So I’ve always had the Elon Musk view and precaution of a future AI. It is quite frightening to think about robots discovering our human flaws and wanting to serve our world by inevitably course correcting us into obliteration.
I mean it makes sense right? All the science fiction novels and films have warned us about an artificial being that can only see the world in black and white, right and wrong; of course it is going to recognise that we are self and world destructing and the only way for us to get what we want is to get rid of us.
If you haven’t watched the film ‘Ex Machina’, I’d like to recommend it to you. SPOILER ALLERT – its about a man and robot. There is a scene where the robot asks the human something along the lines of “are you a good person” and he answers “yeah, I think so”. I always think about this answer and the ending the robot created from this conversation [I won’t spoil too much]. Are we not all human and flawed? Are we not all doubting [unless we’re psychopaths] that we are in fact terrible people? Every good deed is met with another bad decision. I am constantly battling with myself with how terrible of a person I can be – and good sometimes. Its the balance of nature, of life and our minds. We can’t be too much one way but always strive to stay somewhere medial. I always took from his answer that the robot who sees a world as black and white, could only possibly think of this man as now not only not a good person but someone who is lying which therefore, is a bad flaw.
Anyway, enough scaring of the future and i’ll get to my initial point of writing this…
As much as I am an advocate of a majority natural world, I was speaking to a friend who is married to a Doctor. Her Doctor husband works night shifts, sleeps during the day, wakes up past dinner time and works while the rest of thr world is sleeping or in critical care. I was discussing how ironic it is that the ones who are saving lives and are advocating health and vitality, are the ones in fact most unhealthy and are crutially under taken care of. And that got me thinking.
Sure a world with robots taking over is a sad endevour for our local check out girl, coffe barista or movie attendant. But think about all the jobs that people don’t want to do that could be overtaken over by robots. All the crappy jobs labelled “well someones gotta do it”, like taking the rubbish to the tip, like cleaning the toilets and yes maybe even then surgeons. It sounds terrible because right, thats someone job and money and how they take care of their family, but over a period of adjustment, it will just be the jobs that the robots do and maybe we will be living a world where humans are doing more things that fulfil their passions and make their lives more meaningful. Not so much slaving away and regretting the way they spent most of their hours in the future, looking back.
I know I must sound super insensitive or ignorant but again, hear me out. If there were no options like these, if there was only a handful of jobs that humans could do, we would be forced to source out OR we’d be forced to look in. Find the thing that actually makes us want to go to work and make the world keep spinning. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in a world where people did what they loved every day? And the robots did all the crap we didn’t want to do.
As for the surgeons, we all know that these people are some of the top tier minds and you have to be to have a job like that. You can’t be just some schmuck with stable hands. That requires years of education and practice and a solid memory. But we all know, humans are flawed. Humans are inconsistently made up of cells that react and change based on sleep, diet, hormones, personal life, etc. And yet someone like a surgeon is probably sleep deprived, not getting enough sunlight, nutrient deficient; all the things that keep us at our optimal capacity. Wouldn’t it be nice to let AI jump in? Perform correctly every time and hey, if something does muck up and they get it wrong, the AI doesn’t have to live with the devastating consequences of a bad decision that could impact its future decision making. And we could at least blame the technology which is created to be perfect.
Oh and a future with AI, there’s got to be some sort of law for our communal living. Like the AI should be restricted to jobs that are labour intensive or dangerous to humans. Nothing creative or fun that could take away from us!
Something to think about right…
But what do I know, I’m just human and an average one at that.