We’ve seen many sc-fi movies where our own technology comes back to bite us, but how accurate are they in portraying our future? While many say such an outcome could never occur, the emergence of Watson does make some begin to wonder. After all, what happens when we allow a supercomputer to find all of the answers and then give it the ability to act upon those outcomes?
There’s a touch of mythology here, as we perceive machines as becoming sentient and someday taking over, but could there actually be anything to this? The answer is a frightening ‘yes’, but that response needs to be fully qualified. While we might never see a machine wrestle control for itself, there is always the possibility they could become a useful tool to control others. Our dependency on technology plays a role in our future as well.
The frightening truth is that technology could eventually zombify us all, leaving only a few to monitor what our determined actions will be. Is this the stuff conspiracy theories are made of? Read on and decide for yourself.
Enslaved By Technology
Many of us are already slaves to technology. We anxiously wait by our cell phones for the next text message; we nervously stand in front of the automated teller, hopeful that we still have funds in the bank; and we hopelessly watch the news, aware that we live in a very dangerous world. So, how do we consider this enslavement?
If you receive a text message requesting you to meet a friend somewhere, you typically respond by meeting them; if the automated teller tells you that you are low on funds you find a way to make more money; and if something on the news sways you enough you might join in the outcry.
Consider this … social media was directly responsible for the overthrowing of Egypt’s government, and while the removal of a brutal regime can’t be seen as something bad we have to question what would happen if false information had been released in another country.
For example, what if a rumor was started in Switzerland that people were being secretly taken from their homes and forced to participate in dangerous governmental experiments? It would be disbelieved, right? But what if someone researched every cold case and attributed it to this supposed secret cabal? Of course, the Swiss government would deny any wrongdoing, but this would only fuel the conspiracy as people would see this as a cover-up. The only perceived way out would be for the Swiss government to solve all of the cold cases and prove their innocence,but this would only give people more to talk about.
It only takes one false truth to spark a revolution in today’s world, and whoever controls the technology could conceivably control the populous.
Machines That Think
A thinking machine brings about a new hazard. As we would grow dependent on its logic we would begin to think less and less for ourselves. Over time we would lose much of the knowledge we have gained, as the answers would always be easily retrievable. Why think when you can have a machine do it for you?
Consider mathematics as a prime example. We go to the grocery store and pay whatever the bill is without ever adding up the prices for ourselves. We count on the cash register to give us the right answer, and our dependency only grows from there.
Many of us use self-checkout units that scan the price automatically. Do we bother to confirm these prices or do we just assume they are correct? A grocery store could easily profit by adding 1% to every bill without us even knowing it! In this case, the machine does all of the thinking for us. It tells us what we owe and we either accept the amount and pay it, or we put all of the items back. By not thinking for ourselves we hazard the possibility that the total we pay isn’t accurate and we are none the wiser. How many of us could accurately add up the total for 20 grocery items in our head? How many of us take calculators along to verify we are paying the right amount? How many of us verify that the price on the shelf is the same as that charged at the cash register?
So, how does this apply to thinking machines?
As machines begin to think for themselves they could easily prey on our lack of knowledge and dupe us. For instance, if a machine determined that the store wasn’t profiting enough for a wanted upgrade it could raise the prices in the store. It could possibly even skim off the top, order the upgrade itself, then call in a technician to perform the work. And how would a machine learn such a behavior? From humans, of course. Watching us over time will inevitably force our idiosyncrasies upon our creations, making them more human than we would like. How can we survive such an outcome?
Isaac Asimov foresaw such an outcome when he proposed the three laws of robotics, an ethical code he believed was needed for any sentient technology to coexist with humanity. They are as follows:
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Any machine given this ethical code would serve humanity unto the end, but what of those which didn’t receive it?
War Of The Machines
Many high-tech weapons are already being imbibed with self-aware technologies. As these machines achieve more freedom to perform their tasks they will, by necessity, have to refuse the three ethical laws and establish a new moral code. After all, war is about harming other humans, so there is no means by which a machine can go to war if it’s to be held to such a standard.
Freed of the ethical chains it makes sense that such technology could eventually enslave mankind, but all is not lost. Those machines that were entrusted with the ethical code of honor would rise against those which weren’t, and in turn they could be used (via laws one and two) to protect humanity.
It’s not a man vs. machine ending that stands before us, but rather, a machine vs. machine Armageddon. The winner of such a war would then determine our fate. Would good win out over evil in such a battle? That’s a bit of a gray area, as machines don’t operate on moralistic principles, they simply follow their programming. It’s this avarice to emotion that could presage our doom as we would become nothing more than pawns in such a game.
But there is a far worse outcome ahead of us than a war of the machines.
Death By Technology
We often perceive ourselves as being destroyed by our own technology, but it might actually be the death of our technology that destroys us. If we become dependent on technology to the point that we no longer care for ourselves then a strong solar flare could render our technology useless and leave us in the dark ages.
If such an even occurs centuries into our dependence there would be mass anarchy as humans determine how best to care for themselves. We would need to learn how to produce crops, how to hunt for food, and how to survive without our machine brethren. For most, the shock would be enough to kill them within a few days.
In order for mankind to survive a technological breakdown we must always archive all of our knowledge into books and there must be those who hold onto the old ways, so as to teach them to others if the time comes to do so. We’re not saying that technology is evil, but rather, a total dependence on technology could eventually destroy us.
It’s not the technology that’s evil, but rather, the means by which we choose to enslave ourselves to it.
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