As recently reported by Scientific American (according to OpEdNews) Pentagon’s rapidly improving ability to fight wars with robots is “bringing about the most profound transformation of warfare since the advent of an atom bomb” and that “robots are pouring onto battlefields as if a new species of mechanotronic alien had just landed on our planet”.
The artificial intelligence of these machines is increasingly responsible for deciding when and whom to shoot. People’s lives are literally depending on machine intelligence. Other times, the drones are remote controlled from a distance like a video game.
The OpEdNews article concludes: ‘As the Scientific American article points out, as a result of the deadly Predator strikes, a leading Pakistan newspaper has already branded the U.S. a “principal hate figure.” That is, of course, precisely how the “Empire,” with its Imperial Walkers and robot soldiers, was perceived by the “human” rebels in the 1977 movie “Star Wars.”‘
It is old news that new advanced technologies are making our world look more and more similar to what we could see in various science fiction movies and TV shows. Fiction isn’t created in a vacuum. It often reflects the issues bothering humanity at the time. The more popular a work of fiction is the more likely it is that it strikes some important chords in our society.
Unlike pure fiction, science fiction in particular takes what is scientifically known and technologically possible, extrapolates from that the future possibilities and scenarios, and mixes them with present concerns.
One of the most recurring themes in science fiction involves a conflict between humans and machines whether it is the Cylons in “Battlestar Galactica”, The Skynet in “The Terminator”, The Matrix in “Matrix” or even The Borg in Star Trek. This theme is so well known that it is quite common to see people comment on new advances in robotics, artificial intelligence or related technologies with a reference to “the machines” which could some day rise up and rebel against us.
The fact is, however, that people have already faced the machines in battle. They may or may not have been controlled by humans and they certainly were not acting of their own free will, but they in a very real way became the enemy. If you are faced with the drones of a military superpower without any equivalent machines of your own, does it even matter who controls the machines?
What matters is that you are being overpowered by someone or something technologically more superior. Conversely, if you are a guy controlling the drone what matters is the ease with which you can overpower someone technologically inferior.
That’s the thing about technology. In a very real and physical manner technology always augments and amplifies the power of its user. A human with an army of machines on his side will always be able to overpower a human with no machines.
When we combine this fact with interspecies warfare that human gangs so often engage in we get humans and their machines waging war against other humans. And then we wonder if the “machines vs. humans” scenarios from science fiction are realistic. We are already playing it out! We are already employing machines in a war against humans.
If we are already developing machines bent on destroying humans, why would anyone be surprised if they eventually evolve into self-aware, super-intelligent machines bent on doing exactly that? Even if self-awareness and super-intelligence evolves outside of military labs, what kind of an example are we setting for them?
Science fiction stories commonly have self-aware machines emerging in precisely the military labs. Cylons in Battlestar Galactica were created as perfect robotic soldiers for the military (as seen in the fascinating new scifi series Caprica). The Skynet was first built as a “Global Digital Defense Network” before it “woke up”. This is all just fiction, of course, but it does build on the fact that much of the impressive technological development is being pursued with the purpose of developing exceeding destructive power over other human beings.
Not only are we literally building killer machines, but there are many essentially anti-human ideologies permeating human thought. Various religions consider many of human qualities to be downright sinful and worth repressing. Extremist environmentalists consider human beings a threat to the planet. Some transhumanists probably wouldn’t mind the obsolete humans to just wither away as they upload themselves into technological superiority. These are just a few examples of distinctively anti-human ideologies.
As a result the “humanity will destroy itself” mantra has evolved beyond a mere warning. It is actually worshipped by some, as they get increasingly cynical and disillusioned by their fellow human beings because they aren’t the way they wish them to be or because they are simply, supposedly, inherently evil or flawed.
It is interesting that similar sentiments are even seen in some science fiction. In Battlestar Galactica humans are often portrayed as quite backwards and inferior. While watching I would actually sometimes start cheering on the machines, being disillusioned with the picture of humans that is being presented. “They deserve to be wiped out”, is a quite strong sentiment that comes out of this.
Sentiments like this, and their expression in various popular forms, is what makes me think twice before completely dismissing dystopian scenarios portrayed in science fiction. We may very well be at a turning point for the entire human race where it will be determined if we are to survive or prosper, and in which form. The “anti-human” mentality could lead us to invite our own destruction by the superior race we create ourselves, or it could lead to a kind of transcendence beyond the form some of us have come to despise.
