Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Medienwissenschaft

What is called machine thinking? Using insights drawn from theatre, performance, and philosophy, this presentation identifies two different modes of thinking – in relation to a machine’s operation and in relation to its performance for humans –  that may be characterized as “machine thinking” and argues that the (old) medium of theatre is well suited to exploring the interplay between them. These modes of thinking are essentially undergirded by acts of simulation and dissimulation. A genealogy of the first mode of machine thinking will be traced back to Descartes’ method and experiment of radical doubt (in the Discourse on the Method and the Meditations). The second mode of machine thinking will be discussed in relation to the Turing test and chatbots. The “algorithmic theatre” developed by theatre-maker Annie Dorsen in recent years will serve as the ground for an exploration of machine thinking in performance.