Transcendence – Rise of the Self Awareness in Machines __________________________________________________ It is believed that some 3.5 billion years ago, life in its most primitive form began on the Earth. Since then there have been evolutions in all living organisms both, in terms of physical appearances and intelligence. Through the test of time some species were totally eradicated following the law of “Survival of the Fittest” and their vacancy quickly filled by another, more intelligent, more capable specie. The human evolution is quite recent though dating back to some 2.3 million years. But this journey of Homo Habilis, the early humans who used stone tools to make their living to a highly evolved Homo Sapiens is astonishing. This journey doesn’t just end here; rather it has continued to evolve more intelligence in last couple of centuries. As off today, Human race is believed to be the most intelligent specie of all with technology at its disposal. But where does this technology lead us to? Some believe the explosion of this technology will rather cease the very existence of humans. In our early stages of childhood, we are taught the preliminary distinction between living and non-living. We are told that something that breaths, moves, grows in shape and size and reproduces is categorized as a living organism and the opposite is of course a non-living object. But is that all? Are these characteristics sufficient enough to separate a living organism from the non-living objects? For past many years, researchers, scientists and thinkers all over the world have unanimously agreed on one element which not only is essential for this distinction but also has an edge in defining the very existence of us, the humans! That element is by far the Self Awareness or Consciousness. It is the vital ingredient in rendering the “Human” factor in us. Without it, we would be to say in a vegetative state; life without consciousness. So, does that mean every living organism has self-awareness? Well, some think yes. Almost all the living organisms show consciousness or self-awareness; the levels may vary though. But then highly evolved specie like humans shows a great deal of it. How exactly this self-awareness works is a matter of debate for some. But the general opinion is it is the understanding of the surrounding and adapting to the changes in it by any means feasible. That leads to confusion then. Because, there are known evidences of species like Dolphins, Monkeys, Birds and other animals that exhibit understanding of the self and the surroundings at the same time and adapting to changes in it. So how humans are different from them? We are different in the sense that our intelligence and self-awareness over a period of time have gone beyond the most primitive functions of survival and developed technology that can aid us understand the universe as a whole. But this is where the word of caution comes! Efforts are being made in the direction of rendering or transferring this so called Human Self-Awareness to Computers or Machines in the form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) thereby creating a breed of Artificially Existing Human Race fully capable of its understanding of the surroundings and adaptable as always but equipped with Intelligence far beyond the cumulative intelligence of every human born in the history of mankind packed into one single entity. While some call this phenomenon “Singularity”, others call it “Transcendence”. It is a combination of Genetics, Nanotechnology and Robotics put together to create Super Intelligence far beyond the capacity of humans. Should the Transcendence occur, technology will advance beyond our ability to foresee or control its outcomes and the world will be transformed beyond recognition by the application of super intelligence to humans and/or human problems, including poverty, disease and mortality. Does this sound familiar? Perhaps, yes. Hollywood movies like Terminator, Matrix, Surrogates and many more have been depicting this phenomenon for past many years. The recent addition to this band wagon is the movie Transcendence acted by Johnny Depp. Hold on. I was not preparing any ground for a movie review (as I usually do and have done in my past reviews). Being a Sci-Fi movie, Transcendence has everything one would expect in a Hollywood movie. Amazing Computer Graphics, action and sound effects are indeed good. But what I like the most is the concept. Compared to Terminator, Matrix and Surrogates, the movie is capable of projecting the concept of Singularity or Transcendence more effectively than its predecessors. Johnny Depp, a computer analyst and a programmer successfully transfers Consciousness to an Artificial Neural Network rendering it Self Awareness. Looking at its downside a group of radicals successfully assassinates him. But his wife continues with the project and effectively transfers his conscious to the neural network. Once gained the self-awareness, the neural network quickly spreads through the Internet to virtually every computing system and electronic gadget making it evolve into more robust, self-contained, self-deciding entity capable of analyzing situations and finding solutions, but without a human touch. The neural network soon corrects its programming flaws and gains complete control. Fuelling the pending work in Nanotechnology, the network even completes it and starts its implementation on humans, plants, animals and almost every resource available to it. That results in extremely intelligent, capable of self-repairing and healing breed of living organisms that is virtually indestructible. Experiments are being successfully carried out in which a human organ like hand, foot, eye etc. is equipped with Programmable Computer Chip. Projects are already underway where human brain is receiving Computer Chip to assist certain disabled functions. Medical operations are already being carried out where micro or Nano particles are delivering medicinal dosages at microscopic levels. We are trying to bridge the gap between a human and a machine. What we have been seeing in all these movies is slowly becoming a reality. So, the day is not far when we will also be able to transfer or should I say mock human “Conscious” in machines; but what about “Conscience”? Will we be able to “Fit” that into machines or hardware? Well, that’s the point of clash between the people who want to make this world a better place and the people who are worried whether such Self Aware Intelligent Machines will mimic human behavior or not. I remember having read somewhere that a human brain works more like an Analog circuit. Meaning, it assumes infinite possibilities and values for evaluating certain situations. Whereas, a Computer with its Binary processing of Yes or No looks at every situation with just two options before evaluating and reaching a final conclusion. Now that could be potentially dangerous. Imagine, a human soldier driven by past experiences, emotions, cultural values will think differently in say a Hostage Crisis than its A.I. counterpart. It is not possible to feed somebody’s past experiences, emotions and values in a Computer Chip. Even if we could do that in near future, how practical is that? The world cannot be put into order by simply programming humans or rendering self-awareness to machines. It is an effort that involves understanding the real “Self”, putting oneself in somebody else’s shoes and then deciding upon an evasive action. It is a prediction based on mathematical calculations of exponential technological development, that the Singularity or Transcendence will come to pass by the year 2045. We all know that machines have already taken control of our life; from a small cell phone to satellite we have become slaves to this machine evolution. And as Darwin stated in his principle of the Survival of the Fittest, if such Super-Intelligent, Self Aware machines do rise in future, it won’t be long when Human Race will be panting for its mere survival. ------------------------ Parag M. Gogate July 25, 2014
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 13:01:57 +0000
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