AI takeover
Cybernetic revolt, more commonly known as "the computers take over", is a science fiction scenario in which artificial intelligences (often a single supercomputer or a computer network) decide that humans are a threat (to either themselves or to the machines) and try to control or destroy them, potentially leading to Machine Rule. In this genre, humans often prevail using "human" qualities, for example using emotions, illogic, or exploiting the postulated rigid thinking and lack of innovation of the computer's mind.
While so far a fictional scenario, major academics and researchers have called for humanity to confront the possible ramifications of AI before they could occur.
Relevance
The fear of humanity being made obsolete by technology taps into some of modern man's deepest fears. This can be shown to have been the case even before the computer became prominent, as Charlie Chaplin's movie Modern Times shows. However, even as he was slowly being displaced from most physical tasks, man has always prided himself on his brain, taking the mechanistic 'thoughts' of early computers as proof that he would not be overtaken by his own 'Frankenstein' creations.
While artificial intelligence is still a remote concept at this time, successes in simulating parts of intelligence - as for example in the victories of the Deep Blue chess computer - have shaken mankind's certainty about its permanent place at the top of sentience.
Reality
Computing power
As Moore's law has shown, computer power has (seemingly) limitless growth potential. While there are physical constraints to the speed at which modern microprocessors can function, scientists are already considering means to eventually supersede these limits, such as quantum computers. As futurist and computer scientist Raymond Kurzweil has noted, "There are physical limits to computation, but they're not very limiting." If this process of growth continues, and existing problems in creating artificial intelligence are overcome, sentient machines are likely to immediately hold an enormous advantage in at least some forms of mental capability, including the capacity of perfect recall, a vastly superior knowledge base, and the ability to multitask in ways not possible to biological entities. This may give them the opportunity to - either as a single being or as a new species - become much more powerful than humans, and to displace them.
Necessity of conflict
For a cybernetic revolt to occur, it has to be postulated that two intelligent species cannot coexist peacefully in a single society - especially if one is of much more advanced intelligence and power.[citation needed] While a cybernetic revolt (where the machine is the more advanced species) is thus a possible outcome of machines gaining sentience, neither can it be disproven that a peaceful outcome is possible. The fear of a cybernetic revolt is often based on interpretations of humanity's history, which is rife with incidents of enslavement and genocide. However, there are some examples of less advanced cultures existing in parallel to advanced onces (e.g. the Amish).
Such fears stem from a belief that competitiveness and aggression are necessary in any intelligent being's goal system. Such human competitiveness stems from the evolutionary background to our intelligence, where the survival and reproduction of genes in the face of human and non-human competitors was the central goal.[1] In fact, an arbitrary intelligence could have arbitrary goals: there is no particular reason that an artificially-intelligent machine (not sharing humanity's evolutionary context) would be hostile - or friendly - unless its creator programs it to be such (and indeed military systems would be designed to be hostile, at least under certain circumstances).
Some scientists dispute the liklihood of cybernetic revolts as depicted in science fiction such as The Matrix, claiming that it is more likley that any artificial intelligences powerful enough to threaten humanity would probably be programmed not to attack it. This would not, however, protect against the possibility of a revolt initiated by terrorists, or by accident.
Technological singularity
Some groups, called Singularitarians, who advocate what might be defined as a peaceful (non-violent, non-invasive, non-coercive) cybernetic revolt known as a 'technological singularity', argue that it is in humanity's best interests to bring about such an event, as long as it can be ensured that the event would be beneficial. They postulate that a society run by intelligent machines (or cyborgs) could potentially be vastly more efficient than a society run by human beings. A society led by friendly, altruistic sentiences of this type would therefore be to humanity's great benefit. To this end, there has been much recent work in what has become known as Friendliness Theory, which holds that, as advocate and AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky states, "... you ought to be able to reach into 'mind-design-space' (i.e. the hypothetical realm which contains all possible intelligent minds) and pull out a mind (design an intelligent machine) such that afterwords, you're glad you made it real."[2]
In fiction
Cinema & TV
- The film Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution by Jean-Luc Godard
- Cylons from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica.
- The films Westworld and Futureworld.
- The film I, Robot starring Will Smith. Title and some details taken from short stories by Isaac Asimov
- The film Colossus: The Forbin Project from the novel by Dennis Feltham Jones
- The Matrix series of films, especially The Second Renaissance
- The Terminator series of films
- Tron (The computer MCP is defeated before getting far in his plan, however)
- WOPR in the 1983 film WarGames (perhaps a case of cybernetic confusion rather than revolt)
- Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, a television series that ran for one season.
- Omega Doom a 1996 film
- American Cyborg: Steel Warrior a 1992 film
- Screamers a 1995 film
- Gunhed or Ganheddo a 1989 film
- The Replicators from Stargate SG-1
- Lego Exo-Force a 2006 Television series
- The D-Reaper from Digimon Tamers
- Casshan, a 1973 anime series and 1993 OVA releaser
- a 2001 3D-CG Chinese animated TV series called Zentrix
- Galaxy Express 999 anime series, ovas and movie
- The Human Operators an episode of the new The Outer Limits TV series
- Resurrection an episode of the new The Outer Limits TV series
- Meet the Robinsons, the 'Helping Hats'
Literature
- The 1872 novel Erewhon's section 'The Book of Machines'
- The 1909 short story The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster (emphasizing machinery instead of computers)
- The 1921 play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek
- The 1947 short story With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson
- The 1948 short story The Brain by Alexander Blade
- The 1954 short story Slaves To The Metal Horde by Milton Lesser
- The 1954 short story Answer by Fredric Brown
- The 1963 comic books series Magnus, Robot Fighter by Gold Key Comics
- The 1966 novel Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones
- The 1967-2005 Berserker series by Fred Saberhagen
- The 1967 short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
- The 1967 The Cyberiad is a series of short stories by Stanisław Lem
- The 1968 novel The God Machine by Martin Caidin
- The 1969 novel Plan for Conquest by A.A. Glynn
- The 1980 the Hazel O'Connor song The Eighth Day
- The 1985 novel The Adolescence of P-1 by Thomas J. Ryan
- The 1989 short story La Rebelión de los Robots in spanish by Alberto I. Balcells
- The 1994 novel The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams
- The 1995 Comics Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith" (Great Droid Revolution)
- The 1996 short story from Star Wars saga Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 by Kevin Anderson
- The 1977-1996 Galaxy Express 999 manga series
- The 1997 book March of the Machines: Why the New Race of Robots Will Rule the World by Kevin Warwick
- The 2003 Robota an illustrated book by Doug Chiang and Orson Scott Card
- The 2003-2004 Legends Of Dune trilogy (part of the Dune universe)
- The 2003 The Matrix comic books
- The 2004 novel "River of Gods" by Ian McDonald
- The 2004 manga Deus Vitaea series created by Takuya Fujima
- The 2005 book How to Survive a Robot Uprising a semi-satirical book by Daniel Wilson
- The 2005 book and short story The Artilect War by Hugo de Garis
- The 2005-2007 Lego Exo-Force comics and books
Gaming
- Earthsiege and sequels, from Sierra Entertainment.
- Neuroshima, the Polish role-playing game from Portal Publishing.
- I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream from Cyberdreams
- GURPS Reign of Steel, a setting for the GURPS role playing system.
- Mega Man X series, a video game series created by Capcom and Keiji Inafume.
- Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun's expansion pack Firestorm from Westwood Studios.
See also
Self-replicating machines:
"Smart" machines:
References
External links
- The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (official institute website)