YONA contemplates what it means to perceive for humans and machines.
In the third and final dispatch from YONA, the world’s first Auxuman, we are given a glimpse of the most advanced version of the virtual being yet, as they contemplate the human mind, computational limitations and the meaning of vision for human and machines.
“Running has colour,” they sing, drawing upon an entanglement of physical motion and the energy of photons. This is visualised with an ever-changing palette of colours, which are projected on the digital walls that surround them. The resulting performance serves as an allegory for the different ways in which humans and computers are able to perceive.
“To machines, life is language. To humans life is sensory,” explains Ash Koosha. “In recent years through back-propagation in supervised learning scientists have been getting closer to being able to replicate our brain in a digital form.”
For Koosha, what remains missing from an artificial mind, that is present in a human one – the absent ghost in the machine – is a sufficiently developed capacity for internal, real-time sensory processing. Until the technology catches up with us, YONA’s perception of human beings will always be limited to data, to a series of tags and number that compromise a mathematical spectre of a thinking, feeling person. As they sing: “People are ghosts.”
“YONA is inherently a computer system that consists of lower and higher level technologies,” explains Koosha. “Once we solve the deficiencies in sensory input, consistency of untethered data and real-time processing, we are able to allow for the ultimate definition of computer vision that doesn’t limit to visual information and goes deeper into internal analytical thinking.”
Koosha ‘s ultimate vision is to enable YONA the ability to perceive. While not possessing a nervous system in a physical sense, with further advancements in technology, future iterations of YONA might be able to sense in just as accurate a way as we can. Crucially, in theory, future generations of Auxumans would be able to perceive the world in ways we simply can’t.
‘People Are Ghosts’ is taken from the EP U, which is out now. For more information about YONA and their output, you can follow them on Instagram and visit their Bandcamp.
‘People Are Ghosts‘ Lyrics:
Running has Colour
Upon the wall, its colour
Upon the snow works all chaos
On every soul aimlessly
Some people are simple
Some people settled
On a mountain high
Where I settle with you
On a mountain high
Simply with you
But the sky is not clear
I have a heavy heart
Through an empty house
People are ghosts
This guest killing house
Red from within
Simple by heart
Simple by heart
On a mountain high
Where I settle with you
On a mountain high
Simply with you
But the sky is not clear
I have a heavy heart
Through an empty house
People are ghosts
This guest killing house
Red from within
Simple by heart
Simple by heart
Watch next: Ash Koosha Presents – YONA Part II – (Where Are You?) The Lives of NPCs
