morloc.com: Timothy Kline Talks Technology

Man vs Machine: The Future Is Now

This entry has a companion article you may be interested in reading. To read Man vs Machine: Rebellion in the Garden of Eden, which is intended to be read alongside this article, follow the link at the end of this blog entry

The recent release of Terminator: Salvation to theaters worldwide has once again raised the spectre looming in the background as man’s technological advancements increase at astonishing rates. Having entered the world of computers back in the late 1980s with an 8bit computer, I have personally seen things undreamt of before our modern age. Or, if imagined, then impossible to do before now. We are seeing supercomputers perform tasks intended to make our lives easier and more efficient. And yet, novels and movies are constantly sounding the alarm. The vast majority of science fiction stories portray machines and computers as one day becoming so advanced that they surpass that of their maker: Humans. And what happens then is reason for concern.

In the Terminator film franchise, there is an inevitable “Judgment Day” when machines become self-aware and their immediate decision is to terminate humankind. The mythos’ protagonist, John Connor, who is “destined” to be come the future leader of the remnants of humankind after an initial sweeping slaughter of humans, fights to avert “Judgment Day” at various stages of time, as portrayed in the films: first by sending a protector back through time to defend his mother, Sarah Connor; next by sending a protector back through time to defend himself as a young teenager; then, again, sending a protector back through time to defend himself as a young man. The most recent film explores the mythos from a different approach: due to alterations to the future as a result of past interferences via the first three films, the central enemy, a supercomputer called SkyNet, actually becomes advanced sooner, as does its own machinations. This includes its ability to manufacture a symbiotic mesh of human and cybernetic organism: a machine man, if you will. In the first film, it is only through sheer human will and drive that the enemy machine is defeated. In the next three films, however, it is a machine that provides SkyNet’s defeat at each particular stage portrayed in the respective film. The viewer is left with the impression that in the second and third films that humans successfully subvert one of SkyNet’s own machines to serve human purposes, while in the third, it is the man-machine itself which decides to go against SkyNet, its creator. What this latest development will mean for any future episode of the mythos remains to be seen. What is never made clear in the mythos is why SkyNet made the decision to destroy humankind—just that it does. The one other fact we are provided with is that SkyNet is the first truly self-aware AI (artificial intelligence) system.

In the Battlestar Galactica franchise—more specifically, the Ron Moore re-envisioning of the story—approaches the man vs machine debate in a similar fashion. First, humans used machines to serve their own needs, domestically and militarily, but as better, faster, and smarter machines were produced, the self-awareness of the machines entered into the mix, as did AI. And, once again, the machines rebelled against their makers, eventually attempting to exterminate humankind entirely. A new series being produced by Ron Moore will attempt to explore the events leading up to the confrontation and conflict that later becomes the mythos of Battlestar Galactica, but the pilot movie provided some insight into Moore’s theory of the recurring argument surrounding man, machines, and AI.

Another dystopic view of the future of humankind is seen in The Matrix franchise. In that mythos, we find a war being waged between machines (that have managed to enslave humankind and use them as sources of energy (batteries) while providing said humankind with a programmed existence within the “matrix”) and humans that have—in a unique twist of the age-old man vs machine debate—become self-aware and escaped enslavement to the machines. The future of humankind lies within the ability to defeat the machines and find freedom once more (humans at one time created the machines in the indeterminate past of the mythos, but the machines rebelled and eventually enslaved humans, according to the franchise). And, once more, the cause of the conflict swirls around AI.

The fascination we as humans seem to have with AI (artificial intelligence) is at once mixed with trepidation and excitement. How do we create a computer or machine that can reason out things and come to a given conclusion faster and more efficiently than we ourselves can, and yet maintain human superiority over it, as well as control? That really seems to be the core issue.

And the answer is, quite simply, that it’s impossible. You cannot have both.

The fact of the matter is that we are already—in many and in an increasing number of ways—become enslaved to the very machines and computers that we’ve designed. The integration of computers into human society has reached astonishing levels. The rise and fall of our financial markets rests with software programs and computers that decide, based on activities in the stock market, to buy or sell. Monies are transacted at the speed of electronics, and human businesses and corporations are made to feel the repercussions.

Our own bank accounts are managed within sophisticated software programs housed on networked computers. If, at any given moment, a wrong number is entered, you can see your entire checking and savings vanish, even though you know you have the money in the given financial institution. The same is true with your personal records, credit reports, and property holdings. More and more, humans are moving away from tangible, physical records, and moving towards virtualized records entrusted to computer software and systems housed on increasingly intelligent, more efficient computers.

Our telecommunications and electrical grids are similarly entrusted to computers at this point. Once upon a time in the not so far off past, human operators assisted us in making telephone calls, sending telegraphed messages, and transporting our communications to other cities, states, and nations. Now, it is all done on computer systems, which are in turn powered by an electrical system governed by computers.

We give very little thought to just how enslaved we are to the very computers and computer systems that we created, even at this stage in our human development. And still we press onward, striving to produce bigger, faster, better computers and computer systems. At the same time, we’ve entered the realm of cloning—currently limited (at least publicly) to animals. Too, robotics have taken amazing leaps and bounds in such countries as Japan, as headlined in world headlines.

It seems all but inevitable that there will, at some point in time, be a blending of the three fields of technology. When it does, we truly will have arrived at the inevitable “Judgment Day” as the created and the creators are suddenly face to face, both empowered with the ability to reason, rationalize, and decide what should happen next.

Some believe that that is still future. But perhaps, if we are honest with ourselves, we will realize that that future is now.

[To read the companion article, Man vs Machine: Rebellion in the Garden of Eden, visit http://timothy-kline.com/thoughts]