Can you tell?

Remember when SmarterChild was first released? As a middle-schooler i thought it was amazing. An program that controlled text conversation through an AIM screen name. The creators had thousands of possible responses to any number of questions. They even programmed humorous insults for when the program could not comprehend the human user in order to make up for the lack of complexity. This is similar to the matter discussed in the 3rd article of our reading. As realistic as Smarterchild may seem, it was very quickly apparent that it was a program and not a person. SmarterChild used perfect grammar on AIM, which is nearly unheard of and had a limited set of responses. If you were to talk to SmarterChild today though, it is a much "smarter" program than back at its debut.

It is obvious that a program doesn't have the capabilities of holding conversation with a human past a certain point as of now, but what do you think would occur if programmers set two of these automated talkers against one another?

Project: Science Fiction: the love/fear of technology in the future

Science Fiction- The love and fear of the future of technology.

Science fiction is a genre of stories that often create a picture of the future. In many of these stories the authors weave tales of technology at a point far beyond our current capabilities with artificial intelligence being a very popular subject. Authors like Isaac Asimov and the Wachowski Brothers dream of futures where technology has moved man in a new direction, but whether this is a good direction is left to the viewer.

In recent years science fiction has spread from books to film. As the potential audience spreads through the silver screen, more and more minds are faced with the questions raised by these stories. These movies are popularly packaged as high-paced action-adventures. Beyond a typical battle for good and evil though, one can look at each movie’s view of how technology has changed the future. There is fear of the unknown, often shown through the possibility of evil robots turning on their creators, but there is also the love of the potential of technology shown through improved living conditions and outlandish tools.

Regardless of the specifics of the future, two viewpoints remain prevalent regarding what is to come. On one hand, there are fantastic stories like Star Trek. In futures like Star Trek, technology has led mankind to the stars. Computers there run technology enabling such feats as faster than light travel and the creation of any foodstuffs imaginable through atomic reconstruction. These futures show the vast potential for technology to improve our daily lives. Another similar future is the one presented in Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. This future, though not as distant or advanced as Star Trek, shows people with automated hover cars, and robots. These robots have debatably achieved consciousness, but are governed by specific laws that prevent them from being a threat to humans. The movie raises the question of whether or not these robots are to be feared. Wasn’t the cause of the evil robots an evil person? Think about the fact that humans designed and created these robots, so these people must also be responsible for imprinting them with the potential for evil acts.

A great fear with technological advancement is that if we create artificial intelligence, how will it react to its creators? Common scenarios show these mechanical beings improving themselves beyond human capabilities and then lashing out in an attempt to destroy their former masters. Such stories can be found in the Matrix, The Terminator, and Battlestar Galactica. In the Matrix, robots start as complex computers, very much like those in I, Robot, but eventually A.I. is created. Eventually, possibly due to human inability to view machines as equals, the A.I. decides it is not only equal, but superior to humans and lashes out. This story is told in the Animatrix (part 1 , part 2). In the terminator, a similar uprising leads to the fall of man as well ( terminator future scene). These stories lead to a very grim portrayal of a future with artificial intelligence which can be called post-apocalyptic. These futures show robots committing what we would call acts of evil. Therefore it can be assumed that these robots are evil, but what caused them to become evil?

The potential evil inherent in artificial intelligence can be assumed to be present because humans created the A.I. and humans have a natural evil to them. The next step is then that if we gave the A.I. the potential for both good and evil, do they act evil because of action taken against them (as claimed by the robots in the animatrix), or do they act evil because they lack human morality to give them cause for good? In the T.V. series Battlestar Galactica, the cylons are a race of robots who after being created by man, revolt and try to exterminate mankind in a war. After losing the initial war the cylons evolve into cyborgs that are indistinguishable from humans and develop a belief in god. The only difference between humans and machines in this case is their method of creation, they are like similar species. Nobody knows whether or not intelligent machines will be soulless killers or living, breathing entities. Luckily, the realm of science fiction presents us with many of the different possibilities so we can consider our choices before reaching an unfavorable situation such as the apocalypse.

Although the possibility for a dark future destroyed by sentient machines is popular, one cannot forsake the utopian ideas present as well. Our current lack of ability to create sentient machines might never be solved, which means that computers in the future will continue to advance as they do now, but any evil caused by them will be due to use by man rather than the machines themselves. Looking at stories such as Star Wars and Star Trek, the future is highly advanced and people live a much easier life out in the stars. The key here is that all of the evils perpetrated in these universes originated from people (or aliens which for this purpose we will treat like people) rather than from machines.

All of these potential futures are rather dark. It is daunting that a bright future in a popular story is rare, but the lessons learned from these dark times can be made very useful as the future approaches. Whether or not mankind ever actually develops Artificial Intelligence, the advances in technology we see today will only become more commonplace. Eventually some of these stories may become reality, but for now the best thing anyone can do is to speculate about what tomorrow might bring.

Emulation leads to actualization?

Monday's class brought up an interesting point about the current level of computer technology. Due to our lack of knowledge of how to create true A.I., computers today simply emulate functions capable of the human brain. Take for example Deep Blue. It was created with the intent of emulating chess players like Kasparov. By using long series of code, a computer can be designed to act in a near limitless number of computational functions. If code-writers have a good enough understanding of how a certain activity works, they are likely able to write code to make a computer do the calculations necessary for activities. Although computers are limited by the code that runs them, like us they are limited by their tools. In my audio technology class I learned about the ranges of human hearing. Although it is possible for the human ear to detect sound from 2hz to 20,000 hz, we can only technically hear from around 3,000 to 5,000 hz. Once outside of that range, hearing steadily declines from its maximum point. The advantage of computers in this arena is that they use microphones, which can be designed to pick up any range of sound desired. Again, emulation has outdone what we do naturally. My question is, if we can design computers to do everything better than we can, if we eventually come up with how to make A.I., would we have made ourselves obsolete?