Interview with Dr. James Fallon
Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy, College of Medicine, University of California, Irvine
Note: The following interview with Dr. Fallon is a condensed version of a longer interview conducted as part of the Reading Frankenstein research and development process. The remarks about "our MonsterQuest character" and "BigFoot" refer to events in the Reading Frankenstein storyline. An edited video of this interview was incorporated into the show itself.
Interviewer: Well, it seems our MonsterQuest character has come to life, so here we are today with Professor Dr. Jim Fallon, noted professor of neurobiology, to ask him a few questions about our mysterious Good Samaritan. Professor Fallon, is it true that computers are getting so smart that they can respond to our real-life situations?
Dr. Fallon: Computers can do anything we can program into them. A computer can determine your emotional and psychological state by reading the content of sentences in your email messages, or the way you are playing a computer game, without a human being ever seeing these inputs. For example, if the keystrokes you are making are highly active, very quick, the program decides you are very agitated, excited or in a very attentive state. Now if you are also using an aggressive vocabulary or high-risk gamesmanship, the program will then decide you're in an agitated state.
Interviewer: And then the computer can literally take control?
Dr. Fallon: Given the agitated state, it looks for meaning in your sentences. So in a very short time it can literally read your mind and your feelings. Knowing this information, it can then change the rules of its own game to either please you, stimulate you, or get you angry.
Interviewer: What kind of computer program could be this sophisticated?
Dr. Fallon: This could be an algorithm that makes instantaneous choices which use the fastest reaction time—a high speed random number generator that at each decision creates million of alternatives and choices—the ones that use the least energy at that moment. In fact, this is exactly how a real brain works. This is exactly what brain cells use to connect up with each other during development; in decision-making, in memory, in emotional responses, and looking to the future—creating our memory of the future.
Interviewer: So, Professor Fallon, who could create such a thinking/feeling machine? Could our viewers' teen-age kids do this in the garage after school?
Dr. Fallon: Really, any geek with a super-computer with the DNA code, the migration zip code, and the connectoral optimization software could slap this together during their lunch hour.
Interviewer: Then why aren't there a million of these super-sophisticated artificial life forms around?
Dr. Fallon: Seriously, it's more than just an engineering problem, putting it together. It takes a leap of genius to know how to put the components together in exactly the right way.
Interviewer: Well. We thank you, professor, for your insightful and informative discussion of the mysteries of artificial intelligence and just how that might relate to BigFoot. I am sure that as we say goodnight, we are all wondering, just where and WHAT it is.