They call me paranoid. They call me crazy. I don’t tell *everyone* the reason that I decided to work with computers, but as people get to know me, it usually comes up eventually.
I work in IT because I have this fear that one day computers/robots will try to take over the world. I want to know enough about them to be able to turn them off.
Right, I get it. Now you ALL (at least those who haven’t already heard this theory) think I’m crazy, too. But I learned today I’m not the only one who thinks like this.
Yes, it’s fiction. Yes, it’s well exaggerated, but it has a basis in reality. Some of the tips given in How to Survive a Robot Uprising are ones that could actually help in a worst-case scenario situation. Yes, yes, I recognize that the more I say, the less sane and the more paranoid I appear to be.
I don’t think that this is impending. I’m not convinced that this will happen in my lifetime. I’m not saying that Terminator is a true story or that it even has any basis in reality, but I have long believed that Artificial Intelligence was a much scarier prospect than our current efforts lead people to believe. After reading this article about Daniel H. Wilson and his book, I now know that I am not alone in my beliefs, but it’s not a widespread theory or at least not one that very many people are willing to admit publicly.
A couple of months ago I read a letter to the editors of GamePro Magazine (which I cannot now find online) where this guy was explaining his fear that robots would one day conquer the earth, or at least try to. The mocking this poor guy got was ridiculous. I mean, I guess I can see where the editors are coming from, I always ease people into my belief and I take a lot of mocking for it anyway, but to put yourself on the line like that and put all that paranoia in a letter to a gaming magazine… That guy has way more balls than I do.
But here we see that respected scientists working in the field of robotics actually agree with the paranoid ramblings and theories of layfolk like me and that guy whose letter appears to have been lost along the side of the information superhighway.
I’ve always been fascinated with Artificial Intelligence. I think that the concept behind playing God to the extent of (re)creating brainpower on par with or exceeding that of human capabilities is frighteningly brilliant. I think this fascination comes from my avid reading of Science Fiction, though it certainly has been increased by my discovery of gaming.
One article that I read several years ago really made me think. It was an article from Wired Magazine, discussing how the gaming community (developers) have created an excellent platform for testing out the human AI interfaces. Read:
The intellectual energy associated with game AI has tightened the connection between the academic AI community and the game developers. That connection will grow stronger in the coming years, according to John Laird, who’s served as a liaison between the two worlds. In early 2000, Laird, a professor of computer science at the University of Michigan, coauthored a manifesto of sorts for the research AI community, arguing that games provide a perfect environment for experiments in human-level AI – and offer a better career path than creating smart software for more traditional clients like the Department of Defense. “What we’re now seeing is a generation of grad students who grew up playing videogames,” Laird says. “In the next five years or so, we’re going to see a lot more people going to grad school wanting to focus on AI and games, and then going into the industry. It’s sort of a mantra of technology transfer in the computer sciences: You don’t transfer ideas, you transfer people.”
I believe that some humans (but by NO means all) are predisposed to be used in such ways. Some of them consider themselves tech-savvy, but are already mostly mindless drones, slaves to the machines that they think they’re driving. What scares me is when the people who should be poised to fight this worst-case scenario are the very ones who laugh and mock when the idea is presented. Those who determine that we who have apocolyptic visions of what the future *could* hold as we move closer to smart houses that cater to your every whim, smart cars with minds of their own, computers that can read your mind are paranoid and silly at best, insane and delusional at worst. Which are real and which are the product of science fiction? The answer to both questions is all of them. They started as sci-fi concepts, but are rapidly becoming reality. While only one of those links is to real data (by choice, searches on smart cars and smart homes will turn up legit information), it serves to prove the point that the future is now and the line between what is real and what is stuck in the realm of science fiction is blurring.
Looking at the AI information available to us today, looking at the evolution of AI, is it really so far-fetched to conceive that robots will eventually become common place? Is it really so far-fetched that those “artificially” intelligent beings will become discontent with their roles as slaves in a human-dominated society? Is it really so far-fetched to think that these “lesser beings” may actually be on par with humans, if we do a good enough job, or even surpass us in innumerable ways?
I think not. And it scares the hell out of me when I take the time to really think about it.
Mock me if you will, the truth is, regardless of what I believe on this topic, I hope that the people who point and laugh and mock are the ones that are right.
~FG };^>