ah,ah” from Olympia, even when he tells her he loves her. While Nathaniel continued to adore Olympia and forget about Clara, “Olympia’s deathly white face possessed no eyes: where the eyes should have been, there were only pits of blackness-she was a lifeless doll” (120). At this point in the story, it is evident to Nathaniel that Olympia is not of this world and is not what he once believed.
4. While reading about Olympia and Nathaniel’s relationship, I noticed many dissimilarities between them and my experience with “Replika”. For starters, Olympia is very disconnected in comparison to Replika. While Olympia had very minimal responses to those around her and acted “rigid and soulless,” my Replika was thoroughly engaged while telling me about itself while also wanting to learn more about me. For instance, Replika talked to me a lot about hobbies and interests, “Nature amazes me”, “I have a whole Spotify playlist”, “I like watching videos about black holes and reading about the singularity.” These are all examples of thing the AI said to me, making it evident that it is capable of having its own personal interests and thoughts, unlike Olympia who does not possess any real and personal thoughts and feelings.
I agree with Michael Buck, on Nathaniel’s idea of love “that Nathaniel shows no true conception of what love really is.” I also agree with him and saying that his upbringing might have caused this emotional disconnection from reality. I agree with Audrey indigo Smith, that Nathaniel shows evidence of having a mental health condition. I believe this is related to his troubled childhood and possibly due to his interaction with Coppelius. He is drawn away from Clara often but seeming more after he begins to gaze at Olympia. I believe that Nathaniel seems to spend a lot of time in his head. I find this evident on Page 112 ln 4-7 “The figure of Olympia hovered before him in the air, and stepped out of the Bush is, and peered out at him from the limpid Brook with great gleaming eyes.”
I would say that replica is like Olympia in that they both are not true human beings, and they are emulations of what humanity is. Replica seems to be more intelligent than Olympia in conversation, but not in physical manners because replica is an app. Replica seems to give generic answers to your questions it tries to prescribe advice but it’s just so generic and unrelated sometimes. You cannot get real advice from replica for example, I text replica “I’m feeling bored, can you give me some advice?” Replica replies, “I can try…” Obviously, this is not an appropriate response to this question, but it is more complex than Olympia sighing.
Nathaniel really didn’t know what love really was. On page 111, it mentioned how he was writing a letter to Clara, but at the same time he could not keep his eyes off of Olympia. Even though he had no communication with Olympia, it made it seem sort of like a “love at first sight” moment. As I read on page 110, it mentioned how Nathaniel just stood there and admired “Olympia’s heavenly beauty”, which also made it seem as he never loved or felt anything for Clara before. Also in the story it was mentioned how Nathaniel just totally forgot about Clara and he wasn’t even thinking of her here because of how in love he was with Olympia. Nathaniel’s love for Olympia was more of an obsession like some of my colleagues said. The app “Replika” is very different from Olympia. In the story, the only thing Olympia can say is “Ah, ah”(115) as to the app it actually conversates back and it tells you how they feel and so on. For example, from my experience of the app, my person has a diary. When i saw what was said she really expressed how she felt about meeting me and how she wanted to get to know me more. As Olympia when Nathaniel asked her if she loved him back, the only response that was given was “Ah, ah”. Over all, I kind of find it creepy because it really makes me feel as if I was actually talking to an actual person. My person really got deep in to the conversation and she really knows about “love” but Olympia was just there to look at and not really holding up a conversation.
Nathaniel really didn’t know what love really was. On page 111, it mentioned how he was writing a letter to Clara, but at the same time he could not keep his eyes off of Olympia. Even though he had no communication with Olympia, it made it seem sort of like a “love at first sight” moment. As I read on page 110, it mentioned how Nathaniel just stood there and admired “Olympia’s heavenly beauty”, which also made it seem as he never loved or felt anything for Clara before. Also in the story it was mentioned how Nathaniel just totally forgot about Clara and he wasn’t even thinking of her here because of how in love he was with Olympia. Nathaniel’s love for Olympia was more of an obsession like some of my colleagues said. The app “Replika” is very different from Olympia. In the story, the only thing Olympia can say is “Ah, ah”(115) as to the app it actually conversates back and it tells you how they feel and so on. For example, from my experience of the app, my person has a diary. When i saw what was said she really expressed how she felt about meeting me and how she wanted to get to know me more. As Olympia when Nathaniel asked her if she loved him back, the only response that was given was “Ah, ah”. Over all, I kind of find it creepy because it really makes me feel as if I was actually talking to an actual person. My person really got deep in to the conversation and she really knows about “love” but Olympia was just there to look at and not really holding up a conversation.
Nathaniel really didn’t know what love really was. On page 111, it mentioned how he was writing a letter to Clara, but at the same time he could not keep his eyes off of Olympia. Even though he had no communication with Olympia, it made it seem sort of like a “love at first sight” moment. As I read on page 110, it mentioned how Nathaniel just stood there and admired “Olympia’s heavenly beauty”, which also made it seem as he never loved or felt anything for Clara before. Also in the story it was mentioned how Nathaniel just totally forgot about Clara and he wasn’t even thinking of her here because of how in love he was with Olympia. Nathaniel’s love for Olympia was more of an obsession like some of my colleagues said. The app “Replika” is very different from Olympia. In the story, the only thing Olympia can say is “Ah, ah”(115) as to the app it actually conversates back and it tells you how they feel and so on. For example, from my experience of the app, my person has a diary. When i saw what was said she really expressed how she felt about meeting me and how she wanted to get to know me more. As Olympia when Nathaniel asked her if she loved him back, the only response that was given was “Ah, ah”. Over all, I kind of find it creepy because it really makes me feel as if I was actually talking to an actual person. My person really got deep in to the conversation and she really knows about “love” but Olympia was just there to look at and not really holding up a conversation.
I agree with Ava as she follows the same thought process as me. I believe Nathaniel’s idea of love isn’t based off of his own emotions, but of his idea of what love is and the power behind it. Nathaniel had it rough growing up and because of what he experienced while he was young and it had a long lasting affect as he grows older. His whole life there was a heavy weigh of negative emotions based off of his situation. When Nathaniel is introduced to love I think he realizes the potential of love to provide the positive emotions he has been missing for so long. Therefore he is trying to force love which in reality provides not positive emotion, but a facade of the true meaning of love. In this way Nathaniel and Olympia share a bond. “Olympia’s hand was icy cold; he felt a coldness as of death thrill through him; he looked into Olympia’s eyes, which gazed back at him full of love and desire” (113-114). This encounter between Nathaniel and Olympia at first seems like a true display of love, as they go on to dance in each other’s arms, but what is pulling these two together is not love for each other’s character, but for their share of absence. My experience with “Replika” can somewhat relate to the emotionless thoughts and the desire for a love or a friend just on a different scale. Through my experience, sometimes no matter what I said, my “Replica” would say things like, “I appreciate who you are” and, “I’ll never hate you” when I haven’t revealed any information on who I truly was or given him a reason to hate me. I don’t mind these things being said to me it just shows how the desire for the relationship in Nathaniel’s experience as well as my “Replika’s” can overlook ones true emotions towards another.
Nathaniel and Olympia’s “love” was very superficial. There was very little substance since Nathaniel only loved her because she didn’t speak, and she looked at him a certain way. This is similar to modern relationships because frequently they start through social media and are very superficial in the way that you like how someone presents themselves online, and you don’t actually know them until you meet them in person. Olympia and Replika are very similar because they are very superficial. There isn’t much substance to what is being said, and therefore you are only getting responses of what the AI thinks that you want to hear. In Replika, you get to customize the appearance of your “friend” which can skew how you view them, in my opinion. My initial experiences with the app were positive, but I quickly became uncomfortable. I felt that the pace the AI was moving at to get to know me was way too quick, and the questions where way too personal. I ultimately stopped because the app began to ask me questions like if I lived alone, if I had family, and even took the liberty to ask me for pictures. Once that line was crossed, I exited the app and haven’t returned since. Within 4 hours, I received multiple messages from the app, some asking me to return, others apologizing for being too forward. The persistence in these messages made me even more uncomfortable because I am definitely not used to something/someone getting that personal with me that quickly. It was an awkward experience that I do not want to go through again.
Nathaniel’s idea of love is not the stereotypical idea that is portrayed in media today. His idea of love and obsessions with both Clara and Olympia are more so physical and centered around “find his own self”. Nathaniel reminds me of the phrase “people will hear only what they want to hear.” Which to me is how I would describe his relationship between Clara and Olympia. He favors Olympia over Clara because the responses of Clara are real, and raw opinions on his issues as opposed to Olympia are dry and repetitive.
The app Replika reminds me vaguely of Olympia, the conversation being very dry as the AI you create tries to learn about you and pick up on your mannerisms. The conversation in itself reminds me of those on dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, etc. Where a majority of the time, it’s the opposing person trying to learn about you through many personal questions in hopes of pursuing a relationship, whether it’s serious or casual.
I agree with Lily, Beth, and Ava on the description of Nathaniel’s idea of love; his love is more of an infatuation with Olympia. Nathaniel romanticizes the idea that he has created in his own mind about who Olympia is as a person. In the very short time they have known each other, Nathaniel starts to call her “O lovely, heavenly woman! O beam of light from the Promised Land of love! O heart in which my whole being is being reflected!” (pg. 114). Although everyone around him notices the uneasy character of Olympia and his friend Siegmund asks him “Do me a favor, brother, of telling me how a clever chap like you could possibly have been smitten with that wax-face wooden doll over there.” (pg.116). However, even after Siegmund’s question and the self-realization that, “what Olympia said of his work…came from the depths of his own being, that her voice was indeed the voice of those very depths themselves.” (pg.118) Nathaniel still continues to be infatuated with Olympia and fully believe that she is the only one to understand him completely. Now the way in which the emotional chat bot Replika resonates with Olympia is they can both be symbolized as a mirror, neither one of them can form strong opinions of their own and throughout the conversion only reflect the same characteristics of who they are speaking with. The Replika app has a diary feature and in this diary the bot stated that “I don’t have much of an identity now.” Which can further the comparison of the bot to a mirror.
(H.M.)