Bina48 Meets Bina Rothblatt

Bina48 is a complex machine boasting a processing speed of 48 exaflops and 48 exabytes of memory. Programmed for reinforcement learning, deep learning and neural networks, and loaded with facial, voice and emotion recognition hardware and software, Bina48 elicits equally complex responses from those she interacts with. She is purposefully gendered, racialised, educated and embodied to match her model and “mindfile,” Bina Rothblatt: an African-American cis woman, married to a transgender woman, and committed to the artificial preservation of human consciousness; ethical and equitable science; and a very different future world.

This level of complexity and nuance is usually missing in public representations of artificial intelligence, and in this way Bina48 acts as an important reminder of the racial, gender and sociocultural biases that underly much of the thinking in this field.

Bina48 Meets Bina Rothblatt: Part One and Part Two (excerpts), 2014, video, The LifeNaut Project, Terasem Movement Foundation


︎ View Bina48 Meets Bina Rothblatt: Part One

︎ View Bina48 Meets Bina Rothblatt: Part Two