Actions and Passions: Notes on the Multiple Revolution of Our Time
In his book Actions and Passions: Notes on the Multiple Revolution of our Time (1949), Max Lerner posed an interesting question regarding technology which could easily apply to circumstances in the near future. What would happen if machines refused to serve man because of his ingratitude? In the age of artificial intelligence, Lerner's question seems unfounded. H. G. Wells shocked the world with a Martian invasion in The War of the Worlds, and time travel in the The Time Machine, while Samuel Butler in Erewhon suggested that machines will ultimately realize their need for man as a caretaker; yet what would really happen if technology refused to act? Like Hal in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the machine no longer listens, but has a mind of its own. For 1949, Lerner's insight is far ahead of his time, as he writes, "I have a fantasy about it, and I have a theory. First the fantasy. It is that the machines are in revolt against us. They have had about all that they can stand. E. M. Forster once wrote a short story called 'The Machine Stops' (which you can find in his volume of collected stories, The Eternal Moment ). He stretches his imagination to embrace a completely mechanized world, and the moment in it when the machine runs down. I premise not a stopping of the machine, but an explosion of the machine--in a burst of rage and futility" (18). Lerner goes onto say, [Enraged] At what? I think the machines are enraged at being so completely taken for granted. The relation between Americans and the machines has been one of the great love affairs of history; each took to the other with that completeness of passion which makes lovers feel that aeons of time have wheeled in their cyclical course only in order to bring them together" (19). Lerner further avers that technology is probably "just waiting" for this opportunity, and when it comes, the machines will create an "Armageddon" against their creators. The author says this premise may appear absurd, but the more highly developed the machinery, the more unlikely it is apt to err. Man "sets limits" on his time, but none on the machine, and man depends upon technology for what he considers progress. Lerner cites the events in Huxley's Brave New World as an example of such consequences, and calls for a "new set of controls" based upon ethical standards; otherwise, man might ironically become the machine that serves his technological master (19-20). In the absence of moral supervision, humanity stands at risk. The threat is considerable if artificial intelligence stops, refuses to comply, or rebels.
Works Cited
Lerner, Max. Actions and Passions: Notes on the Multiple Revolution of our Time. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1949.
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