I am extremely paranoid about an apocalypse, specially the one involving some kind of artificial intelligence. Blame it on I having watched the entire Terminator series, or the fact that the concept in The Matrix, Minority Report, Transcendence or any of the movies involving machines taking over the world simply for the heck of it just doesn't plainly appeal to my sensibilities.
And it is not like such a time is far from the present we live in where humans will mindlessly give into the power of machines. Look around! How many faces can you count that aren't looking down onto some electronic device? And by saying that, I am being the biggest hypocrite of all! Right now, I am in front of my computer, typing my thoughts away. How do I know if what I am writing is being read by anyone else? Of course I do know that someone is reading what I am scribbling, and of course, there is the Internet, and we are presently living in a global village and blah.. blah.. blah. But who knows? What if there already is some artificial system in place that is maintaining what we believe to be is the Internet? What if the world has already been taken over by the machines, and we are living 'Duracell batteries' for machines to derive their energy from? Just that the machines must be really stupid to use heat from the human body as a source of energy, because they couldn't get hold of anything better.
Each time I hear the news of some machine out-doing some present human ability, I am filled with a sense of ambivalence. On one side, there's this thought of machine subjugating man, forever making man it's slave. On the other hand, a thought comes to mind. The thought being that how awesome it would be to overcome such an adversary that considers itself, and probably is superior to man in every possible way. The second thought somehow manages to far outweigh the thought that the presence of a superior intellectual force may be in some way beneficial to mankind in any way.
All this rant from above was triggered by this hideously titled article in the Economic times called "15 ways the world will be awesome in 2050". The article is divided into 15 parts, as suggested by the title, each part being another reason for the world becoming more awesome by 2050.
Here are the 15 reasons.
Lower child mortality- Okay, totally agreed. I am not a parent, nor can I imagine the grief if my kid passes away real early, but from whatever little I have seen in the world, a lower child mortality rate sounds like it will definitely make future a better place to be in.
Vaccines and cures- This too sounds good, specially since the writer of the article is pretty sure of a cure for HIV and other major diseases being round the corner.
Live forever- Now here's where the trouble starts. By Live-forever, it is not like we are on the verge of finding the fountain of youth. Someone will apparently figure out a way to 'upload' our conscious and brain function into a machine. Yeah, right! As cool as it sounds, living forever? Seriously? Specially a life of perpetual servitude inside a machine? Still sounds appealing? By the way, if everyone keeps living, where are the new ones going to stay??
Fewer poor- Now this is pretty ridiculous. Anyone who believes that we all can live in a world without pain and poverty can, well, continue to believe so. But just for the record, the person is delusional, to say the least. By that, I in no way say that I am pro-poverty. It is just that poverty is an indelible part of our society's construct. Without poverty, there won't be aspirations. Without aspirations, there won't be efforts. And without efforts, there won't be progress. Unless the 'Fewer poor' entails getting rid of the poor in any way, like the 'Garibi Hatao' plan, which turned out more to be a 'Garib hatao' plan, poverty going down? I wouldn't be so optimistic.
Artificial Intelligence- Oh come on! This was a no brainer! How is it possible that A.I. won't be there by 2050? Google already has it's self driving car! Despite this, Self-driving cars is separately mentioned in the list of things that will make 2050 more awesome! Maybe we are waiting for more people to come with their own bandwagon of self-driving cars.
Clean energy- I do not understand what the writer of the article meant to say by mentioning this point about clean energy. You see, if we do not have any alternative energy before the said 2050, we, in all likelihood won't have any energy source at all!! So clean energy? Pah! Useless point!
Gender equality- There is only one thing I can understand from this. The machines will be so heavily involved in our works that they wouldn't differentiate between man and women. But yes, given that women are increasingly becoming subservient contributors to our work-force, the gender equality point will be a welcome change, specially if it stops one half of humanity from protesting over this issue.
Global literacy- Yes, sounds good.
Fewer wars- Of course, fewer wars!! In all likelihood, there will only be ONE war!! Man v/s Machine!
Internet everywhere- Again a no-brainer! We are all going to be contestants of BIG BROTHER! And big brother will be some higher non-human intelligence that projects itself in front of you wearing a face that looks most convincing/ intimidating to you. And how would global surveillance be possible without internet?
Organ transplants- Medical science will have progressed a lot by this time, so that sure sounds good.
Reproductive technology and Designer babies- Basically anyone at any age can have a custom-made baby of their choice, complete with the eye-color, intelligence, and disease resistance and skin preference. Basically, we'll be giving nature the finger. In one word, Gattaca!!
Universal translators- This device will allow us to go about anywhere and rant in our own mother-tongue and the person in front of us, regardless of where he is from(provided there is a computer programmer in his country), will understand what we are saying. So if a bunch of us from any given country go to China/ Japan, and both parties highly frustrated with the negotiations, and decide to abuse each other/ bitch in our own language, OOPS! There are going to be a few fall-outs!
That is just in case if the machines haven't taken over. If the machines have taken over, then they won't need the translators. They, in all possibilities will kill us regardless of what we speak. To them, all will be Greek anyway!
I want to end this post with a joke my mom told me a very long time ago. Here's how it goes...
A man was super-lazy. He was so lazy that he didn't want to attend even nature's calls. So he told a friend of his to develop a machine that helped him with all his daily functions. So the friend of our lazy-lad worked diligently and made a machine that took care of all his friend's requirements.
There was only one button that needed to be pressed on the machine that would be sufficient to get the machine to work. Upon knowing this, the lazy chap thought- "Now who's going to push the button??"
What I am trying to say, that is if I am trying to say anything, is that more than anything, we are going to be taken by our relentless search for convenience before anything else takes us. There will soon be a time to choose between 2 things, namely freedom and convenience. Which one will it be?
And it is not like such a time is far from the present we live in where humans will mindlessly give into the power of machines. Look around! How many faces can you count that aren't looking down onto some electronic device? And by saying that, I am being the biggest hypocrite of all! Right now, I am in front of my computer, typing my thoughts away. How do I know if what I am writing is being read by anyone else? Of course I do know that someone is reading what I am scribbling, and of course, there is the Internet, and we are presently living in a global village and blah.. blah.. blah. But who knows? What if there already is some artificial system in place that is maintaining what we believe to be is the Internet? What if the world has already been taken over by the machines, and we are living 'Duracell batteries' for machines to derive their energy from? Just that the machines must be really stupid to use heat from the human body as a source of energy, because they couldn't get hold of anything better.
Each time I hear the news of some machine out-doing some present human ability, I am filled with a sense of ambivalence. On one side, there's this thought of machine subjugating man, forever making man it's slave. On the other hand, a thought comes to mind. The thought being that how awesome it would be to overcome such an adversary that considers itself, and probably is superior to man in every possible way. The second thought somehow manages to far outweigh the thought that the presence of a superior intellectual force may be in some way beneficial to mankind in any way.
All this rant from above was triggered by this hideously titled article in the Economic times called "15 ways the world will be awesome in 2050". The article is divided into 15 parts, as suggested by the title, each part being another reason for the world becoming more awesome by 2050.
Here are the 15 reasons.
Lower child mortality- Okay, totally agreed. I am not a parent, nor can I imagine the grief if my kid passes away real early, but from whatever little I have seen in the world, a lower child mortality rate sounds like it will definitely make future a better place to be in.
Vaccines and cures- This too sounds good, specially since the writer of the article is pretty sure of a cure for HIV and other major diseases being round the corner.
Live forever- Now here's where the trouble starts. By Live-forever, it is not like we are on the verge of finding the fountain of youth. Someone will apparently figure out a way to 'upload' our conscious and brain function into a machine. Yeah, right! As cool as it sounds, living forever? Seriously? Specially a life of perpetual servitude inside a machine? Still sounds appealing? By the way, if everyone keeps living, where are the new ones going to stay??
Fewer poor- Now this is pretty ridiculous. Anyone who believes that we all can live in a world without pain and poverty can, well, continue to believe so. But just for the record, the person is delusional, to say the least. By that, I in no way say that I am pro-poverty. It is just that poverty is an indelible part of our society's construct. Without poverty, there won't be aspirations. Without aspirations, there won't be efforts. And without efforts, there won't be progress. Unless the 'Fewer poor' entails getting rid of the poor in any way, like the 'Garibi Hatao' plan, which turned out more to be a 'Garib hatao' plan, poverty going down? I wouldn't be so optimistic.
Artificial Intelligence- Oh come on! This was a no brainer! How is it possible that A.I. won't be there by 2050? Google already has it's self driving car! Despite this, Self-driving cars is separately mentioned in the list of things that will make 2050 more awesome! Maybe we are waiting for more people to come with their own bandwagon of self-driving cars.
Clean energy- I do not understand what the writer of the article meant to say by mentioning this point about clean energy. You see, if we do not have any alternative energy before the said 2050, we, in all likelihood won't have any energy source at all!! So clean energy? Pah! Useless point!
Gender equality- There is only one thing I can understand from this. The machines will be so heavily involved in our works that they wouldn't differentiate between man and women. But yes, given that women are increasingly becoming subservient contributors to our work-force, the gender equality point will be a welcome change, specially if it stops one half of humanity from protesting over this issue.
Global literacy- Yes, sounds good.
Fewer wars- Of course, fewer wars!! In all likelihood, there will only be ONE war!! Man v/s Machine!
Internet everywhere- Again a no-brainer! We are all going to be contestants of BIG BROTHER! And big brother will be some higher non-human intelligence that projects itself in front of you wearing a face that looks most convincing/ intimidating to you. And how would global surveillance be possible without internet?
Organ transplants- Medical science will have progressed a lot by this time, so that sure sounds good.
Reproductive technology and Designer babies- Basically anyone at any age can have a custom-made baby of their choice, complete with the eye-color, intelligence, and disease resistance and skin preference. Basically, we'll be giving nature the finger. In one word, Gattaca!!
Universal translators- This device will allow us to go about anywhere and rant in our own mother-tongue and the person in front of us, regardless of where he is from(provided there is a computer programmer in his country), will understand what we are saying. So if a bunch of us from any given country go to China/ Japan, and both parties highly frustrated with the negotiations, and decide to abuse each other/ bitch in our own language, OOPS! There are going to be a few fall-outs!
That is just in case if the machines haven't taken over. If the machines have taken over, then they won't need the translators. They, in all possibilities will kill us regardless of what we speak. To them, all will be Greek anyway!
I want to end this post with a joke my mom told me a very long time ago. Here's how it goes...
A man was super-lazy. He was so lazy that he didn't want to attend even nature's calls. So he told a friend of his to develop a machine that helped him with all his daily functions. So the friend of our lazy-lad worked diligently and made a machine that took care of all his friend's requirements.
There was only one button that needed to be pressed on the machine that would be sufficient to get the machine to work. Upon knowing this, the lazy chap thought- "Now who's going to push the button??"
What I am trying to say, that is if I am trying to say anything, is that more than anything, we are going to be taken by our relentless search for convenience before anything else takes us. There will soon be a time to choose between 2 things, namely freedom and convenience. Which one will it be?
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