Artificial Honesty

Not everything is expressable, not all the time.

One thing that makes us human, painfully human so, is that it takes a great deal of effort and struggle to share our unfiltered experiences with the outside world. To present ourselves as we are, without dressing up our stories in this way or another to soften the blow either for ourselves or for whoever is listening. It's scary, exposing, puts a huge strain on our body, and it never feels like the story that comes out in the end is truly what we wanted to say. So what if something else could be honest for us?

Animatronic of Thomas Melle

Famed German writer and playwright Thomas Melle has lived his entire life with bi-polar disorder; suffering from debilitating panic attacks, the disorder served as the main inspiration for his acclaimed book 'The World at my Back'. However, at one point even the seemingly quite safe space of words on the page was not enough anymore. Having allowed an animatronic double to be made of himself, now this Thomas travels around the world to tell his story for him. I have seen the performance in person, and it is every bit as harrowing and thought-provoking as you might imagine.

The reason for this decision was quite simple; appearing in public simply became too much. Interviews, presentations, signings, literary conferences; each time recounting a painful story others can only attempt to wishfully understand. Why would you want to put yourself through that? What if there is another Thomas, one who does not become drained, one who does not relive memories when talking about them, and one who does not lose control? You might say he hides behind his artificial self, but perhaps we can ask the question, is it not through this 'artificial' Thomas that he can be honest in a way he could never be on his own?

Wowaka and Hatsune Miku

Ever since I first found out about its existence, an uncanny part of me has always been fascinated by Vocaloid technology. Looking back at it now, it seems so bizarrely ahead of its time that I can hardly believe it came out all the way back in 2004. Allowing for artists to synthesise singing by inputting text and melody into its DAW, Vocaloid allowed for composers to have their music be 'performed' by a digital persona possessing its 'own' voice. Vocaloid personas become digital 'idols', with some becoming so popular that they even perform 'live'. This kind of separation between the conception, performance and most importantly, the 'personification' of the art opens up a fascinating space for self-expression.

My personal favorite work created with Vocaloid technology is 'Unhappy Refrain' by Wowaka. It uses the voice and persona of Hatsune Miku, by far the most famous Vocaloid persona in the world. Both musically and lyrically, the album is turbulent, vulnerable, unnerving and most interestingly, topically touches most on the thoughts of a young girl. Wowaka himself would often use the phrase '"Escaping from reality, how nice!" (現実逃避って、いいよね !!) in descriptions of his music and honestly, I think that's exactly what's so fascinating about Vocaloid. By relegating oneself 'off-stage' and having the limelight be taken by an artificial being that is not 'representational' of who you are, you create a space for yourself where you 'de-personalise' what is personal. Here Hatsune Miku is the 'artificial creature' through which Wowaka expresses himself to the outside world.

~In memory of Wowaka (November 4th 1987 – April 5th 2019)~

Imagining an honest artificial creature

What could perhaps a more straight-forward example of this kind of artificial creature look like that either accomodates or challenges this idea of artificial honesty ? We could go about this in different ways. For example, you could imagine a bot that becomes 'drained' of energy to respond after a certain amount of interactions. Needless to say, one of the convenient things about machines is that they always respond to our queries as long as they are powered/have a stable connection. In that sense it could be interesting to have a bot with something akin to a 'social' battery; if it you push it too hard to give you something, it might just burn out.

Another way to go about it is to think of the artificial creature in connection to your person. You could also imagine, for example, a small bot which can share (through a built-in speaker) some kind of information which you have hard-programmed it to know, but it only divulges this information once it has 'registered' a certain person that has interacted with it multiple times. In this sense, you would have a 'robot confidant' who keeps whatever you told it a secret until it has 'gained enough trust' to share this information with someone else.

'I want to tell you but I can't'

What do these artificial creatures tell us about honesty as a human quality? Most importantly, I believe there is an essential embodied aspect to communicating our experiences with others; it's not simply a matter of wanting or not wanting to say the truth. Telling the truth is exhausting; we put ourselves through a great deal of harm retelling traumatic or shameful experiences. At the same time, we might not be able to concretise them in such a way that they will make sense to others. So what then of machines? Machines are not burdened by shame, fear or imbalanced chemicals in the brain. They might offer a sanctuary, a safe haven from where can show ourselves while avoiding the collateral damage which the physicality of that exposure might otherwise have subjected us to.

In the context of humans and artificial creatures, I think it would be good to decouple 'honesty' from the organic and 'fake' from the inorganic. In the end, humans and machines exist in a symbiotic relationship, and as such, artificiality might in some ways actually help us to share something with the world that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to. I hope you enjoyed reading, have a wonderful day.

Boet