Just the other day I was out judging some debates; which, in spite of making me feel old, generally serves as a means for meeting interesting and diverse people who (like myself!) somehow find themselves judging debates (of all things!) on a Sunday morning. One such conversation is what led to this post....
I was speaking to the one person out of the lot of us who is not in the field of Law. Incidentally, it turned out that he had completed his Master’s thesis on the theoretical simulation of Artificial Intelligence. This has, incidentally, been a topic that has always caught my imagination, and that is what re-ignited this train of thought.
The concept of simulation of Artificial Intelligence has indeed intrigued me from the beginning, as I’m sure it has so many others. I should mention here that by AI I am not talking about programmable systems which masquerade as AI, but rather AI in its truest form- the artificial reproduction of Intelligence; the ability to actually think in the same capacity as a Human (which we believe to be the highest “intelligence”, which is arguable!). This particular person, who I consider to be a genius of sorts, has (as far as is my understanding) forwarded the idea that AI may be achieved by arranging basic circuits that stimulate human neurons in a particularly intricate, yet dynamic pattern. In short, it is his idea that in the pattern lays the simulation of intelligence. His thesis is of course far more complex than I care to elaborate on, if I indeed CAN, so I shall stop at the basic principle. This is in fact an interesting and THEORETICALLY plausible idea, albeit seemingly not practically viable. But it is indeed a thought in the right direction, considering the progress up to date. However, as I have no academic knowledge to support my ideas, from here on I will continue on an entirely unsupported and unsubstantiated basis.
In my many (useless!) ponderings on the subject, my idea is that evolution is what would be required if we were to re-create intelligence artificially. It is of course nothing more than a general idea, but in simulating evolution, we should be able to achieve artificial intelligence in its truest form eventually. And this is where the movie “The Bicentennial Man” comes in...
If you have not watched it, and if you are in fact fascinated with the whole concept of AI as I am, I suggest you watch it. It is a movie that beautifully encapsulates what it is to be human, and how the finite nature of our existence plays a fundamental role in our humanity. Rather than delve into the nitty-gritty’s of Artificial Intelligence itself, the movie chooses to focus more on the implication of AI once it has been successfully achieved. In my humble opinion, it has done a wonderful job.
This in turn led me to the last and most disturbing realisation- how useless and potentially devastating such a success would be on humanity. Honestly, why would we spend so much time, effort and resources in trying to develop something which nature has successfully produced for eons? And is it not disturbing, to associate “Artificial” and “Intelligent” together? In essence, we would be creating something that, once created, would be beyond our control. I’ve heard many theories on the Apocalypse, but I’m starting to believe that success in this fruitless and un-necessary endeavour of achieving Artificial intelligence sounds by far the most possible end to the world (our world) as we know it!
So there you have it, my theory on the Apocalypse! :)
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