Lets Get Postmodernist in Here

As seen on my last post, I hit a big roadblock when I really started thinking about my original concept. My original idea was that this AI "being" would self-destruct or whatever because he starts to feel resentment towards humans for creating him and giving him this knowledge without the actual ability to experience any of it. But that doesn't even make any sense. Like I'm trying the argue that AI doesn't have emotions, but then his eventual demise is an emotional reaction?? I think my brain was off when I came up with that. But anyway, I've been really trying to adapt the idea to make sense, so I decided to consult my good friend Jean Baudrillard. 

Doesn't Baudrillard look exactly how you would imagine a French philosopher and sociologist? Like I really admire the commitment to looking the part. But anyway.

In his book Simulacra and Simulation,  Baudrillard claims that the simulation has replaced reality, calling this the 'hyperreality. In this phase that we are living in, the world of simulacra that we have created is more real than reality (of course, this argument gets a little more confusing when we start pulling apart the idea of  what 'reality' is in the first place, and if a true, authentic reality, not altered by a constructed narrative, has ever ever existed). If the hyperreality has replaced reality with simulacra and simulations, then the reality hasn't really been replaced. I mean sure, our current reality is the hyperreality, but it's not a true replacement of the original reality. The original reality cannot be replicated. If that makes sense.

So, I was seated in my sociology class, and my teacher was going off on this kid for talking back to him, and this is kinda a daily occurrence so I just decided to tune out what was going on until we started the lesson, and I started to really think about this concept. Finally, I think it clicked for me. The AI needs a motive for it's self-destruction, right? But it can't be an emotional reason, it has to be one based fully on rational analysis. 

Humans created this machine/device/whatever you want to called, specifically to increase (and therefore, replace to a certain extent) the human population. The point of these machines is that they should be indistinguishable from humans, basically replicating humanity. AND, they equipped them with an excess of knowledge and intelligence. Baudrillard would describe artificial intelligence as a simulation. But, after an extended exposure to the 'human experience', a superintelligent 'being' will understand that they cannot fully replicate humanity, a human cannot function without emotions. This is essentially the catalyst to the subject's ending. 

By figuring this out, I have a more defined understanding of our main character and his motivations. What I'm still struggling to come up with is the other character. I originally considered maybe the character becomes close to the researcher but I feel like that might be overdone and lack an emotional connection since the researcher would have to be objective. I don't know.