Blog Assingment #5 - Midterm Practice

Artificial intelligence, as defined by the standard American dictionary, is the capacity of a computer to perform operations analogous to learning and decision making in humans. The advancements in AI have been remarkably progressive since the early 1990’s. In the year 2011, it is commonplace to have some form of AI in almost any type of electronic. Cars are now able to park themselves. Video games have enemies that adapt to your attacks and formulate strategies against you. Even credit card companies have software that actively searches your normal purchase habits to ensure your card is not being used by an unauthorized person. The advancements in AI seem to take an incredible leap forward every few years. What happens, however, when an AI gets so advanced it believes itself to be the same or better than humans? We see this scenario explored in the book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” by Philip K. Dick. In this book, Mr. Dick introduces the character of Rachel Eldon, who holds conversations just like any other person. She is by all rights a deceptive, brash, and confidently strong woman, until of course she fails the Voight-Kampff test, a sort of empathy tester. She is an android. While she may have been artificially created, it can be argued that she was indeed intelligent and that her consciousness was as real as any human’s consciousness.

There are items within humans that separate them from other beings in this world; emotion, rationality, the ability to question their own existence (Philosophy) to name a few. If these were emulated, and if humans were unable to immediately tell the difference, they would default to being real in the sense that they would be accepted as such. An example might be a person with Alexithymia, a neurological disability which creates difficulty in distinguishing, understanding and processing emotions. This disorder is common to about 85% of people suffering from autism. Because the concept is so foreign to them, they often appear to be completely devoid of emotional expression. Many of these individuals have to learn alternate methods to simply read emotion on another person’s face. This can be seen as an artificially fix to the problem of replaying emotions seamlessly as most humans can. It is not unreasonable to assume that many people would still hold these autistic beings to still be human, which is evidence that a mastery of emotion is clearly not the sole component that makes one human.

This is just a brainstorm. More to come shortly…

The Promise and Peril of Robots

Robots. Androids. Cyborgs. Bionic Commandos. These concepts almost seem written into our future, don’t they? From adorable robots like ASIMO to terrifying war machines like the Terminators, they are all tearing themselves out of the pages of science fiction and finding a comfortable home in science and engineering books. Why is it that we are so eager to push forth new robotic and artificial intelligence technologies? Is it simply because we can do it? That’s an excuse from sci-fi movie. The truth is, we push forward because we believe it will assist us in some form or fashion.

Take bionics as an example. If you had lost a limb in an accident, would you rather live life with only one arm, or would you entertain the idea of having a mechanical replacement fitted that would do many of the tasks your old arm did? This very issue continues to be addressed within the field of bionics where companies work with doctors to advance the technologies of replacement limbs. It is an astonishing feat to compete with years of evolution in such a short time. Bionics don’t just assist in continuing a semblance of one’s own life prior to losing a limb, they have extraordinary psychological value. Patients with replacement limbs, especially those made to look as human as possible, tend a significantly lower trend in depression than those without one. While this technology is still relatively new, it shows the promise of hope it can bring into human living.

Where should we draw the line though? Creating a bionic arm for humans seems like a reasonable endeavor, but what do we get out of creating whole bodies with artificial intelligence? The obvious answer is labor. It always has been. Think about it. The Ford assembly line, the microwave, the Rumba; all of these provide something, namely convenience. Some people might say “Well we don’t need androids making our lives convenient!” To these people you need only ask “Do you have a Data plan on that cell phone? Do you use iTunes, Netflix and other software that take your preferences and give you suggestions? If you do, then you’re using AI already, and it might not be farfetched for us (or rather our children) to come to rely on Android aid. I remember a time before the internet, when to meet up with a friend you had to be at the place and time you had previously agreed upon. These days you can just whip out your phone and text “On my way” while you sit back and finish watching the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica. The point is, while I remember the beauties and simplicities of life before the great spawn of technologies that now encompass our lives, I would not only be going against social norms if I tried to live the way I did when I was a kid, I would be making my life, a bit less convenient. That may sound garish, but I wish to be honest in this. I like getting my weather updated to the minute. I like sending emails and texts instead of letters. I like carrying 10 digital books on my iPad instead of 10 bulky paperbacks. I don’t really want to go back, well maybe for a day, but I am who I am now, today, and that might be the sentiment we carry with us when we see the benefits of androids and AI.

Convenient!

I will share my concern though. Right now, we aren’t in danger of our microwaves purposefully irradiating us to death, or our cell phones shooting dangerous isotopes into our brain. With artificial intelligence comes the possibility of developing an understanding of fairness that goes beyond human insight. Let us remember that we humans, as adapted as we have become, are still incredibly irrational beings. We suck up our resources, invent concepts like imaginary money (which we call credit) and tend to think in a self serving manner. If someone dies in an accident, we often hear “Who is responsible?” which is a reasonable question, except when you think of the term ‘accident’. An artificial intelligence may have greater cognitive capabilities that humans, but it may also ‘think’ in a drastically different way from us. Is it fair for a lion to kill and eat a zebra? Of course. So would it be fair for a Terminator robot to tear a human’s face off? The Terminator might say ‘Yes’ and that is when we will have a problem.

Look out! He's here to take names and rip faces!

Ideas for a Research Paper

In my Liberal Arts class, we’re nearing the point of narrowing down and choosing our topics for the big research paper. At the moment I am torn between two ideas for the paper, the first one being an in depth reading of Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” and the other focusing on the promise of the Internet being an excellent tool for communication but also holding the negative effects of reducing attention span, and promoting mental/physical health issues.

Philip K Dick is an engaging author. His imagination was incredible, though he was known to be a troubled person (there is strong speculation he had some form of mental illness). I’d like to analyze his work on “Do Androids…” and see if I can get to the core of the message he was trying to convey. I see this as a challenge because I so easily lose myself in science fiction novels. I tend to jump into the world and explore the fantasy within; the ingenious ideas for new tech, the way humans have changed their way of living and interacting, even the clothing (is it futuristic or old fashioned?). Sitting down and assessing the philosophical message will be an interesting and rewarding experience for me.

On the other hand, the Internet is something most of us use (heck you are probably reading this off the Internet right now) as it has completely infiltrated our lives. I am of the breed that remembers a time before every household had a computer, when the quintessential form of communication was the phone (not text message). At least then, the sounds coming out of your mouth was converted into electrical signals and reassembled on the other phone to produce your voice. Now communication has almost regressed to simple text (which as many of us know is extremely difficult to convey emotions through, hence the emoticon). I’d like to see the physical and psychological effects this important piece of technology has on our culture. Can we consider the benefits an agreeable price to pay for the potential detriments? Is this simply the ‘new’ way of things, and good or bad it simply will be what it is (our future)?

Both these topics interest me greatly as they each speak to different parts of who I am, the sci-fi/tech geek who loves reading about utopia/dystopian futures, and the Psychology student who is always searching for meaningful concepts relevant to our culture.

Edit 4/12

After some consideration I have decided to focus on Philip K. Dick and his novel. There is something compelling about his work that draws me in and I would like to explore the world he has created in “Do Anroids…”. I think there are a number of relevant to our time messages in this book (and other writings) and the fact that it was written in 1968 makes Mr. Dick that much more of an interesting topic to study.

Popular Science Fiction

Cosmology. What the hell is it? Let's keep the definition simple. It is the study of the Universe in it's totality, black holes, dark matter, dark energy, quarks and so on. What's the point to it? Simply to understand where we are, and where we come from. It is an incredibly complex and daunting project which no single individual (or group for that matter) can discover alone. It requires groups of scientists, researchers and even philosophers to tackle even the smallest tread of mystery surrounding the cosmic veil. A great deal of this is simply beyond the scope of understanding for the average Joe, but that doesn't make it any less awesome.

Yeah... I don't even know how to read the squiggly lines.

Space, being the final frontier (ahem, nerd) and being totally out of reach for the great majority of humans, is something that can't help but inspire awe and wonder inside of us. Did you know that for a very brief time in Earths history, people were absolutely sure of life on Mars? In the infancy of high powered telescopic viewing, scientists saw what the believed to be industrial irrigation pipes coming from the northern and southern poles of this planet, the ice caps, and spreading throughout the land. They immediately assume that alien life in Mars was confirmed and that this was their method for surviving on this harsh land. They released a statement and the papers read "Life on Mars confirmed". A day later, they cleaned the lens and found that dirt and scratches were to blame for the 'lines' they saw. When they looked at the planet again, they saw the same thing we see today, a red lifeless rock. It was an embarrassing time for science, but it gave birth to the classic martian stories that spawned countless movies. Science, although inaccurate, inspired science fiction.

I'm still holding out hope for a Martian Raygun to be found.

The ocean still has some of this mystique, though it has recently been drowned out through exploration and the finding that, well, it's kinda boring down there. People are no longer expecting to find Atlantis, and even if we do, the Mer-people living there are probably going to be pale with antennae and no eyes. It really kills the romance doesn't it? The love affair with the sky is still alive and well though. And the discoveries that Cosmologists and Theoretical Physicists are finding serve to fuel the imagination... when we can understand what they hell they are talking about. An example would be the show Firefly. This show used the concept of terra forming as an explanation for humans being able to colonize distant planets. The idea is, theoretically possible. Although our technology today is limited, there still exists a possibility that one day humans will be able to change the chemistry of a barren planet to a more hospitable one. The question that might plague some science nuts is ‘Even if we can do that, how the hell will we get to far off planets?’ Great question. The answer: Antimatter. A positron colliding with an electron produces a brilliant explosion that is visible and measureable with the right equipment (The Large Hadron Collider). What makes this interesting is that both a positron and an electron have virtually  no mass, yet it still is able to produce an incredible amount energy. One of the smallest, lightest things in the universe and it has the power to go BOOOOOM! There exists the theory that one day we will be able to harness this fantastic cosmic power and use it for the propulsion of space craft. Solving the riddle for moving faster than light is a different perplexing equation all together, but one that can be seen tackled in the recent Star Trek movie when Scotty says “It never occurred to me to think of space as the thing that was moving.” It would be hard to argue that you were surpassing the speed of light if you weren’t the one moving at all, wouldn’t it?

"Sir, we're not moving."

 "Yeah I know... and we've just arrived."

"... that was easy."

Science, although daunting, serves to help expand the imagination, and the imagination in turns helps scientist to see things in new and innovative ways. It is said the Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode where Data was simultaneously listening to multiple songs, inspired the inception of the MP3. The imaginative Holodeck on the same show has pushed the widespread use and research of holographic technologies (have you seen the holographic keyboard? So freakin cool!). Science has served to inspire me as it sheds light to the mysteries of the universe and with it, leaves the door open for imaginative interpretations of our existence. There is that saying, that ‘every story has already been told’, well with science, the more we know the more stories we’ll be able to tell.  

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