Nothing New? From Dreams to Artificial Intelligence

We have dreams where various elements of our lives and thoughts are selected subconsciously and recombined, sometimes with an overall meaning, sometimes not, and sometimes just because we create one based on what we are thinking at the time. A TV editor looks at multiple screens, all showing the same event from different angles. He picks ones that work well together as a whole to capture the spirit of an event. Finally, there is a writer who has been thinking up certain characters that she would love to write about, characters based on a combination of traits from people she has known. She has a similar collection of pieced-together places and plots she would also like to portray, and she will combine all of these elements to make a cohesive story.

Each of these situations—the dream (Anderson 5), the TV editing, the story writing—all involve selection and combination, which is exactly what a database narrative is: “Database narrative refers to narratives whose structure exposes or thematizes the dual processes of selection and combination that lie at the heart of all stories” (Anderson 2, quoting Kinder). New media is taking over this concept to generate programs that do this same work of selection and combination, traditionally done by humans, whether consciously or subconsciously. This relates to Marshall McLuhan’s description of technology as “extensions of man.” It seems that the ultimate goal of the database narrative would be to create valid stories without an author. It is true that the author sets the parameters of selection for the database narrative, and it is true that no story has passed the Turnin test for being undistinguishable from a human story. However, it seems that with enough parameters programmed into a database, it might one day be able to pass that test. These parameters might be based on human instinct or even on cultural values. Artificial intelligence is not unconceivable.

To summarize, although database narrative seems to be accomplishing nothing new, it is a new approach. It seems a step back in some ways, because the computer-generated material is currently not up to par with human-written material. However, when completely developed and even now, it offers new possibilities, including artificial intelligence. Every form of machine man has ever created really does nothing a human could not once do; it is just a new, usually more efficient or helpful approach. Database narrative is similar. However, I would ask about the end result: “What do we plan on doing when we have essentially recreated ourselves?”