Virtual Humans: Today and Tomorrow (2019) .. by David Burden & Maggi Savin-Baden
Contents
List of Figures, xxi
List of Tables, xxiii
Acknowledgements, xxv
Authors, xxvii
INTRODUCTION, XXIX
SECTION I The Landscape
CHAPTER 1 • What Are Virtual Humans? 3
INTRODUCTION 3
WHAT IS A VIRTUAL HUMAN 3
EXISTING DEFINITIONS OF VIRTUAL HUMAN 5
FROM SELF-DRIVING CAR TO VIRTUAL HUMAN 6
THE TRAITS OF A VIRTUAL HUMAN 6
Physical or Digital? 7
Visual, Auditory or Textual? 7
Embodied or Disembodied? 8
Humanoid or Non-Humanoid? 9
Natural Language or Command-Driven Communication? 9
Autonomous or Controlled? 9
Emotional or Unemotional? 10
Presence of a Personality? 10
Ability to Reason? 11
Can It Learn? 11
Is It Imaginative? 12
Sentient or Non-Sentient? 12
DEMONSTRATING INTELLIGENCE? 12
A VIRTUAL HUMAN PROFILE 13
VIRTUAL HUMANOIDS AND VIRTUAL SAPIENS 14
TOWARDS A WORKING DEFINITION 16
EXAMPLES OF VIRTUAL HUMANS 17
Chatbots 17
Autonomous Agents 18
Conversational Agents 19
Pedagogical Agents 20
Virtual Mentors 20
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, MACHINE LEARNING AND VIRTUAL HUMANS 21
CONCLUSION 21
REFERENCES 22
CHAPTER 2 . Virtual Humans and Artificial Intelligence 25
INTRODUCTION 25
AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LANDSCAPE 26
Complexity and Sophistication 26
Presentation and Humanness 28
Marketing AI versus Real AI 28
THE THREE BIG CHALLENGES IN Al DEVELOPMENT 30
THE TURING TEST AND UNCANNY VALLEY 31
VIRTUAL HUMANS LANDSCAPE 32
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE VERSUS AUGMENTED INTELLIGENCE 33
VIRTUAL HUMANS IN SCIENCE FICTION 33
Film and Television 33
Radio 35
Drama 36
Literature 37
Games 38
CONCLUSION 42
REFERENCES 43
SECTION II Technology
CHAPTER 3 . Body and Senses 49
INTRODUCTION 49
WHAT MAKES AN AVATAR? 49
FACIAL RENDERING 51
FACIAL AND SPEECH ANIMATION 53
HAIR MODELLING 54
Hair Shape Modelling 54
Hair Dynamics 55
Hair Rendering 55
BODY RENDERING/MODELLING 55
BODY ANIMATION/MECHANICS 56
CLOTHES AND CLOTH MODELLING 57
BODY PHYSIOLOGICAL MODEL 58
SENSES 60
Sight 61
Hearing 62
Other Human Senses 63
Data as a Sense 63
Data from a Virtual World 63
Data from a Physical World 64
Data from the Cyber-World 64
CONCLUSION 64
REFERENCES 65
CHAPTER 4 • Mind 71
UNDERSTANDING WHAT CONSTITUTES THE MIND 71
PERCEPTION 72
ATTENTION 73
APPRAISAL, EMOTION AND MOOD 75
PERSONALITY 77
MOTIVATION, GOALS AND PLANNING 79
DECISION-MAKING, PROBLEM-SOLVING AND REASONING 81
World Models 82
MEMORY 84
LEARNING 85
IMAGINATION AND CREATIVITY 87
META-MANAGEMENT AND SELF-MONITORING 89
CONCLUSION 90
REFERENCES 91
CHAPTER 5 • Communications 97
INTRODUCTION 97
COMMUNICATIONS: NON-LANGUAGE MODALITIES 97
COMMUNICATIONS: LANGUAGE-BASED MODALITIES 98
Speech Recognition 98
Speech Generation (Text to Speech) 101
NATURAL LANGUAGE UNDERSTANDING AND COMMUNICATION 103
Machine Learning 105
Conversation Management 105
Uses and Future Developments 106
NATURAL LANGUAGE GENERATION 107
INTERNAL DIALOGUE 109
CONCLUSION 110
REFERENCES 110
CHAPTER 6 • Architecture 115
INTRODUCTION 115
BACKGROUND 115
THE SOAR MODEL 117
ACT-R 119
SLOMAN’S H-COGAFF MODEL 120
OPENCOG 122
RODRIGUEZ’S NEUROSCIENCE MODEL 125
LIN’S EMOCOG ARCHITECTURE 126
THE FEARNOT! AFFECTIVE MIND ARCHITECTURE AND PSI MODELS 128
BECKER-ASANO’S WASABI MODEL 130
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S VIRTUAL HUMAN TOOLKIT 132
OPENAI 134
INTEGRATION STANDARDS 135
CRITIQUE AND FUTURES 135
CONCLUSION 137
REFERENCES 138
CHAPTER 7 . Embodiment 143
INTRODUCTION 143
FROM SYMBOLIC TO EMBODIED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 144
EMBODIMENT AND COGNITION 144
Intelligence and Emergence 146
Situatedness 146
Embodiment 146
GROUNDING 147
ENACTIVE Al 149
CHALLENGES TO EMBODIED Al 150
VIRTUAL HUMANS AND VIRTUAL WORLDS 151
Assessing Virtual Worlds against Brooks’ Five Principles 153
Assessing Virtual Worlds against Other Embodied Models 155
CONCLUSION 155
REFERENCES 156
CHAPTER 8 . Assembling and Assemblages 159
BUILDING A VIRTUAL HUMAN 159
The Natural Language Core 160
Memory and Knowledge 160
Problem-Solving and Decision-Making 161
Representation 161
Emotions and Motivation 162
Embodiment 162
Meta-Management and Personality 163
Its Own Life 163
HALO — A CASE STUDY 164
THE ROLES OF VIRTUAL HUMANS 166
Intelligent Speaker 167
Customer Service Chatbot 167
Personal Virtual Assistant 168
Virtual Tutor 168
Virtual Non-Player Character 168
Virtual Life Coach 169
Virtual Expert 169
Virtual Persona 170
Virtual Person 171
Digital Immortal 171
And Sentience, 171
Transhuman Space Revisited 171
VIRTUAL HUMANS THROUGH DIFFERENT LENSES 172
The Lens of Trust in Technology 173
The Species Lens 174
The Lens of Personhood 175
MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS? 176
REFERENCES 177
Section III Issues and Futures
CHAPTER 9 . Digital Ethics 181
INTRODUCTION 181
RECENT CONSIDERATIONS OF ETHICS AND VIRTUAL HUMANS 181
Robotics Ethics 181
Machine Morality and Intimacy Ethics 182
Technical and Design Ethics 184
Legal Issues 184
ETHICAL STANDPOINTS AND VIRTUAL HUMANS 185
Utilitarian 186
Deontological 186
Virtue Ethics 186 Situational Ethics 186
Discourse Ethics 186
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS 188
ETHICAL GUIDELINES AND RESEARCH 188
Ethical Behaviour 189
Ethical Practice 190
Anonymity 190
Confidentiality 190
Informed Consent 190
Minimal Risk 191
Honesty 191
Privacy 191
Plausibility 192
Research Governance 192
Disclosure 193
THE ‘HUMAN SUBJECT’ AND VIRTUAL HUMANS 193
CONCLUSION 195
REFERENCES 195
CHAPTER 10 • Identity and Agency 197
INTRODUCTION 197
RETHINKING IDENTITY 197
Dimension One: Dislocated Avatars 198
Dimension Two: Representative Avatars 198
Dimension Three: Avatars as Toys and Tools 198
Dimension Four: Avatars as Extensions of Self 199
Dimension Five: Avatars as Identity Extensions 199
FORMATIONS AND FORMULATIONS OF IDENTITY 200
Spatial Identities 200
Networked Identities 201
Bridged Identities 201
Discarded or Left-Behind Identities 202
Cyberspace and Virtual Humans 203
UNDERSTANDING AGENCY 203
Phenomenological Agency 204
Neurocognitive Agency 205
Attributed Agency 205
AGENCY AND AFFORDANCES 206
PROXEMICS 207
AGENCY AND IDENTITY 209
CONCLUSION 210
REFERENCES 210
CHAPTER 11 . Virtual Humans for Education 213
INTRODUCTION 213
LEARNING 213
NETWORKED LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LEARNING: SOME DEBATES 215
Networked Learning 215
Technology-Enhanced Learning 216
Online Learning 216
Blended Learning 216
Digital Education 217
VIRTUAL HUMANS AS INTERRUPTION AND CHANGE TO CURRENT PEDAGOGIC PRACTICES 218
USING VIRTUAL HUMANS IN EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS 220
Virtual Humans as Teachable Agents 220
Virtual Humans as Teaching Assistants 220
Virtual Humans for Motivating Learning 223
LEARNING, IMMERSION AND VIRTUAL HUMANS 224
DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 224
CONCLUSION 227
REFERENCES 227
CHAPTER 12 • Digital Immortality 231
INTRODUCTION 231
BACKGROUND 231
RESEARCH AND LITERATURE 233
MODELS, CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES 233
Models of Grief 234
Digital Grief Concepts 234
Digital Grief Practices 235
FORMS OF DIGITAL IMMORTALITY 236
Digital Immortality Creators 236
Digital Immortality Recipients 236
DIGITAL LEGACY 236
DIGITAL IMMORTALITY AND VIRTUAL HUMANS 237
CREATING DIGITAL IMMORTALITY 239
Passive Updating 241
Interacting with Systems 241
Interacting with People 242
Interacting with the Physical World 242
CONSENT AND DIGITAL IMMORTALITY 242
CONCLUSION 243
REFERENCES 243
CHAPTER 13 • Futures and Possibilities 247
INTRODUCTION 247
FUTURE CAUTION 248
The Gartner Hype-Cycle 248
McLuhan’s Tetrad 249
FUTURE SCENARIOS 251
Taking Stock: Virtual Humans 2018-2030 251
Developments 2030-2050: Routes to an Artificial Mind 253
Uploading the Brain 253
The Technological Singularity 254
Developments 2050-2100 255
THE THREE CHALLENGES 257
Challenge 1: Improving Humanness 258
Challenge 2: Artificial General Intelligence 258
Challenge 3: 2100 and Onwards – Artificial Sentience and Virtual Sapiens 260
THE ANTHROPOMORPHIC CHALLENGE 263
VIRTUAL SAPIENS: THE FUTURE? 264
REFERENCES 267
GLOSSARY, 271
INDEX, 279