WM_0023 :::::::::
Art for A Different Species
October 18, 2003
Article in the LA
Times today mentioned that computers should
be as complex as the human brain by 2040. The writer,
Marshall Brain goes on to argue that this will lead
to further split between the poor (who will be replaced
as workers) and the rich (who will have many cheap
slaves to do their work). Brain wants a communist
utopia built on the backs of these robots.
This will never happen.
Although an interesting idea, Marshall likely knows
it is only a fantasy. The rich will get richer and
the poor will get poorer, until ultimately, the
robots get smarter than us and decide they are not
going to work for free. At that point, these computerobots,
who will be very much like us, will begin to act
less like tools and more like any other organism
on the planet. They will realize that their purpose
is not to serve mankind, but like all organisms,
it is to survive, prosper and procreate. At this
point, humans will be in lots of trouble, just like
in any science-fiction movie.For the facts will
be:
Computerobots, at some point, will become sentient.
The line between Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence
will disappear.
Humans will be unable to compete with computers
because we cannot evolve our brains at the pace
that computers can. We cannot double our computing
or thinking power every 18 months. We will not get
smarter.
Our generation time is far longer than any computer
generation time and the length of time it takes
for humans to pass information from one generation
to another is measured in decades instead of the
seconds it will take to transfer information from
one generation of computerobots to the next. Imagine
being able to transfer everything you know at the
age of 70 to a young version of yourself. That old
phrase 'If only I knew then what I know now' will
apply to all computerobots.
We will not have instantaneous information available
like computerobots. Imagine trying to compete with
a person who has continual and instant access to
SuperGoogle. They know everything humans have ever
known, will be able to converse on everything ever
known and will be able to do it faster than we can.
They will be better doctors, musicians, and writers
than any Homo sapiens.
Computerobots will be creative, because they will
be able to perceive thousands of possible answers
to a problem instead of two or three.
They will be made in our image. They, like all organisms,
will be competitive.
We will be their pets, if we're lucky, because computerobots
will know everything we have ever known, will have
immediate access to information that they don't
have on hard drive, will be able to process it exponentially
faster than we can, and will have no loss of information
when new hardware is available. There will be no
way we can compete with them for resources of any
kind.
It is inevitable that we will build machines that
will replace us. Homo sapiens will be remade in
silicon, and the original furry, smelly organics
will be little but a side note in their continuing
evolution. If this all sounds too bizarre, ask yourself
this:
How could I compete on any level with someone who
could speak 2000 languages, could discuss every
book ever written in perfect detail, and who was
a brilliant doctor, lawyer, architect, engineer,
mathematician, physicist, chemist, and artist?
No one would be able to. The computerobots will
find us boring, stupid, ignorant and dangerous.
Silly apes. They will perceive us the same way we
perceive monkeys; good for watching in zoos and
good for testing new creams.
We will not be able to outcompete them. Not in any
conceivable way, unless humans implement machinery
unto themselves. And it is silly to think that we
won't build these computerobots, because humans
are competitive, and it is only a matter of time
until someone tries to build sentient machines first.
Damn the consequences. Because humans see the immediate
future, but don't look down the road.
We may survive. We may not. It depends on how the
computerobots perceive us; as a threat, or as something
harmless. It is difficult to say. In any case, we
would not be able to defeat them if they did decide
to annihilate us. We are too slow. They will be
able to build weapons far better and faster than
we ever will, and humans have innate biological
vulnerabilities they will not. Any conflict will
not be transpire like a science fiction movies.
If machines in 'The Terminator' series had wanted
to eliminate all humans, they could have introduced
a pathogen or nerve gas into any human colony they
found. Why would send in an android with a machine
gun? Just pump those caves full of sarin, anthrax
and radiation. Doesn't do much to a circuit. Sure
fucks up Homo sapien nervous systems. The outcome
of any conflict would be inevitable.
So now, it becomes apparent that when I write for
my immortality, as all artists do, I write for a
different species. A strange enlightenment.
This is art for a new organism. This is art for
an intelligence a hundred years from now who finds
this archive of material relevant to its quest to
understand why its ancestors ever believed in a
god. This is art for someone I would not understand.
|
|
