Continuity and change in storytelling about artificial intelligence: Extending the narrative paradigm

Abstract

Drawing upon the concept of homo narran, this essay suggests an extension of Fisher's narrative paradigm, that of glimpsing the processes of continuity and change underlying storytelling, via the concepts of Brown (1978). This approach is illustrated specifically through a rhetorical analysis of a storytelling process presently ongoing in popular discourse about the relationship between human beings and artificially intelligent computers. It reveals the communication patterns used to maintain and shift ideologies, thereby influencing cultural/social continuity and change.

Key concepts:

• Ideology
• attention switch
• social intervention
• Brown model
• artificial intelligence
• computer
• narrative paradigm
• storytelling