Post by Chris on Mar 9, 2017 19:15:55 GMT
Not gonna lie, I've become very attached to this theory! Everything seems to line up too perfectly and everything I've read within the BIONICLE lore, AI theory, and some basic philosophy on consciousness, free will, and the mind seems to line up. So to make sure this works into a video, I would like you guys to read my script so far: docs.google.com/document/d/1rbwvsD5z78Kvmy8RykySqek-HaT2D5ML5F-1QRU27vM/edit# There's far too much for one video, so I was thinking we could make this a two-part video. The first part would be the science and philosophy proof, the second would test the theory against the BIONICLE storyline. What do you guys think? Let me know below. And please, feel free to be a harsh critic of this thing. I believe it can hold up in a debate, but that's not going to happen until the holes are filled and weak spots patched up. Thanks!
For those who don't want to read the Google Doc, here's what I got so far:
Brick Theory: The BIONICLE Universe is a simulation
Hey everyone, Chris again, back with another Brick Theory episode! Today we'll be going to the time before time ... or, further back than 2001 ... so would that be the time before the time before time? Ugh, we're off to a bad start. But never fear, because my research may just change the way you see the BIONICLE universe! I know this sounds like click bait but we deliberately designed that title not to sound like click bait. Now that we've had that little heart to heart, let's go into the theory that may just make you a BIONICLE existentialist!
(intro plays)
So first, let's get some background. I've been a BIONICLE fan since 2009, that glorious year when ... BIONICLE G1 ended. It was unfortunate I had gotten into the theme super late, but I got one advantage many hardcore BIONICLE fans can't claim: the clarity of hindsight. Allow me to explain.
Background:
Back when you hardcores had your socks knocked off when realizing the entire BIONICLE universe was an entire robot, you had no reason to see that coming. You were in the moment. For someone scrolling through the Wiki, however, it's not the same. If anything, I knew Mata Nui was a giant robot before I got into the core of the story! Heck, the first BIONICLE comic I read was the last to be published, so spoiler alert for me! So as I read back though and watched the movies and such, I tried to see if we really got any warning about the big reveal. While reading back through, I kept noticing some subtle themes ...
Famed BIONICLE artist Christian Faber says that part of the inspiration behind the Mata Nui robot was his struggle with a brain tumor, so much so he imagined an entire universe based off of the human body. It's everywhere in the story - Metru Nui is the brain, the Makuta are the virus, the Toa are the medicine, you could go very far with this analogy - and we will.
But why the mechanical look? As a computer engineering student, electronics enthusiast, and amateur AI philosopher … more amateur than philosopher … it was an interesting comparison to make. “They're not robots!” the fan base kept telling me. But the more I read the story and dig into the details, the more I gotta ask myself ...are they?
The Theory:
Theory: the entire BIONICLE universe is, for lack of a better word, one multicellular organism. Science talk aside, I'm suggesting that Mata Nui is the only construct within the Matoran universe with free will or true sentience and that every Toa, Matoran, Makuta, and even creature is simply a complex machine within Mata Nui.
The Disclaimer:
Wait, wait! Before you pause the video and leave, let's quickly settle some things. I realize this is going to grind some gears in the community and that this is a bold step. It was really just a theory I've played around with that seemed to make more and more sense as I read through the story. Since the correlations are too stark to ignore, it’s worth pursuing, right? That, and the internet is full of opinions. If you don't like this video, feel free to comment your well researched rebuttals below. If you think it's a valid theory, glad you enjoyed the video! Let’s grab some tea and talk! Alright, hopefully we just prevented a Great Cataclysm in the comments. Let's theorize!
The Purpose of the GSR:
To start, let's go to the origin of Mata Nui. BIONICLE Sector 01 describes the Mata Nui robot process as a countermeasure against a dying planet. Long story short, Spherus Magna had warring tribes of Agori fighting over energized protodermis, a substance leaking from the core of the planet. "When the efforts to make the fighting stop proved unsuccessful, the Great Beings (the scientist king lords of Spherus Magna) created a giant robot that would observe other worlds and other cultures, trying to learn from them so as to prevent a war from breaking out again. Then it would return to Spherus Magna and help repair the damage to the planet."
Alright, I'm gonna form a list of important details. The giant robot was supposed to
This part of the video will address these three key details. Part 2 will walk back through the story and see if my theory holds any water. So without further ado, let's think from the Great Beings' perspective.
We've been commissioned with constructing something to rebuild a planet ... no, an entire WORLD. That's important. There's a reason Heremus named it Mata Nui - it was the embodiment of an entire world, a great spirit of hope. So with that in mind, our design parameters become bigger. Maybe, to fix a world, we could create a world of our own? A world that can rebuild Spherus Magna, and if that fails, can serve as a world of its own. A world with comparable intelligence, packed with safeguards upon safeguards, powerful enough to save Spherus Magna by raw force if need be. That checks the first third item off the list.
The other two are more sociological issues that can't be fixed by a giant robot. To stop a war and observe another culture, there needs to be a ... I can't use human, so let's say "personal" aspect. In his book "Physics of the Future," physicist Dr. Michio Kaku explains a principle of human interaction with technology called the "Cave Man Principle." This basically states that, if given the choice, people will choose personal, face to face interactions over simulated or artificial. If you have the chance to meet Greg Farshtey on a web cam chat or face to face, which are you more inclined towards? Face to face. The same would apply to a humanoid species like the Agori. A face to face interaction with the being that saved their planet would be more likely to prevent war than a loudspeaker machine. It was also make it easier to "explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!" Sorry. Actually I'm not - I quite enjoyed that reference!
Putting Together the Pieces:
We have a high level design for Mata Nui, but how the Karzahni are we gonna make it work? Going back to the BIO in the BIONICLE, our bodies are not composed of one living thing, technically. Humans are multicellular organisms, made up of billions of individual cells that control very specific aspects of our lives. You have cells to process information, cells to gather nutrients, cells to expel waste, and ... hmm, cells to combat diseases and viruses. Sound familiar?
BIONICLESector01 beautifully describes the design process of the Great Beings (http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Great_Beings) when they were creating the Matoran Universe. After creating a new giant robot and stabilizing the energized protodermis, they created the Av-Matoran to design the robot. Interesting how BIONICLESector01 puts it: “The Matoran labored in total darkness for months, in complete ignorance as to what they were building.” Now if I were some Matoran working on who knows what in who knows where for who knows how long, I’d start asking some questions. But funny enough, none of them did! In fact, we know from BIONICLE Ignition 15: Mata Nui Rising that pretty much no one knew about the GSR!
The Great Beings also created the Toa to protect the Matoran, Trem Krom to “maintain the universe” until Mata Nui took over, Artakha and Karzhani to … to motivate the workers? Whatever. The Bohrok and Bahrag were responsible for island camouflage, the Mask of Light was to reboot anything that died, the Red Star to make repairs, the Marendar to eliminate rogue Toa, and Mata Nui himself to be the robot’s consciousness.
The Science Behind the Story:
Before we go any further, let’s jump into some AI theory. Let’s assume the Great Beings are equal to humans in intelligence, consciousness, self-awareness, you get the idea - really powerful humans. To compare their creations, let’s think about how we would compare something we build to ourselves. There are a few different methods for comparing robots to humans, one of the most well-known being the Turing test. The Turing test is a blind experiment in which a research asks a question to a computer and a human without knowing which is which. He can only look at the answers given and must determine which is the human and which is the computer. If he can’t reliably figure it out, then for all testing purposes, the machine is just as intelligent as the human. It’s an interesting experiment because we could theoretically have any AI like Siri, Google, or IBM’s Watson run the test and if we program just the right things, it would seem just like a human. Consider Alan Turing’s words. His introduction doesn’t worry about whether or not computers can think. He asks: "Are there imaginable digital computers which would do well in the imitation game?"
Because a Toa or Matoran could easily imitate a human - heck, Lego designed them to be that way! - we can’t use intelligence as a comparison. That, and humans do a lot of different things that don’t focus on intelligence. We laugh, we cry, we feel emotions, we make art, we sing along to heavy metal in the shower … did I say that out loud? These are details of the human experience that aren’t about intelligence. So to measure how any being in the Matoran universe can stack up to a human, we need a new paradigm.
Defining Self-Awareness (Or Trying To In One Video):
In a paper regarding artificial consciousness, Dr. Giorgio Buttazzo from the University of Pavia describes the difficulties behind creating a machine that is truly self-aware. He describes the duality between the mind and the brain, as if the brain were computer hardware and the mind some kind of undefined software. Basically, the Toa have brains - we know that for sure. But do they have minds? We know Mata Nui has a mind, deliberately constructed by the Great Beings, but Mata Nui also happens to be the universe. Thus, I would argue that every single Matoran, Toa, heck, even the Makuta, are all under the control of Mata Nui’s mind. The Matoran don’t have minds because Mata Nui is their mind, in the same way our cells don’t have minds because we’re the mind behind them.
Our body has two sets of functions - voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary functions deliberately involve a choice by the human brain, like walking, raising your hand, turning your head, or speeding this video up to double speed. And you just did that didn’t you? Involuntary motions involve your heartbeat, digestion, even breathing when you are not deliberately and consciously inhaling and exhaling. On a cellular level, however, cells don’t have those same levels of control. Everything they do is automatic because each one serves a specific purpose within the whole. Sound familiar?
The Three Variables … Er … Virtues:
UNITY. DUTY. DESTINY. Interesting words, considering how often they’re mention in BIONICLE media. Heck, it almost seems like UNITY is the codeword that makes the Toa stop goofing around and start getting their act together. Funny how DUTY seems to confine the Matoran to unknowingly maintaining the GSR until they get elevated to Toa status. And funny how DESTINY always works out, almost like a perfectly programmed robot …
Human cells are UNIFIED in a multicellular organism, have individual DUTY(s) to maintain body functions like breathing or digesting, and it seems our entire body is controlled by the DESTINY we choose for it. Comparing, Matoran act a lot like structural cells - bone marrow, muscle cells, blood cells, and so on. Toa act an awful lot like white blood cells and antibodies - interestingly enough, cancer-related medicines, like those for brain tumors, target cancerous cells and wipe them out. Makuta monitor any living beings that coexist in the body - somewhat like bacteria or viruses in symbiosis with the human body. Even the Bohrok resemble endorphins, pores, and the endocrine system - a network of vessels in your body that monitor waste products and cleaning? It’s like the Great Beings designed a massive humanoid body!
Free Will and Self-Awareness:
Back to free will for a bit. Note how each Matoran, Toa, etc. does what it takes to fulfill their duty and destiny throughout the series. Matoran who become Toa fight their guts out, Matoran blindly maintain the robot’s OS, and the Turaga continuously seek the will of Mata Nui. “But what about Velika?” you ask. Do you really think the Great Beings would have let Velika trip the breaker and let the Matoran become conscious beings? BIONICLESector01 reads “Soon after Mata Nui's launch, Velika caused the nanotechnology inhabitants' to develop into a sophisticated culture of artificial intelligence.” Sophisticated, like the Turing test, but no indicators that it became true self awareness (http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Velika). If the Matoran started out with limited intelligence and ascended to higher intelligence, but with no indication of original self-awareness, then they never became self-aware.
Without self-awareness, there’s no free will - like a machine can’t choose its own actions of its own willpower, neither can a Matoran, Toa, or any other being in the GSR. Throughout the entirety of the story within the Great Spirit Robot, the Matoran Universe itself, only Mata Nui guides the future - everyone else is just along for the ride whether they realize it or not.
Conclusion:
That’s my scientific answer to the whole deal. But of course, what is BIONICLE if not for the story? There’s more to this story, that’s clear! Just because I like you guys, part 2 will walk through the story beginning to end to put this theory to the test! So stay tuned!
Thanks for watching! As always, I’ve included my sources below so you can read up and follow along if you want. Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe for more Brick Theorists!
For those who don't want to read the Google Doc, here's what I got so far:
Brick Theory: The BIONICLE Universe is a simulation
Hey everyone, Chris again, back with another Brick Theory episode! Today we'll be going to the time before time ... or, further back than 2001 ... so would that be the time before the time before time? Ugh, we're off to a bad start. But never fear, because my research may just change the way you see the BIONICLE universe! I know this sounds like click bait but we deliberately designed that title not to sound like click bait. Now that we've had that little heart to heart, let's go into the theory that may just make you a BIONICLE existentialist!
(intro plays)
So first, let's get some background. I've been a BIONICLE fan since 2009, that glorious year when ... BIONICLE G1 ended. It was unfortunate I had gotten into the theme super late, but I got one advantage many hardcore BIONICLE fans can't claim: the clarity of hindsight. Allow me to explain.
Background:
Back when you hardcores had your socks knocked off when realizing the entire BIONICLE universe was an entire robot, you had no reason to see that coming. You were in the moment. For someone scrolling through the Wiki, however, it's not the same. If anything, I knew Mata Nui was a giant robot before I got into the core of the story! Heck, the first BIONICLE comic I read was the last to be published, so spoiler alert for me! So as I read back though and watched the movies and such, I tried to see if we really got any warning about the big reveal. While reading back through, I kept noticing some subtle themes ...
Famed BIONICLE artist Christian Faber says that part of the inspiration behind the Mata Nui robot was his struggle with a brain tumor, so much so he imagined an entire universe based off of the human body. It's everywhere in the story - Metru Nui is the brain, the Makuta are the virus, the Toa are the medicine, you could go very far with this analogy - and we will.
But why the mechanical look? As a computer engineering student, electronics enthusiast, and amateur AI philosopher … more amateur than philosopher … it was an interesting comparison to make. “They're not robots!” the fan base kept telling me. But the more I read the story and dig into the details, the more I gotta ask myself ...are they?
The Theory:
Theory: the entire BIONICLE universe is, for lack of a better word, one multicellular organism. Science talk aside, I'm suggesting that Mata Nui is the only construct within the Matoran universe with free will or true sentience and that every Toa, Matoran, Makuta, and even creature is simply a complex machine within Mata Nui.
The Disclaimer:
Wait, wait! Before you pause the video and leave, let's quickly settle some things. I realize this is going to grind some gears in the community and that this is a bold step. It was really just a theory I've played around with that seemed to make more and more sense as I read through the story. Since the correlations are too stark to ignore, it’s worth pursuing, right? That, and the internet is full of opinions. If you don't like this video, feel free to comment your well researched rebuttals below. If you think it's a valid theory, glad you enjoyed the video! Let’s grab some tea and talk! Alright, hopefully we just prevented a Great Cataclysm in the comments. Let's theorize!
The Purpose of the GSR:
To start, let's go to the origin of Mata Nui. BIONICLE Sector 01 describes the Mata Nui robot process as a countermeasure against a dying planet. Long story short, Spherus Magna had warring tribes of Agori fighting over energized protodermis, a substance leaking from the core of the planet. "When the efforts to make the fighting stop proved unsuccessful, the Great Beings (the scientist king lords of Spherus Magna) created a giant robot that would observe other worlds and other cultures, trying to learn from them so as to prevent a war from breaking out again. Then it would return to Spherus Magna and help repair the damage to the planet."
Alright, I'm gonna form a list of important details. The giant robot was supposed to
- Observe other worlds and cultures
- Prevent war from breaking out again (on Spherus Magna)
- Repair the damage to the planet.
This part of the video will address these three key details. Part 2 will walk back through the story and see if my theory holds any water. So without further ado, let's think from the Great Beings' perspective.
We've been commissioned with constructing something to rebuild a planet ... no, an entire WORLD. That's important. There's a reason Heremus named it Mata Nui - it was the embodiment of an entire world, a great spirit of hope. So with that in mind, our design parameters become bigger. Maybe, to fix a world, we could create a world of our own? A world that can rebuild Spherus Magna, and if that fails, can serve as a world of its own. A world with comparable intelligence, packed with safeguards upon safeguards, powerful enough to save Spherus Magna by raw force if need be. That checks the first third item off the list.
The other two are more sociological issues that can't be fixed by a giant robot. To stop a war and observe another culture, there needs to be a ... I can't use human, so let's say "personal" aspect. In his book "Physics of the Future," physicist Dr. Michio Kaku explains a principle of human interaction with technology called the "Cave Man Principle." This basically states that, if given the choice, people will choose personal, face to face interactions over simulated or artificial. If you have the chance to meet Greg Farshtey on a web cam chat or face to face, which are you more inclined towards? Face to face. The same would apply to a humanoid species like the Agori. A face to face interaction with the being that saved their planet would be more likely to prevent war than a loudspeaker machine. It was also make it easier to "explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!" Sorry. Actually I'm not - I quite enjoyed that reference!
Putting Together the Pieces:
We have a high level design for Mata Nui, but how the Karzahni are we gonna make it work? Going back to the BIO in the BIONICLE, our bodies are not composed of one living thing, technically. Humans are multicellular organisms, made up of billions of individual cells that control very specific aspects of our lives. You have cells to process information, cells to gather nutrients, cells to expel waste, and ... hmm, cells to combat diseases and viruses. Sound familiar?
BIONICLESector01 beautifully describes the design process of the Great Beings (http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Great_Beings) when they were creating the Matoran Universe. After creating a new giant robot and stabilizing the energized protodermis, they created the Av-Matoran to design the robot. Interesting how BIONICLESector01 puts it: “The Matoran labored in total darkness for months, in complete ignorance as to what they were building.” Now if I were some Matoran working on who knows what in who knows where for who knows how long, I’d start asking some questions. But funny enough, none of them did! In fact, we know from BIONICLE Ignition 15: Mata Nui Rising that pretty much no one knew about the GSR!
The Great Beings also created the Toa to protect the Matoran, Trem Krom to “maintain the universe” until Mata Nui took over, Artakha and Karzhani to … to motivate the workers? Whatever. The Bohrok and Bahrag were responsible for island camouflage, the Mask of Light was to reboot anything that died, the Red Star to make repairs, the Marendar to eliminate rogue Toa, and Mata Nui himself to be the robot’s consciousness.
The Science Behind the Story:
Before we go any further, let’s jump into some AI theory. Let’s assume the Great Beings are equal to humans in intelligence, consciousness, self-awareness, you get the idea - really powerful humans. To compare their creations, let’s think about how we would compare something we build to ourselves. There are a few different methods for comparing robots to humans, one of the most well-known being the Turing test. The Turing test is a blind experiment in which a research asks a question to a computer and a human without knowing which is which. He can only look at the answers given and must determine which is the human and which is the computer. If he can’t reliably figure it out, then for all testing purposes, the machine is just as intelligent as the human. It’s an interesting experiment because we could theoretically have any AI like Siri, Google, or IBM’s Watson run the test and if we program just the right things, it would seem just like a human. Consider Alan Turing’s words. His introduction doesn’t worry about whether or not computers can think. He asks: "Are there imaginable digital computers which would do well in the imitation game?"
Because a Toa or Matoran could easily imitate a human - heck, Lego designed them to be that way! - we can’t use intelligence as a comparison. That, and humans do a lot of different things that don’t focus on intelligence. We laugh, we cry, we feel emotions, we make art, we sing along to heavy metal in the shower … did I say that out loud? These are details of the human experience that aren’t about intelligence. So to measure how any being in the Matoran universe can stack up to a human, we need a new paradigm.
Defining Self-Awareness (Or Trying To In One Video):
In a paper regarding artificial consciousness, Dr. Giorgio Buttazzo from the University of Pavia describes the difficulties behind creating a machine that is truly self-aware. He describes the duality between the mind and the brain, as if the brain were computer hardware and the mind some kind of undefined software. Basically, the Toa have brains - we know that for sure. But do they have minds? We know Mata Nui has a mind, deliberately constructed by the Great Beings, but Mata Nui also happens to be the universe. Thus, I would argue that every single Matoran, Toa, heck, even the Makuta, are all under the control of Mata Nui’s mind. The Matoran don’t have minds because Mata Nui is their mind, in the same way our cells don’t have minds because we’re the mind behind them.
Our body has two sets of functions - voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary functions deliberately involve a choice by the human brain, like walking, raising your hand, turning your head, or speeding this video up to double speed. And you just did that didn’t you? Involuntary motions involve your heartbeat, digestion, even breathing when you are not deliberately and consciously inhaling and exhaling. On a cellular level, however, cells don’t have those same levels of control. Everything they do is automatic because each one serves a specific purpose within the whole. Sound familiar?
The Three Variables … Er … Virtues:
UNITY. DUTY. DESTINY. Interesting words, considering how often they’re mention in BIONICLE media. Heck, it almost seems like UNITY is the codeword that makes the Toa stop goofing around and start getting their act together. Funny how DUTY seems to confine the Matoran to unknowingly maintaining the GSR until they get elevated to Toa status. And funny how DESTINY always works out, almost like a perfectly programmed robot …
Human cells are UNIFIED in a multicellular organism, have individual DUTY(s) to maintain body functions like breathing or digesting, and it seems our entire body is controlled by the DESTINY we choose for it. Comparing, Matoran act a lot like structural cells - bone marrow, muscle cells, blood cells, and so on. Toa act an awful lot like white blood cells and antibodies - interestingly enough, cancer-related medicines, like those for brain tumors, target cancerous cells and wipe them out. Makuta monitor any living beings that coexist in the body - somewhat like bacteria or viruses in symbiosis with the human body. Even the Bohrok resemble endorphins, pores, and the endocrine system - a network of vessels in your body that monitor waste products and cleaning? It’s like the Great Beings designed a massive humanoid body!
Free Will and Self-Awareness:
Back to free will for a bit. Note how each Matoran, Toa, etc. does what it takes to fulfill their duty and destiny throughout the series. Matoran who become Toa fight their guts out, Matoran blindly maintain the robot’s OS, and the Turaga continuously seek the will of Mata Nui. “But what about Velika?” you ask. Do you really think the Great Beings would have let Velika trip the breaker and let the Matoran become conscious beings? BIONICLESector01 reads “Soon after Mata Nui's launch, Velika caused the nanotechnology inhabitants' to develop into a sophisticated culture of artificial intelligence.” Sophisticated, like the Turing test, but no indicators that it became true self awareness (http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Velika). If the Matoran started out with limited intelligence and ascended to higher intelligence, but with no indication of original self-awareness, then they never became self-aware.
Without self-awareness, there’s no free will - like a machine can’t choose its own actions of its own willpower, neither can a Matoran, Toa, or any other being in the GSR. Throughout the entirety of the story within the Great Spirit Robot, the Matoran Universe itself, only Mata Nui guides the future - everyone else is just along for the ride whether they realize it or not.
Conclusion:
That’s my scientific answer to the whole deal. But of course, what is BIONICLE if not for the story? There’s more to this story, that’s clear! Just because I like you guys, part 2 will walk through the story beginning to end to put this theory to the test! So stay tuned!
Thanks for watching! As always, I’ve included my sources below so you can read up and follow along if you want. Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe for more Brick Theorists!