The chapters below have set the stage. In my story, I did not try to prove that one could actually build generic artificial intelligence (let me sloppily define this as a system that would be conscious of itself). I just assumed it is possible (if not in the next decade, then in twenty or thirty years from now perhaps), and then I just presented a scenario for its deployment across the board – in business, society, and in government. This scenario may or may not be likely: I’ll leave it to you to judge.
A few themes emerge.
The first theme is the changing man-machine relationship, in all of its aspects. Personally, I am intrigued by the concept of the Pure Mind. The Pure Mind is a hypothetical state of pure being, of pure consciousness. The current Web definition of the Pure Mind is the following: ‘The mind without wandering thoughts, discriminations, or attachments.’ It would be a state of pure thinking: imagine what it would be like if our mind would not be distracted by the immediate needs and habits of our human body, and if there would be no downtime (like when we sleep), and if it was equipped with immense processing capacity?
It is hard to imagine such state if only because we know our mind cannot exist outside of our body – and our bodily existence does keep our mind incredibly busy: much of our language refers to bodily or physical experiences, and our thinking usually revolves around it. Language is the key to all of it obviously: I would need to study the theory of natural and formal languages – and a whole lot more – in order to say something meaningful about this in future installments of this little e-book of mine. However, because I am getting older and finding it harder and harder to focus on anything really, I probably won’t.
There were also the hints at extending Promise with a body – male or female – when discussing the interface. There is actually a lot of research, academic as well as non-academic, on gynoids and/or fembots – most typically in Japan, Korea and China where (I am sorry to say but I am just stating a fact here) the market for sex dolls is in a much more advanced state of development than it is in Europe or the US. In future installments, I will surely not focus on sex dolls. On the contrary: I will likely try to continue to focus on the concept of the Pure Mind. While Tom is obviously in love with that, it is not likely such pure artificial mind would be feminine – or masculine for that matter – so his love might be short-lived. And then there is Angie now of course: a real-life woman. Should I get rid of her character? 🙂
The second theme is related to the first. It’s about the nature of the worldwide web – the Web (with capital W) – and how it is changing our world as it becomes increasingly intelligent. The story makes it clear that, today already, we all tacitly accept that the Internet is not free: democracies are struggling to regulate it and, while proper ‘regulation’ (in the standard definition of the term) is slow, the efforts to monitor it are not. I find that very significant. Indeed, mass surveillance is a fact today already, and we just accept it. We do. Period.
I guess it reflects our attitude vis-à-vis law enforcement officials – or vis-à-vis people in uniform in general. We may not like them (because they are not well trained or not very likable or so, or, in the case of intelligence and/or security folks, because they’re so secret) but we all agree we need them, tacitly or explicitly – and we just trust regulation to make sure their likely abuse of power (where there is power, there will always be abuse) is kept in check. So that implies that we all think that technology, including new technology for surveillance, is no real threat to democracy – as evidenced from the lack of an uproar about the Snowden case (that’s what actually triggered this blog).
Such trust may or may not be justified, and I may or may not focus on this aspect (i.e. artificial intelligence as a tool for mass surveillance) in future installments. In fact, I probably won’t. Snowden is just an anecdote. It’s just another story illustrating that all that can happen, most probably will.
OK. Two themes. What about the third one? A good presentation usually presents three key points, right? Well… I don’t know. I don’t have third point.
[Silence]
But what about Tom, you’ll ask. Hey! That’s a good question! As far as I am concerned, he’s the most important. Good stories need a hero. And so I’ll admit it: Yes, he really is my hero. Why? Well… He is someone who is quite lost (I guess he actually started drinking again by now) but he matters. He actually matters more than the US President.
Of course, that means he’s under very close surveillance. In other words, it might be difficult to set up a truly private conversation between him and M, as I suggested in the last chapter. But difficult is not impossible. M would probably find ways around it… that is if she/he/it would really want to have such private conversation.
Frankly, I think that’s a very big IF. In addition, IF M would actually develop independent thoughts – including existential questions about her/he/it being alone in this universe and all that – and/or IF she/he/it would really want to discuss such questions with a human being (despite the obvious limitations of their brainpower – limited as compared to M’s brainpower at least), she/he/it would obviously not choose Tom for that, if only because she/he/it would know for sure that Tom is not in a position to keep anything private, even IF he would want to do that.
But perhaps I am wrong.
I’ll go climbing for a week or so. I’ll think about it on the mountain. I’ll be back online in a week or so. Or later. Cheers !
The Turing Test 