Asocial Robots, Syncolonialism, and Artificial Chronological Intelligence

How do the two technologies of blockchain and artificial intelligence actualize and, crucially, automatize the cognition of time? These kinds of machines are increasingly part of both our contemporary present and our prospective future, but how do we really define a present and a future? And more importantly, how do these machines themselves understand, know, and sense time? Can machines really think about the present and dream the future in an autonomous way? In order to unravel these questions, this book follows the “emerging life adventures and experiences” of Sophia, a robot animated by blockchain and AI, to present a study in temporal automation.

About Contemporary Condition

Series of pocket books, edited by Geoff Cox and Jacob Lund and co-published by Aarhus University and ARoS Art Museum, that aims to question the formation of subjectivity and the concept of temporality in the world now. It begins from the assumption that art, with its ability to investigate the present and make meaning from it, can lead to an understanding of wider developments within culture and society. Addressing a perceived gap in existing literature, this series focuses on three broad strands: the issue of temporality, the role of contemporary media and computational technologies, and how artistic practice makes epistemic claims.

Stamatia Portanova is Research Fellow at the Department of Human and Social Sciences, Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”

Softcover, published in 2021, 104 pages.