Resisting Assimilation
Very few people are able to grasp the idea of a machine made up of "soft" human parts, let alone an intelligent machine. At least in 2016, the prevalent mythology easily accepts the idea of "an" AI, a malicious but more or less human mind bent on enslaving or destroying humanity. Yet these same people obediently trudge off to meaningless labour for faceless corporations every day, always dimly aware that there is "purpose" behind what they do, but it's not their purpose.
How is it possible that a machine (like an army) could have an "intelligence" separate from the people who make it up? My background in artificial intelligence makes the concept obvious and natural to me, but the vast majority of readers have not really given much thought about what "intelligence" means in general, let alone what it could mean when we are not speaking about a living thing.
On the other hand, the idea that we are "assimilated" into "machines" is relatively easy to understand and widely shared. Once this is understood, perhaps the reader can dip his toe into the much more frightening idea that the planet is ruled by intelligent machines.
The common rhetoric of attributing moral responsibility to large corporations and government needs to be challenged. The machines have no morality. Their operational rules are designed for their own self-preservation, nothing more.
How is it possible that a machine (like an army) could have an "intelligence" separate from the people who make it up? My background in artificial intelligence makes the concept obvious and natural to me, but the vast majority of readers have not really given much thought about what "intelligence" means in general, let alone what it could mean when we are not speaking about a living thing.
On the other hand, the idea that we are "assimilated" into "machines" is relatively easy to understand and widely shared. Once this is understood, perhaps the reader can dip his toe into the much more frightening idea that the planet is ruled by intelligent machines.
The common rhetoric of attributing moral responsibility to large corporations and government needs to be challenged. The machines have no morality. Their operational rules are designed for their own self-preservation, nothing more.
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