Artificial and Post-Human Life Forms

Someone asked be yesterday, given the choice between aliens or A.I which would you rather encounter in a threatening setting? I said A.I. all the way. He seemed to disagree. Often when people think about A.I. they assume robots, which isn't necessarily incorrect. The reason why this assumption can be a problem is because robots were frequently used in 80s, 90s and 2000s movies such as "Terminator", or "I, Robot" which didn't exactly have the best special effects. Although, these robots were made to be seen in a potentially harmful or vicious light their underdeveloped graphics didn't help their efforts to be taken seriously. Also, a lot of people believe that we can just "turn off" machines, or take them apart, to destroy them. I believe that those people are vastly underestimating the possibilities of A.I. If you've read science fiction involving A.I, their abilities are endless and far beyond that of human. This to me is what makes it frightening.

This week I read "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" by Brian Aldiss and "Reason" by Isaac Asimov. I think pairing them together gives the reader a good understanding of how A.I can be threatening, but also not threatening. These stories both show different ways that A.I can change our future as humans.

In "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" the idea of artificial intelligence is passed very lightly. The author makes the reader think that A.I has been nothing but a help to society and Henry's new invention will only help more. I found it really weird at first when David didn’t talk to Monica but she talked to him. The first red flag for me went off when Teddy told David that there were both “real”. This leads you to assume one of two things, 1. Teddy is overriding his technology and starting to gain a sense of identity (which seemed more probable) or, 2. David isn’t real. You come to learn that the latter option is the truth in this case. That was the nice Sci-Fi ending that made you have a moment to think “Well that’s freaky”. It is kind of nice that the computers weren’t really the “bad guys” in this story, but they were still the problem. The story shines a great light on how having even more technology can make us antisocial, inhumane, or all together lonelier people. I think this is a great projection of the direction the world is headed today. I think that technology is a great help and convenience to a lot of the things that we do today but at some point it has to stop. There is an organic beauty in the world around us, but one day we won’t notice because we’ll have holographic roses? This story to me is a good warning sign of what the world may become. We have to take these things with caution.

 

"Reason” by Isaac Asimov was about the other aspect of A.I., robots. QT had become too smart for the two scientists that built him. The part I found really interesting about this was that QT used a bunch of reasoning to create facts and conclusions that weren’t necessarily correct, but it is what he believed in. QT even had the scientists doubting their own facts and thinking that the robot may have been right. This to me is why A.I. is so scary. QT had completely taken over the other robots on the ship and the main control room. Although you cannot help but to think that QT had been on the right track when he perfectly aimed the beam at Earth. I think it was important to understand that it didn’t matter what QT believed as long as he was doing his job correctly and efficiently. This is a concept that can be applied to all jobs on macro and micro levels. When it comes to business and impersonal work, it shouldn’t have to matter why you do something as long as it gets done the way it is supposed to. I know that some people will probably disagree with me on this and argue that passion is important in your line of work and to get things done right, I understand that. But that being said, I want you to think about school. For 12 years of your life that is your job, getting up and going for 7-8 hours a day, not to mention the extra 2-3 hours of homework. Just because you don’t LOVE school or just do it because your parents tell you to, that doesn’t mean you can’t manage straight A’s. My point is that it took a while but eventually the scientists realized that it was irrelevant if they disagreed with QT or didn’t believe what he did, they all worked together to complete a common task.

 

“The answer stopped her dead. Why waste time talking to this machine? Why not simply go upstairs and scoop David into her arms and talk to him, as a loving mother should to a loving son? She heard the sheer weight of silence in the house, with a different quality of silence pouring out of every room.” – Super-Toys Last All Sumer Long, Brian Aldiss

Update: So we spoke in class about why Monica wasn't able to love David in the way that a "real" mother could love her "real" son. An interesting interpretation that a classmate and I came up with was, that you can "love" your car, but eventually it will die, then you will love a new car. If you have a child, and they die, you cannot just have another child and replace the love that existed before. People are special and not able to be recycled. David was a robot, essentially a working collection of parts, regardless of his feelings. Monica couldn't appropriately love David because he wasn't a living breathing boy. This reminded me a lot of when I learned American Sign Language (ASL). In ASL the meanings are very literal. So you could not really "LOVE" Intimate things. There were two different signs for the meaning of "love", one you used when speaking of objects, food, activities etc. (basically non-living, unemotional things. The other love, you would use for people, and animals. I thought that was a really important lesson of love and applies to this story perfectly because there are two different kinds of love, love is not equal in all things.