Will robots take over?

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Will robots take over?

This is a science fiction plot idea that was promoted by Isaac Asimov. He wrote stories about androids taking over from humans. By android, I mean an artificial intelligent robot that appears to be human and can function on its own. This has not been achieved and is only found in science fiction stories.

However, this is not the only way that science fiction has portrayed this problem, which is called cybernetic revolt. This is where the machines, controlled by robots, take over humans. This theme has been worked over in many ways in books, movies, games and TV series. Some of these stories involve an apocalypse that occurs because of war, alien intervention, disease, advanced technology, social collapse, ecological disaster, and even an impact event.

Of the recent stories, ‘The Terminator’ starring Arnold Schwarzenegger is probably the most well known venue. There are hundreds of these stories out there and they go back quite a ways, i.e. ‘The Time Machine’ by H.G. Wells.

The question is: could any of these scenarios happen?

Proponents of the Technological Singularity theory believe so. They have proposed the idea that artificial intelligence will exceed human intelligence in an intelligence explosion where super-intelligent design will become powerful enough for the machines to assume control of human society sometime during 2030 to 2045. These dates are based on estimates and some believe that it could end our civilization in an event known as the ‘Singularity.’ Vernor Vinge, a science fiction writer, who proposed that human enhancement and brain-computer interfaces would bring about this event, made it popular. That figures!

There is a source for this information at The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, where you can find a Singularity University that wishes to inspire you to gain more education about how humans are going to solve all of these problems.

I don’t think the timetable for this ‘Singularity event’ is realistic. For one, Moore’s Law, the theory that computer power enhancements would occur exponentially, has not panned out in recent times. A lot of this Singularity event idea is built on the mistaken idea that the human brain, although complicated, is simpler than believed because of redundancy. I don’t accept this conclusion. If we were that smart we would have come up with the cure for cancer and have harnessed fusion power by now.

In order for anything like this to happen, we would have to see a quantum leap in artificial intelligence (AI) science, and when I say ‘quantum’ I mean actual use of quantum computing. This is a futuristic concept that needs much more time to achieve.

I believe that if robots in the form of computers take over it will be because we humans will become dependent on them to the point of being too lazy to do anything ourselves. We’ll becomes slaves to technology and depend on artificial intelligence to drive us around, do our housework, teach us, and entertain us. It won’t be a singular event, instead slowly creeping up on us over a long period. We’ll rely on androids to do all of the mundane tasks we are faced with on a daily basis, and eventually, computer intelligent machines will be used to make decisions. I could see an android like Data as President. Good grief!

Thanks for reading.

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