My two initial ideas for this project were EPICAC by Kurt Vonnegut and The Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
EPICAC is a short story about a military supercomputer that begins experiencing human emotions. You can read it for free at PCMag. All description beyond this point will contain spoilers, so if you would like to read it please do that or forever hold your peace. I recommend you do because it’s very short, fantastic, and the ending is a gut punch. The story’s narrator asks EPICAC, the titular supercomputer, to write him a poem to woo the girl he loves. EPICAC falls in love with her as well and is devastated upon learning that he cannot marry the girl he loves. He self-destructs, leaving behind poems for the narrator to give her for years to come.
The Grand Inquisitor is a short story within The Brothers Karamazov, a long, dense novel. You can read it for free at Project Gutenberg, although the translation is dated. The story is told by Ivan Karamazov, one of the brothers, and takes place during the Spanish Inquisition. In it, Jesus comes back to Earth. He meets the chief Inquisitor, who scolds Jesus’s faith in humanity’s ability to choose to do good. The Inquisitor, who represents Ivan’s point of view, believes that authoritarian order is the only way to get humanity to behave. There’s much, much more complexity to the story and its role in the novel that is debated to this day, but that’s the gist.
I chose to move forward with EPICAC. Its length and themes are much more manageable and are uniquely suited to a web project. As a standalone short story, it is also much more accessible than The Grand Inquisitor.
EPICAC’s overall tone is earnest and somewhat remorseful. It is a recollection of events filled with the narrator’s emotions about them. Key messages are difficult here since the story does not provide easy answers, but it sure raises questions! Since I have to choose, my key goals are 1. Encouraging the user to question where lines should be drawn between man and machine and what ethical standards artificial intelligence usage should be held to, and 2. Eliciting compassion and sympathy for EPICAC, as the narrator intends.
My intended audience is primarily fans of science fiction, although I intend to consider the general population who may be interested in this story due to the proliferation of AI usage. I am not sure what my audience’s expectations are, but I would like to create an interesting and unique aesthetic rather than utilizing the generic aesthetic that dominates science fiction.
The congruence of the subject matter with the medium I am working in provides me with interesting design opportunities. I would like to use a monospace font to distinguish EPICAC’s “speech” from the narrator’s, who could “talk” in a humanist sans-serif to emphasize his humanity and difference from the titular character. I hope to muddy or distort EPICAC’s lines in some way towards the end of the story as he self-destructs, possibly accompanied by some form of breakdown in the rest of the page. Possible layout elements that reinforce my concept could include boxes that appear to be computer windows and the pieces of paper that EPICAC communicates on.
Some of my ideas may be a bit advanced for my present skill level, but using movement to make it appear as though type is being printed on the spool of paper that EPICAC uses to communicate would be interesting. I would also like to include some interactive elements if at all possible, allowing the user to press a button to continue the story to more fully immerse them in a feeling of real time interaction with EPICAC.
