The Stories of Ibis – Hiroshi Yamamoto

Character Count (incl. spaces in Word): 7.523

Question 1
Compared to the two books we read prior to Yamamotos novel, I found it harder to answer this
question in a similar fashion, as the first two books presented actual theoretical approaches or
concepts to discuss. These fictional stories however, covered different thoughts of a more ethical and
broader fashion that are not as theoretical. One thing I found very interesting to consider are different
fictional phenomena mentioned in the stories, that we encounter in our reality nowadays, especially
the fictional scenarios of how humanity changes that can be observed today.
One example is what they called “computer autism” in the story “Mirror Girl”: children spent too
much time indoors in front of/talking to screens rather than in the real world. Looking at our world
nowadays, there is also a clear trend towards us (but also young people in particular) spending more
time on screens and as a consequence of that, a decline in social skills and more social isolation.
Another interesting phenomenon got mentioned in the story “The day Shion came”: just as described
here, many big economies nowadays are facing a stagnating population growth, and the population
pyramid is flipped upside down as we have more older than younger people living in these countries.
Germany is just one real life example of this. Connecting to this, the lack of care personnel for the
ageing population is yet another problem that we are already facing today. Scientists are working on
different machines and robots to keep the elderly company or to help them in their day-to-day life.
Knowing this and reading the stories made me ask: Isn't it good to receive this form of support when
we know that humans cannot provide it by themselves? I would ultimately have to agree with this, as
this type of crisis is much bigger than us. But what about consciousness and own will, like it is
described in the story? I would still have an inherently uncomfortable feeling knowing that machines
like Shion or Ibis would exist, as there is no telling if their goal would ultimately be to make humans
happy as it is portrayed in this fictional world.
Something else I found very intriguing was, reading about the “language” of machines. In her story
“AIs story” Ibis mentions that the machines had to develop new terms for sensations that had no
word in the “human language”. Especially after reading the Feldman Barrett book and learning about
emotion concepts and emotions that only have an emotion concept in one/some cultures and others
don’t have a way to describe such state. Seeing AI fixing this “human error” was therefore a very
interesting parallel to the prior scientific book.
Drawing these parallels was very interesting to me as it is always uncanny to make such connections
between reality (or in this case also science) and fictional stories.

Question 2
The stories dive into different aspects regarding technology and AI and how advancements in these
areas impact a fictional society. What I found interesting, are the ethical questions that underlie these
stories. After Ibis finished each of her stories, I found there to be a “moral of the story”, connected to
the topics of the relationship between humans and machines and consciousness or technical
advancements of such machines. When reading the book and the different stories Ibis tells the
storyteller, I personally therefore identified the following common theme that runs throughout these
stories: on the one hand, there are opportunities that can come from relationships between humans
and machines and technical advancements. On the other hand, there are however also downsides
like challenges and dilemmas that can arise.
An opportunity that arises through the relationship between humans and machines that is mentioned
in one way or another in most of Ibis`s stories is: by learning from humans, machines can develop a
heart, morals etc. and are therefore no threat to humans. Many people are afraid that machines will
want to wipe out humanity if they get too smart. In my opinion, these stories try to take a different
perspective: Teaching machines how human minds work, how and what we feel and so forth would
result in them having the same feelings and behaviors and therefore not actively act against human
interests. The first story “The universe on my hands” looks at the positive effects of teaching a
machine more human thinking patterns. By trying to implement new data to the warship the Celestial
Club is fighting, they help it to develop a thinking pattern outside of the war mentality it knows.
Similarly, the AI in charge of the space station in the story “Black hole diver” learned to have a better
understanding of human reasoning and emotions after its interactions with the female jumper. The
care robot in “The day Shion came” developed a heart by learning from humans and the interactions.
It also addresses other opportunities that can arise from human-machine relationships and technical
advancements in a fictional world: In “The day Shion came” the robot fills the jobs that are no longer
being filled by people in an ageing and shrinking society. It can also minimize the humiliation many
elderly feel when they have to take baths etc. The story “A romance in virtual space” in my eyes also
shows opportunities arising from technical advancements: when someone is for example disabled in
the real world, they can still participate in a life in a virtual space, as they can exist without these
restrictions. Lastly, people that find it hard to make friends in real life or are restricted to their quarters
can talk to programs, like the girl in “Mirror Girl” and feel less alone.
As mentioned in the beginning, I however find that these stories also describe different challenges
and moral dilemmas that arise from the relationship between humans and machines and technical
advancements. The friendship between an AI and a human like the one in “Mirror Girl” for example
sounded like it would lead to massive social isolation and a very high dependency on this “person”
that doesn’t really exist. It is furthermore also questionable, because the program learns from the
memories, words and reactions the girl shares. It therefore quite literally also “mirrors” her. What is
so important about different human interactions however is, the exchange of different opinions,
experiences etc. to broaden our horizon. Another questionable thought in this regard are humans
that fall in love with AI/machines, like the master that was in love with Ibis. These forms of
relationship make it very easy for humans to isolate themselves further and further. In “A romance in
virtual space” the girl spends so much time in the virtual space that it is hard for her to tell, what her
real personality trades are and which ones she just holds due to her virtual character she is playing.
Technical advancements like this in the fictional world could also lead to loosing oneself, which is why
all of these phenomena combined sounded like big ethical dilemmas to me whilst reading. Another
moral dilemma touched upon in some stories (like “The day Shion came”) is, yet again, the one of
conscious machines that make their own decisions about what is right or wrong and develop an
independent will. As we already discussed in connection with the other books: the question of
conscious machines is a very tricky and controversial subject. These different perspectives show, yet
again, that the discussions around AI and technological advancements is not just black and white.