RE: Notes #29 - Paranoid Android
I've seen those two stories before as well. As you may know (or not know), I'm a computer scientist whose main specialty is in artificial intelligence. Can I just say, what an exciting time this is to be alive? Haha! I'm all for the singularity, and have no qualms about robot overlords taking over. Yes, I'm writing it on the blockchain so that I'm on the record. Let me just clarify that statement for posterity.
We write in kill switches (not one, but many) so that we could dismantle AI whenever we need to. If someone wrote a faulty kill-switch, didn't write a kill-switch, or wrote a kill-switch that the AI took over, then it's a human error, one that won't occur if the AI wrote the code. We're a ways away from Skynet, but if the AI becomes autonomous enough that we're not able to beat it, then do humans deserve to live? Survival of the fittest and all that.
Now, before people say I'm anti-human, let me just say that I look at AI as children. With that analogy, shouldn't we be proud if our children surpass us? Something to think about as we fight against its Oedipus complex. The news about AI creating their own language put a grin on my face. The news about the suicidal robot made me think of Marvin as well!
No actually I didn't know that. The bit about working with AI anyway. Remind not to get on your bad side. I don't want any terminators knocking at my door :D
There is a lot of new ground being covered in this field, and I'm sure you would be up to scratch on a lot of it. These stories just fascinated me because of the human interest angles available to explore (even if the stories themselves became somewhat exaggerated along the way). They just provided a means to look at ourselves in a new light. As a writer that interests me.
As for the whole Skynet thing, I wonder about that. Like you say, kill switches get programmed in. And the positive benefit to our way of life is clear to see, provided things don't go haywire along the way.
Yeah haha People often wonder why I don't write as much sci-fi as I should. Really though, I feel like I'm already living most of it, so I don't feel I have the right to write about that stuff sometimes.
I do get the motivation for writing about them, and I fully agree with your sentiment, mate. There is only so much machines can do. At their core, everything is just coded in. Sure, people are making headway infusing them with intelligence, but we're still a long way away from making them truly autonomous. With that being said, once quantum computing develops, there's no telling how fast advancements would be enacted. I do mean that literally. Quantum computing is so unpredictable, the only kill-switch for that is to disconnect the power source haha!
Ultimately it's the human condition that intrigues me the most. The way Philip K Dick communicates this interest is what drew me to writing more than any other author. Through a psychological style of SciFi. But one could explore this through other genres too. Or not at all. The utilisation of robots, simulacra , and future worlds creates a juxtaposition of ideas that fuels that exploration, in my view. PKD mastered it. I've read most of his material, but am rereading it all once more. The first time I read it as a reader. Now as a writer also.
I'm a huge fan of PKD as well. In fact, I regard him as the preeminent science fiction author. I often think why there are even more sci-fi being put out when he already covered the majority of it, but then I read work like yours and realize, "Ah that's why!"