From Mechanical Monster to Moral Companion: The Cultural Politics of Emotions towards AI in "The Veldt” and "The Lifecycle of Software Objects"

Abstract

This paper explores the transformation of human emotions towards AI from fear to companionship through a comparative study of the short story, “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury and The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang. This study uses Cultural Politics of Emotions by Sara Ahmed as a conceptual framework and the Affect Theory, to argue that emotions towards AI beings are not inherent responses to technology but are socially constructed attachments that shape how technological objects are perceived and understood. The Veldt, published in 1959, constructs ‘Mechanical Genius’ (AI) as an agency of fear, monstrosity and threat to human race, which engulfs a well to do family by capturing the control of the household. “The Veldt” reflects the postwar concerns about automation and erosion of human authority. The Lifecycle of Software Objects, published in 2015, represents AI as a companion-like, which evokes attachment, care, responsibility and moral obligation. In the form of “Digients”, the computationally emerged consciousness, the novella pictures an emotional bond between human and machine. This study argues that this shift, from fear to responsibility, is based on a broader cultural imagination of AI (Mechanical Genius). The significance of this study is in examining the change in representation of AI and technological objects is inseparable from changing emotional and social investment in human machine relationships.