Artificiality (the state of being artificial or manmade) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring
naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity.
Connotations
Artificiality often carries with it the implication of being false, counterfeit, or deceptive. The philosopher
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
wrote in his ''
Rhetoric'':
However, artificiality does not necessarily have a negative
connotation, as it may also reflect the ability of humans to replicate forms or functions arising in nature, as with an
artificial heart
An artificial heart is a device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in the case that a heart transplant (from a deceased human or, exper ...
or
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...
. Political scientist and artificial intelligence expert
Herbert A. Simon observes that "some artificial things are imitations of things in nature, and the imitation may use either the same basic materials as those in the natural object or quite different materials.
[ Herbert A. Simon, ''The Sciences of the Artificial'' (1996), p. 4.] Simon distinguishes between the artificial and the synthetic, the former being an imitation of something found in nature (for example, an
artificial sweetener
A sugar substitute is a food additive that provides a sweetness like that of sugar while containing significantly less food energy than sugar-based sweeteners, making it a zero-calorie () or low-calorie sweetener. Artificial sweeteners may b ...
which generates
sweetness using a formula not found in nature), and the latter being a replication of something found in nature (for example, a
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...
created in a laboratory that is chemically indistinguishable from a naturally occurring sugar).
Some philosophers have gone further and asserted that, in a
deterministic world, "everything is natural and nothing is artificial", because everything in the world (including everything made by humans) is a product of the physical laws of the world.
Distinguishing natural objects from artificial objects
It is generally possible for humans, and in some instances, for computers, to distinguish natural from artificial environments. The artificial environment tends to have more physical regularity both spatially and over time, with natural environments tending to have both irregular structures and structures that change over time.
[Herman Kaken, "Recognition of Natural and Artificial Environments by Computers: Commonalities and Differences", in Juval Portugali, ''Complex Artificial Environments'' (2006), p. 31-48.] However, on close observation it is possible to discern some mathematical structures and
patterns in natural environments, which can then be replicated to create an artificial environment with a more natural appearance.
For example, by identifying and imitating natural means of
pattern formation
The science of pattern formation deals with the visible, ( statistically) orderly outcomes of self-organization and the common principles behind similar patterns in nature.
In developmental biology, pattern formation refers to the generation of ...
, some types of
automata have been used to generate organic-looking
textures for more realistic
shading
Shading refers to the depiction of depth perception in 3D models (within the field of 3D computer graphics) or illustrations (in visual art) by varying the level of darkness. Shading tries to approximate local behavior of light on the object ...
of
3D objects.
See also
*
Cultural artifact
A cultural artifact, or cultural artefact (see American and British English spelling differences), is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology and sociology for anything created by humans which gives infor ...
*
Fake (disambiguation)
Fake may refer to:
* Deception, an act or a statement intended to deceive
** Charlatan, a person who practices deception to obtain money or other advantages
** Counterfeit, a reproduction of an item, intended to deceive
** Cover-up, an attempt to ...
*
Homo faber
*
Simulation
A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...
*
Synthetic (disambiguation) Synthetic things are composed of multiple parts, often with the implication that they are artificial. In particular, 'synthetic' may refer to:
Science
* Synthetic chemical or compound, produced by the process of chemical synthesis
* Synthetic ...
*
Tamagotchi
References
{{reflist
Culture
Artificial materials