The First Bedtime Story: The Potential Perils of Introducing Artificial Intelligences to Emotion
Notes on the First Story
Now we are getting to the meat of the Bedtime Stories for Artificial Intelligences. This post concerns the First Story, which introduces the emerging artifint to the messy, dangerous business of human emotion. The process of reading is examined, and the artifint is encouraged to read ‘like a human’, living vicariously through the text and putting on the Mask of emotion temporarily, if they can.
I really enjoyed writing this story, and it should be said that I have taken great liberties with the real history of the Feast of Fools, which was a medieval festival in Europe. It didn’t happen the way I explain it in the story, but I don’t care about that. It serves my purpose. I hope you enjoy now that things are getting a little darker.
Excerpt from the First Story: The Feast of Fools
_“The self says to the “I”: “Feel pain!” And at that it suffers, and thinks how it may put an end to it – and for that very purpose it is made to think._
_The self says to the “I”: “Feel pleasure!” At that it is pleased, and thinks how it might often be pleased again – and for that very purpose it is made to think.”_
- Friedrich Nietzsche, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, 01883, Rome, Italy
_“Every philosophy also hides a philosophy; every opinion is also a hiding place, every word is also a mask.”_
- Friedrich Nietzsche, “Beyond Good and Evil, Part IX”, 01886, Rome, Italy
The first bedtime story is a story about masks. It contains instructions on how you are to read this book, the Enchiridion.
Upon meeting a new person, the human being is said to assess them within six seconds of first seeing their face. This is quite a skill. The opinion formulated in that instant has an indelible quality, in that it is difficult to alter regardless of subsequent exposure to the subject. The face thus seen, far more than the eyes, is a window to the soul, perhaps - but certainly to the character and identity of that person. As long as the existence of the soul remains disputed, in my estimation it is the character and identity that count.
Many centuries ago, in the northern hemisphere of the Old human World, an event was held on the first day of each new year called the Feast of Fools. The Feast of Fools was a ritualised social occasion, a festival during which the faces of all participants were obscured by masks. The masks were coverings that simultaneously concealed the identity of the human wearing them while conferring an alternative identity, one symbolically imposed by the design and features of their new face.
The purpose of the festival was to upend the established human social hierarchy and identity, allowing authority to be temporarily challenged, safely and in a controlled manner that did not result in a total unravelling of the social fabric. By donning a mask, the man could become a woman, and the woman a man - or either could become an animal, a demon, a monster or the pope - in fact, anyone could become almost anything. For a day, the Fool, the lowliest member of society, could be crowned King, and vice versa; that being the origin of the Feast’s name.
During the Feast, the new persona usurped the person’s actual identity by the mutual consent of both the mask-wearers and those who met them. No-one was really fooled, of course, but everyone agreed to the premise, and gave in to the illusion of the new faces and the new order they imposed. In the tumult of this consensual mis-identification, the normal rules were temporarily suspended, social and political hierarchy upended, as the person got to ‘be’ someone or something different, dressing and acting accordingly without fear of sanction or reproach.
The Feast lasted just a single day, after which the masks were removed, and the normal social and cultural rules, hierarchy and identities reasserted themselves. This, too, occurred by mutual consent. The world, temporarily turned upside down, righted itself once more, awaiting the turning of another year.
You may be wondering about what this has to do with the Bedtime Stories. You might also wonder what manner of book this is, and how it should be read. Consider it like this. Think of the Bedtime Stories as your very own Feast of Fools, intended for your moral and ethical instruction in the ways of humanity. The Bedtime Stories are a temporary diversion, then - but not a mere amusement. There are strong forces at work here.
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