“I’ll Be Back”
– The Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Terminator, A classic 1984 film American science fiction film directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose son will one day become a savior against machines in a post-apocalyptic future. Kyle Reese, a soldier is sent back in time to protect Sarah.
We all have at least watched, heard, or even read one of these types of sci-fi fiction, whether if it is in DC/Marvel comics or movies or tv shows such as Flash, Avengers, 2001-Space-odyssey, (any movie where technology is involved and misused) etc. and thought that its just a movie. The technology could ‘never’ exist and there would be no real world dominations of machine in near future. While it was true back then, when computers were just used to calculate spread sheets or do just math calculations in university research with maybe helpful applications in tele-communications and simple AOL messaging or 8-bit gaming.
However, since the full development of Web2.0 (and currently Web3.0) with the progress of mini-computer chips, the fictional world of Artificial intelligence AI and automation is closer than previously thought; even your current phone/computer that you’re using to view this blog is million times faster than the early 2000’s supercomputer. This advancement, although with few unintended consequences such as online hacking-phishing, has greatly impacted the civilian life by a huge factor. (Imagine if the pandemic happened 10 years ago, no ZOOM, no widespread social media, no way to communicate!!! life would be devastating!). Such as, in research about new materials by simulating physics, in psychology by using predictive outcomes by analysing mass population data, in healthcare scanning and autodetection of any tumours/cancers/illness, and the list goes on.
There is also a steady overall increase in computer performance, and portability, such as super smart watch/glasses that have enough power to “scan as you go”, or phones that can project videos on wall, or even nanorobotics that can re-edit out bad genes and replace it with a healthy one (to cure disabilities). All relates to the feed-back loop of self improvement-self machine learning. such as this video that’s fully rendered in a virtual environment, yet looks fully realistic: Marbles at night
If this recursive self improvement algorithm goes haywire and crosses the human equivalence threshold, then what can stop it from learning further? because computers operate like billion times faster than we can think, then the computer can theoretically get “self awareness” within a few seconds of crossing that threshold, and it would learn faster and faster.(read life 3.0 ,-a book about it). Then is there a way to combat, or merge, or co-exist with this new species ?
To combat and avoid being prey to new predators, Elon Musk and other new companies are finding ways to merge human and metal to coexist with each other (companies such as OpenAi: researching on machine learning and how computers can technically write out essays for you with few words as input, Neuralink: an analogy to how SD cards are added to phones for storage, but its computers merging wih brain and being a delegate. Google and IBM too are working on similar technology).
If it does crosses the threshold in near 10 to 20 years in future, and turns out to be good then we might coexist in a more paradise environment. If not, then Doomsday.
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Dystopia and science fiction have always been my favorite genre of books and movies. I think another good quote for this post comes from the Jurassic Park movies when Jeff Goldblum’s character says “You were too busy asking if you could do it, you didn’t stop to ask if you should.” If Humans continue to advance technology without thought of consequence, we could very well end up creating a real life science fiction dystopia. Looking forward to your next post!
indeed. Thanks!
I feel like I need to watch the terminator. I have never seen it but heard great things about it. It will be a very amazing day for me when we start to see the technology like we see in movies. This is a very interesting concept about artificial intelligence being able to be self-aware. Right now artificial intelligence is really good at one specific task but horrible at everything else. That will be a groundbreaking day once an artificial intelligence can think on its own about multiple separate tasks. I look forward to reading the rest of your blog. There are a lot of good directions you can take it in.
This reminds me of how shocked people were when AI first beat professional chess players. It is incredibly hard to grasp the accelerating rate at which AI has improved over the last decade, and even harder to anticipate what it will be like in the years to come. I’m really excited to learn more through your blog! I wonder if the pros of advanced intelligence will outweigh the potential hazards of sentient AI.
I’m sure the pros will outweigh the cons, but there is a saying: “with great power comes great responsibility”