On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men : Part Seven

[ellyssian]

On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men
By Everett A Warren
March 14, 2004

Presented as part seven of sixteen

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Part One
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"We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want."

How applicable that is to our society today! Processor speed increases by leaps and bounds; they discuss an upper limit, and, mere moments later, they speak of a new limitation that is higher than before. No matter how literally you take it, "we have developed speed."

Amazing how so many of these devices are designed as time-savers. Faster, cheaper. And the pace of life picks up to meet or exceed the change in our availability. What do we gain in return? Lowered quality standards? More time to fiddle with things that will eventually save us a moment or two; which, of course, we will spend on another gadget. We shut ourselves into a world with more and more dependence on the machinery – yet we complain more and more that we dislike the arrangement, and desire simpler things.

"Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind."

I think, perhaps, that rather than trying to design an AI construct, there are more important technologies to focus on. For that very AI will sooner or later – provided we actually gave it the ability to reason – realise that, despite all our past history regarding an aversion to slavery, we have in fact gained no new ground. We resorted to creating our own slaves, and we hope we programmed them with enough self-control to restrain from thanking us for that honour. No, as much as the subject matter interests me, intrigues me, I can see the patterns of our mistakes in prior activities growing with greater speed then before, ascending to greater heights.

There is less flash, less tech-appeal, in the technologies that are of far more value.

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~ Questions and discussion welcome! ~

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Comments

[wisedonkey.livejournal.com]

We shut ourselves into a world with more and more dependence on the machinery – yet we complain more and more that we dislike the arrangement, and desire simpler things.

Precisely why I picked up photography, using film rather than digital.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Don't remember if I asked this before when we discussed even older phototech - do you do your own developing?

More on topic, I find it kind of curious and hypocritical that, while I prefer reading things printed on paper, I prefer writing them on a computer. The speed of the input device almost comes close to keeping pace with the speed of the ideas to be captured - pen & ink have never been able to keep up, and, when they try, legibility is more often than not left behind, gasping for breath.

[wisedonkey.livejournal.com]

Don't remember if I asked this before when we discussed even older phototech - do you do your own developing?

Not right now. However, as I've started down the path of black and white film, it's the only way.

The speed of the input device almost comes close to keeping pace with the speed of the ideas to be captured - pen & ink have never been able to keep up…

That's precisely the problem! When forming a creative work, one needs to allow time for his thoughts to coallesce. Although hacking may create something that works, never underestimate the path perceived as slow.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I'll check out the link when I get home tonight...

With short fiction and - especially - poetry, I find the ideas arriving fully formed. Going back to photography (sort of!), I just need to capture the image - I've already framed the shot, brought everything in to focus, and all I need to do is click the shutter.

Pen & ink doesn't have a fast enough shutter speed to capture the action, and the shot is missed.

That's me, though, and I know plenty of people who aren't wired like that. I blame it - or credit it, depending on your POV - on being the son of an engineer who was the son of an engineer! =)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Okay, not quite the same night... definitely a fun little tale, although the anti-BDUF folks might not approve! =)