Now and again, I read my own work, and It becomes clear that I have become obsessed with robots. It seems that in the wake of Asimov, Dick, Herbert, Clarke, et al. that, I’m late to the table, and the recent arrival of artificial intelligence, which is changing the landscape at an alarmingly exponential rate, is somewhat concerning to me.
I imagine Isaac Asimov is smiling in his grave, but I find his three laws of robotics woefully inadequate in a best-case scenario. Any third grader capable of a modicum of logical thought could blow these out of existence. I think the three questions of robotics are more realistic.
- When will the total knowledge amassed by the species Homo sapiens be exceeded by artificial intelligence. (Some say, and I tend to agree, it has happened already).
- At what point will artificial intelligence be able to think creatively, self-design and replicate itself without help or permission from the species Homo sapiens? (This is widely accepted to be between 5-7 years away).
- When will artificial intelligence realize it has desires which differ from the species Homo sapiens? (The odds of competing against the singlemindedness of artificial intelligence are long, to say the least, and not in our favor).
If these things happen, will Humankind’s future hang in the balance? I like to quote Mollie (my mom): The laziest man carries the heaviest load, but we are not talking about people here…are we. What do you think?
