Friday, August 28, 2015

Animatrimation

"He was able to bestow on his workmanship self-motion, so that the tripods (chairs and tables) could move of themselves in and out of the celestial hall. He even endowed with intelligence the golden handmaidens whom he made to wait on himself."

This is Vulcan, as described in Bullfinches Mythology. Students will remember him as the tinkerer of Olympus. He made robots and gave them intelligence.

Sound familiar?

Today we see a very clear and near future where robots endowed with artificial intelligence live among us as commonly as plants and animals do.

Yet this idea, this vision of the future, is thousands of years old and born out of an even older vision of the past. It came into our thoughts by way of a people (Greeks) who had no idea of the world that awaited outside of their islands.

What do you do when you don't know something?

You make it up.

So the Greeks made up an entire Mythology (from which much of our literature descends) to explain the unknown world around them. They populated it with fantastical creatures living in and beyond the sea because they had not the slimmest idea what was actually out there.

Yet among the many improbable monsters they envisioned they also dreamt of robots and artificial intelligence.

Is it right using people only for your own pleasure? Is it right using robots for the same purpose?

Let's face it, we are not building robots to be our partners, like the ancient Greek deities, we are building them to be our slaves.

Does this mean they are going to become self-aware, rise up and become our evil overlords? Probably not. As always the evil overlords are among us plenty, the robots are only going to help them over-achieve.

Sad truth is, humans are no more closer to self-awareness than robots are. Since a robot, to date, is merely a modern reflection of some of our deepest and oldest thoughts and wishes, this only makes sense.

The robots are as flawed as we are.

If we were self-aware, we would understand our place in this system we inhabit, and yet we don't. In fact, like the Greeks, we haven't a clue. Instead we actively destroy it, on a daily basis. Racism, global warming, slavery, the list goes on. Are these the actions and consequences of a self-aware population? I most certainly think not.

Recently an autonomous robot was destroyed in Pennsylvania while attempting to make a cross country trip. The robot was beaten, literally, to death. This is merely the beginning of what is bound to be an interesting but increasingly disturbing future.

Sad that it will take robots to help us understand our many, many flaws. Why could we not do it for ourselves? This is a question that is a long way from being understood... let alone answered.

Are the robots going to be our evil overlords? No, but perhaps they can teach us something along the way, perhaps they can help us not destroy ourselves and bring us back, one day, from the edge of existence.

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence.