On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men : Part Ten

[ellyssian]

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

Presented as part ten of sixteen

~ ~ ~

Part One
Previous

~ ~ ~

"The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say `Do not despair'."

Ah, and here we see that the speaker is not completely against technology – there are uses for technology. If the aeroplane and the radio have done their part, what then of our current voice and data lines? Our ability to communicate globally is far from being in everyone's hands, but it is much nearer to that than was ever possible before. It is no difficult task in this day and age to have a business call with a global company, speaking, at once, with their office in Texas, as well as Ireland, and another group in Germany, and still hear the distinctive siren as it travels by their French office.

The speech that I've been quoting was speaking out against, at least in part, a particular personage in Germany. The events that have occurred over the last several years have been leaning towards ostracising those who don't support the United States of America, particularly by renaming the french fry, the freedom fry⁸, to avoid association with a similarly named country – despite the origin of the fry having nothing to do with the country itself. Are we closer together?

With the technology available, it is quite easy to frequent virtual places, and read opinions of those from around the world in regards to those recent events – and one can certainly say that information would not have been at our fingertips before, and we would have been unaware of what the remainder of the world felt regarding the country wherein we reside. However, that binary nature is still apparent at the core. Judgements are formed: all Americans are this, Canadians are that, French are so-on, and so forth. Despite the potential for many to speak to many, impressions from the various mass media help spread the Us and Them.

Do not despair, indeed. Is there any hope that we need not despair?

~ ~ ~

Reference Links

8. freedom fry

Next

~ Questions and discussion welcome! ~

~ ~ ~