著者
相馬 尚之
出版者
日本科学史学会
雑誌
科学史研究 (ISSN:21887535)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.59, no.296, pp.311-326, 2020 (Released:2021-10-06)

This paper discusses the significance of the novels included in the German author Hanns Heinz Ewersʼ (1871–1943) popular science book Ameisen (The Ants, 1925). After World War I, the destruction of the existing social norms led scientists and novelists to engage in the research of social insects. Ewers, a best-selling author during the period from the end of the nineteenth century to the interwar period, wrote a book about ants to criticize modern science, which had become so professionalized and jargon-laden that laypeople did not understand it. The peculiarity of Ewersʼ work lies in three &quotmyrmecomorphic" novels that transplanted the behaviors of ants into human society. This paper focuses on two of those three novels, Jungfernzeugung? (Parthenogenesis) and Armer Freddy (Poor Freddy), and clarifies how these fantasy novels function as satire on scientists. In Jungfernzeugung?, for example, Ewers mixed a traditional motif and the newest scientific accomplishment: succubus and parthenogenesis in sea urchins. Through this mixture of literary and scientific imaginations, he attached a (pseudo-)scientific explanation to the old myth and strong suspicion to the exactness of science. Ewersʼ myrmecomorphism not only satisfied the curiosity of the masses but also exposed how the latest study of biology was full of analogical thoughts and social ideologies. Through its excessive obscenity and curious resonances, which aligned with the trend in biologism-especially with the scientific worldview expressed by monists like Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919)-Ewersʼ myrmecomorphism revealed the hidden cultural aspects, such as misogyny and homophobia, in exact natural science.
著者
相馬 尚之
出版者
東京大学
雑誌
特別研究員奨励費
巻号頁・発行日
2019-04-25

本研究は、20世紀初めのドイツ語圏の文学作品等における「人造人間」表象について、当時の科学の発展を踏まえつつ検討することで、文学と科学の相互作用を明らかにするとともに、人間観および科学観に迫ることを目的とする。20世紀初めには、単為生殖や臓器移植実験が成功し、ドイツ圏で科学者たちは「一元論」という世界観を形成した。これらの成果は、熱狂的にあるいは戯画的に文学や映画に取り込まれ、ハンス・ハインツ・エーヴェルスの『アルラウネ』や『フントフォーゲル』、フリッツ・ラングの『メトロポリス』等が現れた。人造人間表象の分析から、当時の人間観の変化、および科学と社会の関係が明らかにされるだろう。
著者
相馬 尚之
出版者
日本科学史学会
雑誌
科学史研究 (ISSN:21887535)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.58, no.291, pp.214-232, 2019 (Released:2021-01-24)

This paper discusses the eugenics of Paul Kammerer (1880–1926), an Austrian biologist active from the early 20th century to the interwar period, in context of chance, population, and causality in science. After World War I, selective eugenics permeated Western society. Kammerer, however, asserted that creating good characteristics was more important than eliminating bad characteristics. Kammerer gravitated to Eugen Steinach (1861–1944) and his discovery: "Stainach Operation." When their spermatic ducts are ligated, menʼs bodies accumulate hormones that generate musculature and vitality. According to the theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, these patients might sire offspring who had improved abilities from their start. Kammerer advocated vasoligation as a method of his alternative claim: "productive eugenics." Kammerer was led to this curious advocacy by his obsession with causality and insufficient understanding of "population thinking." Population thinking, a new way of scientific thinking that Francis Galton (1822–1911) established, considers population phenomena not from the accumulation of individuals but from the whole populations themselves. Galton introduced statistical methods to analyze population phenomena and gave science new statistical laws to replace old Newtonian. Kammerer, however, resisted the concept of chance mutation and the application of statistics, and insisted that the highest aim of science was the clarification of the relationship between cause and effect. Kammererʼs bizarre productive eugenics and even his reappearance as the father of epigenetics show that the longing for causality is an inevitable trap for scientific thinking.
著者
相馬 尚之
出版者
人工知能学会
雑誌
2018年度人工知能学会全国大会(第32回)
巻号頁・発行日
2018-04-12

本論文は、人間と機械の関係を「遊び」から論じる。近年のチェスや将棋における人工知能の勝利は、人間の知能さえ機械が超越しうることを示しており、これらを受けて、『フランケンシュタイン』のように、創造主は被造物に乗り越えられ遂には破滅してしまうのではないかという恐怖が高まっている。だが18世紀末、機械は遊戯のための娯楽であった。機械は、産業革命の進展とともに見世物のための自動人形から実用機械へと姿を変え、生産性や実用性の尺度に基づく「ロボット」へと変節していったのである。そこで本論では、人間と機械の共存を模索する一つの道として、チェスや将棋を主題に「遊戯性」の観点から機械の系譜をたどることで、この盤上の世界でこそ遊戯的人間と、実用性のくびきを逃れた遊戯的機械の邂逅が果たされる可能性について検討したい。