Module 12: The Future

The future doesn’t need us, but it will take a lot to get rid of us. In an article in Wired Magazine, Bill Joy talks about it concerns of our future and the possibilities that technological advances could lead to the extinction of the human race. The idea is simple, ever since man stood out among other living things on Earth as intelligent we have been trying to invent machines to make our lives easier. These may someday become so advance that they can actually perform our human functions better than we can ourselves and our presence is just simply not necessary. One day a caveman said, “My feet hurt and I don’t want to walk anymore,” and then he started rolling around on wheels. In the near future someone might say, “My brain hurts and I don’t want to think anymore,” and then we will have machines that think for us. The problem is that they could think better than us and decide that they do not need us around. Joy points out some things that many people either ignore, do not understand, or do not know about that could completely change life or end it all together. We have spent so much effort trying to make our lives easier but may not know the consequences of developing out of our limits. 

Joy uses a great description to show the difference between the twentieth century and the twenty-first century. He says that the twentieth century was the century of weapons of mass destruction. That makes sense, with the World War II and the Cold War, the advances in technology were driven towards finding the biggest bomb to gain power. It was not until the end of century that things really took off in the computer world and led into the twenty-first century that is the century of genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics. These new ground breaking technologies were hard to regulate so it was and can be easy to abuse them. Nuclear bombs were used to scare people for power and were used to kill a lot of people. The technologies in the twenty-first century are very useful but can easily be used for destructive purposes. If there was an accident with an atomic bomb, it could cause a lot of damage, as well as if something happened with robotics or nanotechnology that we did not expect, we may not be prepared to defend ourselves. Technological advances really means we can manipulate our surroundings more and more. With genetics we can change and affect living things. Nanotechnology has the power to perform huge tasks with little effort. Robots will do anything we want them to, for now. Bill Joy’s concern is that, as humans, we are focused on developing and keep designing and building without considering the consequences that may arise in the future. 

It is hard for me to think of machines that we built becoming superior and eventually replacing us. It seems goofy that humans with bodies, minds, and feelings would be an unnecessary accessory to the machines, but I do not think Joy is suggesting that they will becoming evil and turn on us like iRobot. I do not think that will happen, maybe because I do not want it to. He is suggesting that if it does get to the point that humans as they are now will not be of value, then it will happen gradually over time so that we will have already accepted it bit by bit when it actually it happens. I do think that could happen. We already rely on machines so much that whether or not we need more efficient and capable ones is not even a question. We will continue to build faster smarter machines and make them more affordable so that everyone in the world has access to the benefits.

I think Joy is correct in thinking that there are problems on the horizon that we are not ready for. All the time, we are continuously amazed by the new products and abilities we come up with. The thought of inventing things we are not ready to handle is not too far off. Most advances and ideas are created for money and physical gain. New products worth a lot of money can easily block out important considerations for effects it could have on society. What we need to do is study all angles even looking may years later if this is something really worth the cash. Moral considerations may slow the process but the thing that worries me is that it is going to happen anyway. If we can imagine it we will find a way to bring it to life, even if it means jeopardizing our own.

Module 11: Film Review Essay

What if computers distracted us from important things in our life? Could we spend too much time trying to innovate and manufacture new products to perform tasks for us, to make day to day work easier, that we forget to preserve and replenish our life and environment on Earth? Maybe, we could spend so much effort on making computers more capable that they actually start to think for themselves above our control and pursue their own agendas even though they were designed to help us accomplish our goals. These are some of the questions I was asking as I watched a movie about Earth several years in the future. It takes place at a time when humans had produced and consumed so much that they ran out of resources and room for excess to the point that they had to vacate the planet, leaving behind robots to clean up the mess. In Pixar’s Wall-E, I think it shows a world a lot like our own; a world where humans are distracted by the advancements in technology to neglect their own and the planet’s needs. And, in search of making machines more capable of thinking on their own, created a computer that turned against its original design and opposed the safety of the humans. 

One way I see computers being used in the film is the way people interact with each other and their environment. Wall-E finds a space ship full of humans that are glued to the screen on their hover chairs and never looking away. They take care of any functions they need to from there like ordering more food and choosing where they want to go. Other passengers on their chairs are sitting right next to each other within feet and they do not even realize other people are there. What they do most of the time is chat with each other over a video call but the ironic thing is that they are talking to the person right next to them. This is exaggerated for most of us today, but I think some people get caught up in the world on-line or just entertained with new technology that they forget the world outside of that network. Some of us today are becoming less active because it is so easy to sit in one spot. Those on the hover chairs became so accustomed that they never got out of them and could not even move on their own. They would go hit virtual golf balls, which meant telling the computerized robot when to hit the ball for them. At one point, a lady was knocked out of her chair and was forced to look around for herself. She notice a nice big pool and did not know it was there. 

The other side of the effect of distractions from real life by computers is the environmental impact it can have. The show starts by showing the clean up of Earth after we filled it up with enough debris and toxins that it was inhabitable. Since the movie portrayed the humans as ignorant and lazy, we can assume that they were that way to begin with, therefore they must have not taken the time to try to solve the problem before it got out of hand. Realistically, I do not think we are going to bury ourselves in garbage, but we already are polluting the planet and using limited resources that are changing the appearance and functionality of the Earth. This is probably because of two reasons: we are getting lazier and do not want to clean up our mess, and we are advancing so fast in technology and developing distractions that we are not taking time to plan for the future and to preserve the environment that  we may not be able to enjoy forever. 

The final way I observed the importance of computers is the capacity to think for themselves. Auto, the autopilot for the ship, was the control wheel that took care of whatever the captain needed to run the ship. When they found a plant on Earth, proving life was sustainable there, Auto tried to get rid of the evidence and keep them from going back. There was a secret file showing that it would not be safe to go back, but he turned pretty evil by choosing for himself which orders to follow, against the current captain’s orders to go back to Earth. I am not sure how realistic computers causing a mutiny is, but if humans become that dependent on them for everything they do, then there may be a day when they could be able to decide what is right. He was really trying to protect everyone by not taking them back to an uninhabitable Earth, but it is the thought of a robot preventing our curiosity that was wrong. 

Module 10: A Logic Named Joe

Will Jenkins was way ahead of his time when he wrote A Logic Named Joe. I don’t know if other people were making predictions as accurately as he did at the time but I think he was pretty spot on. I could try to picture what things will be like in ten or fifteen years, but with all the resources coming together the possibilities are endless. To put yourself in a place thirty years later and have a good idea of the actual scene is amazing. There are some themes occurring in the story that you could analyze but I think Jenkins was simply documenting what he thought the future of the world, including these new thinking machines, would be like. He imagined the possibilities and realized if computers progressed the way he saw it, then there would be some serious consequences to be weary of. 

When Jenkins wrote the story in 1946, computers were huge machines that filled a warehouse and could barely perform some simple math. He predicted that eventually they would shrink and become more powerful at the same time. Everyone in the story had a logic at home and used it for more than just math. They made phone calls from it, watched TV on it, and searched for information from it. Now, almost everyone has a computer and it is probably where we spend the most time at home. I not only make phone calls but can make video calls on my computer, just like they do with their logics. I watch TV over the internet. Any TV shows I want to watch, I watch right from the website or watch games and news being streamed live. Computers are the connection to the internet and if I use it right, I can find information on whatever I wanted to know more about. 

One interesting thing logics were used for was finding that specific information, anything you wanted. In 1946, television was just taking off but was limited in the content. Whether you were twisting your rabbit ears to get a certain channel or finding a a radio station clear enough to understand, you were still only subject to whatever they played for you at that time. Now, if you don’t like what’s on, you find the channel with the specific subject you want or Tevo it and catch it later. If you want to know how to build a working tricycle out of popsicle sticks you can find a series of videos to explain the details on Youtube. Jenkins thought of a network of information that the logics shared and that they could search for and share information. Even though computers were just developing the internet was further down the road. 

Our computers may not be able to solve problems for us but they can kind of think on their own. You can teach a computer how to recognize certain bits of information so that it can collect it and organize it in a more useful way and help answer questions. I do not know of any computers that have committed a crime but I read an article once of a police project where they used logarithms and formulas involving passed information to predict where possible crimes will be committed. 

Along with the day dreamy, fun future stuff, Jenkins realized that with all that power there would still be a down side to oppose the advantages. Adults were using the availability of information for irresponsible use, children were being exposed to content that would probably keep them from developing in a healthy way, and the machines themselves began to think they had better ideas than the humans. I see these things evident in our world today. A lot of people are involved too much in each others private lives with the transparency of the internet. Anybody, whether it be children, criminals or terrorists can find information that could lead to more harm whether they found it on purpose or stumbled on it by accident. And finally, robots have not turned against us yet as a superior life form but I think some of us can rely too heavily on the information and capabilities of our computers. We get wrapped up in the real time updates of the internet and forget to look around solve issues in real life. 

Along with Spiderman, Jenkins understood that with great power comes great responsibility. I would like to go back in time and show him an iPhone.