Robot Uprisings and Robot Humbug
You've all
seen the movies, Robin Williams will become so close to human he'll start
demanding equal rights, Sarah Conner will warn us of our impending
nuclear/robotic doom because of information from a time travelling soldier, and
Will Smith will hate the robots so much for ruining his new pair of converse that he will stop the robot uprising
all by himself.
There is one thing that these things have in common: (yes
obviously robots, but something else) Artificial Intelligence; without that
these little hunks of metal wouldn't be smart enough to want to kill us
all.
So what is Artificial Intelligence really?
Meet its father: Alan Turing
Alan Turing: a British computer scientist and
mathematician and all around bad ass. He invented the Turing machine: a
hypothetical device to simulate computer algorithms, he also designed
"ACE" the first design for a stored-program computer, he was also a
war hero and brilliant code-breaker, but he was also something else; a
homosexual, which is how he wound up in prison and ultimately killed himself
with cyanide before his 42nd birthday.
Even with all of his hardships and badassery he did
ask a really important question: "Do computers think?"
He devised a method called "The Turing Test"
to prove whether or not a computer was thinking.
The test was interesting because it was based on an
observer’s perception of the machine, if an observer couldn't tell whether or
not what they were communicating with was a human or a computer, therefore the
computer must be thinking, if they could tell it was a computer, then it didn't
think.
You can thank this guy for all the artificial
intelligence breakthroughs, research, and sci-fi awesomeness.
Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer
science that deals with making technology seem more human, giving it
realistic effects and a personality, but also dealing with the nature of
consciousness and asking...
"Will machines acquire a
consciousness like our own?"
The answer to that is: We.. really don't know.
We haven't been able to prove that we have a soul or a separate "thing" that makes us different and if we don't then
robots are like us, made from different elements and "intelligently
designed".
So the only thing that truly separates us from
intelligent robots is whether or not we possess some sort of ghost, soul, or consciousness
that makes us somehow superior.
Are they going to kill us all?
Turing thought this fear was a silly argument rooted
in man's egoism and want to believe in his own superiority. We're just afraid
of not being the "smartest". That fear is irrational because our
capacity to create intelligence that exceeds our own is marvelous.
Similar to fearing death via aliens, it's all rooted
in the same fear of human inferiority. I don't see a practical reason for
anything or anyone to kill us all.
Will robots take all of our jobs?
Only the ones you wouldn't want, but don't expect to
see a bunch of humanoid robots running around the streets. Expect to see them
as they are today; gargantuan robotic assembly lines, manufacturing everything, perhaps robot assisted surgeries to prevent those pesky human errors, and
of course, robotic spaceflight because they don't quite die as easily as
humans.
What would it mean to humans?
We have come a long way, perhaps even further in the
field of robotic extensions for humans with disabilities etc. We've also
designed programmed intelligence like Siri for the iPhone, she
doesn't "really" have a personality but she's programmed by people that
do. We also have full sized robots that are so endearing and lovable you could
forget it’s a machine. However, no such machine has passed the Turing test
but if it's possible for artificial intelligence to mimic human features like a
capacity to love, having emotions, thoughts, dreams etc. (Thanks Isaac Asimov)
then perhaps this will help us to finally understand some of the greatest
mysteries of ourselves.
Carl Sagan
once said "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
Perhaps artificial intelligence or man-made intelligence will be
our way of knowing ourselves.
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