Information Society Watch

1997, Sherry Turkle, Social Research

This paper explores the history of artificial intelligence and other technological advances in light of their impact on human psychology and self-image. Computational theories of intelligence now support decentred and emergent views of the mind, while experience with today's computational objects encourages rethinking identity in terms of multiplicity and flexibility. The author highlights Multi-User Domains (MUD), with the key elements of creation and projection of personae into virtual spaces and the ability to move in and out of these spaces, as being illustrative of the social and psychological dynamics of most online sociability. These features also characterise other forms of online community such as "chat" rooms. Online life is not the only manifestation of the computer culture that encourages ideas about identity in terms of multiplicity and "cycling through." Computational objects such as toys and simulation games are also playing this role. One place to see their impact is in the ways children use them to construct new notions of what it is to be "alive." The author concludes that the many manifestations of multiplicity in culture, including the adoption of multiple online personae, are contributing to a general reconsideration of traditional, unitary notions of identity. If, traditionally, identity implied oneness, life on today's computer screen implies multiplicity and heterogeneity (Adapted from author).

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