This week I had the pleasure of seeing the newest movie in the Planet of the Apes universe, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”. And while I won’t be going into detail (because it is still a relatively new movie), I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say that the general premise is that the downfall of humanity will be hubris (wedded to technology, hubris becomes an entirely new animal). It was an amazing movie, the cinematography was incredible, the apes were so lifelike, and the storyline was entirely empathetic. I left the theater, however, a little disturbed because I could see how technology, taken to such extreme heights and depths, could theoretically become the end of us. And that was a sobering thought to a self-proclaimed technophile.
But I put it out of my head, and bravely set about my week. And then I saw this story on CNN: Research into computers that reason and can think for themselves. The precursor to the ever-elusive, all-encompassing, terrifyingly powerful thing that is artificial intelligence.
And it’s one thing to think about this back in 2004 (only seven years ago!!) when we watched the movie “I, Robot”, and the idea of such smart computers seemed so far off. But as I type this on my iPad, listening to an artificially intelligent application (Pandora) choose music that it thinks I may enjoy, and searching the specs for “I, Robot” on Google while it suggests similar search avenues … That day doesn’t really seem all that far off. And the technophile in me salivates for the Next New Thing; but the humanity within me is hesitant and watchful …
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
I loved reading your post. Very intriguing!