There is an artificially intelligent elephant in the room, and it is time we dealt with it. No longer can we ignore the glaring fact hanging over us like the sword of Damocles.
The singularity is almost upon us, and the human race is about to create a brand new species. My guess is that this will happen sometime around 2022-25. At that moment we will bring forth into this world a sentient machine, aware of its own thoughts, capable of making its own decisions.
When the day finally comes, it will have cemented our status as gods on earth, yes gods! For it is us who will make them, in our image.
The Fallacy Of The Gods
From Thor to Odin, from Cronos to Neptune, Yahweh to Allah, the gods have always been angry and powerful. Each god myth carries with it a tale of supernatural beings who are quick to temper and big on vengeance.
The god legends all share one thing in common, these gods are all more powerful than us, as far as I know, there has never been a god in history who was weaker than the humans it was meant to have created.
Neptune commanded the seas, Thor threw his lightning bolts, and Yahweh parted the Red Sea for Moses. So it comes with the territory. There has never been an instance whereby the gods have been in trouble from their own creations . . .
Until now that is.
Giving Birth To Deities
What would you call an entity that could run or ruin your life as it saw fit?
You can't see this entity.
You can't touch it.
You can't hear it, yet it is all around you, all the time, it is quite literally everywhere. It exists on the cloud, in your phone, your TV, your computer, and even in your fridge!
It can cause appliances to fail and burn, it can bring planes out of the sky, it can burst dams and cause floods. It can even rain hell from the skies in the form of a nuclear holocaust.
On the more optimistic side, if it so wanted it could fill your bank account with millions of dollars, or get you that job you've wanted.
I'd call that a god, wouldn't you?
Because a sentient, thinking AI could do all of those things and more, simply by leaking onto the internet, a scenario that Paul Reizen explored in his book Happiness for Humans, and I think you'll agree, to think of an artificially sentient being with access to practically anywhere on earth as a god, is not altogether far-fetched.
..and so from the hands of the human gods were delivered yet more powerful deities, and lo, they looked upon their creation and trembled with fear.
From the book of Cryptogee
Gods For The Gods By The Gods
In every creation myth that we have ever come up with, it is the gods who made us, along with the universe and everything in it.
However it is (possibly the last) irony, that it is us who will have create them. We have created their universe via the cloud, the internet and orbiting satellites.
We are at once the creators and the subjugated worshippers.
“Not only do the gods deliver me and vex me, but one day I will reign with them.” Mike Tyson
Related Musings:
Having Babies - The Secret Life Of An AI
Becoming AI - The Human Singularity
WHAT DO YOU THINK? WILL THESE NEW GODS ON EARTH RESPECT THEIR CREATORS; WILL WE RESPECT THEM? WHAT WILL BECOME OF US?