Thesis Defence: Vincent Pape

This thesis explores the impact of intelligent buildings and environments as they grow the autonomy and ability to make their own intelligent decisions and act on those choices in our place. The thesis is split into two parts. The first half is a discussion of collected research material. It explores what drives architecture to evolve into this state. It discusses the threat of deskilling or diminished human intelligence as we continue to delegate more mental and physical effort away from our own bodies as we continue to co-evolve with technology. It also includes the loss of agency that could result if autonomous environments fail to clearly explain their actions and intentions or provide a method for an occupant to negotiate another solution. Finally, it suggests solutions to the menace of ever-present surveillance in the home and public spaces that a clever environment will need to understand and act on intelligently.

Through this analysis it speculates on the eventual form a human-built environment crowded with artificial minds may take, and the potential need for conversational and autobiographical machines to act as intermediaries between the rest of an intelligent environment and its human occupants. In addition to impacts on our own agency, this thesis also discusses the agency of the built environment itself and its potential for personhood, whether advisable or not. The second half of the thesis is science fiction short story that applies the discussion of the first half of the thesis. This story is inspired by the value of using speculative stories to contemplate future social change and by the narrative form this thesis proposes machine interfaces will eventually take. This story describes a conversation between a mistrustful man burned by the past and an intelligent environment’s artificial caretaker that seeks to regain his approval.