Does AI mean the end of the human race?

Technology is getting more advanced every day. Engineers are changing our future to the point where soon artificial intelligence will be running on their own. In reality, AI is already living among us; just not as high tech as it will soon get. As of right now, AI lives among us through Social Medias such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, relieved to us that AI lives among us in two different ways by using their social media. AI is said to be able to use basic pattern recognition or “supervised learning”. That means when you use Facebook, the application will be able to recognize what you “like” in order to suggest things that you might like. It was also get used to how you use the app in your own personal way. Unfortunately, AI is not capable of learning new things but it is pretty high tech. We are already becoming Post-humans because machines are now the ones interacting with people using Facebook and suggesting what they should view. Humans are no longer interacting with humans; instead, they use social media to talk to a machine. In my opinion, Facebook is still a Social media device where humans converse with other humans--not machine to human. Although machines are not able to talk to us right now, there will be robots with consciousness and feeling just like humans soon, if AI keeps advancing. Robots are probably going to be the next big thing in the near future. I believe robots can be a great benefit to society because it can help ease our lives. They can be able to help find cures for diseases, perform perfect surgeries, and even make occupations much easier. People like Stephen Hawking believe that if AI ever gets to the point where they can think for themselves then it will be end of existence for the human race. Robots will soon start of by taking the hard working persons job; leaving a lot of people jobless and without enough money to be supported. Our economy will become corrupt. In addition, as soon as robots realized that we are their competition, our human race will be extinct. I do not believe such thing will happen, AI can be used for good; there are other times where technology has actually been used to assist humans. The amount of people that worked on farms in the 1800s was 80 percent of the U.S. labor force and luckily, it is now 2 percent. Technology actually helped our economy by making food cheaper and giving citizens a chance to find a better occupation. If this happened, why couldn’t it happen with AI technology? Vernor Vinge, a mathematician and fiction writer, is trying to calculate the time that robots will be smarter than humans. He believes the time will be soon and there way it can be avoided. Even if our country tries to ban the advancement of AI in our country, the probability that another country creates such an AI is inevitable. AI will give whomever the competitive advantage over the economy, military usage, and even artistic. This can give people an incentive to create such an AI. The day humans interact with robots is considered “the Singularity” by Vinge. When that time comes, who knows what will be happen? Unfortunately, the physical extinction of the human race is a possibility.

Apple is Our Savior

I believe Apple is doing justice by standing up against the FBI. If I was Cook I would hold my ground and not let the government run their company. Apple shouldn't create a backdoor in order to let the FBI access into a criminal's phone. Although it would help the case, there is no guarantee that the FBI will even find anything on his phone. If the FBI wins the case people's privacy will be not guaranteed with Apple anymore. Apple shouldn't give up protecting peoples privacy because not only would its consumers acknowledge Apple as a betrayer, but they wouldn't buy as much of their product. Apple will lose their spot as number 1 against Google or Facebook because it will soon be seen as equal to them. Many people, like myself, trust apple because it has one of the best security systems. In addition, lowering the security Apple has on the Iphone will cause hackers to try to hack into other peoples phones. That will just cause chaos. There would be no more rights to privacy. On the other hand if Apple wins the case then there will be thousands of people supporting Apple. They will view Apple as company for the people. Apple's products will continue to sell; they'll probably be selling even more of their product. According to Professor Edward Younkins, business need to be left because " a free market unhampered by government intervention is the most fertile environment for technological and economic progress." Therefore, if Apple is left alone or not have any effect because of the government then their business will progress.  This can be beneficial to Apple because it can make sure they continue being #1. According to the postmodern literary critic, Katherine Hayles, "the human essence is freedom from the wills of others" and until then will someone be able to be free. Not many people know this but people are not free until they owe nothing to society. If the government controls humans and regulates them, even from their own privacy, then it will be as if they had no freedom. This America, where all we talk about is how free this country is. If it really is free then the government shouldn't interfere and tell someone how to run their business.

I'll pray for you Apple and I hope you win the case.

Artificial Intelligence

Robots are cool. I would actually love to be around robots during my life. I actually wouldn't mind owning a robot and using it to make my life easier. But nowadays robots are seen as a bad thing because they are not properly being introduced to the public. The military for example is using AI robots to eliminate enemies when fighting in a war. Not only do I believe this goes against Martens Clause from 1977, but robots shouldn't be made to kill. If AI robots are used to kill then it would just "violate fundamental principals of human dignity by allowing machines to choose whom to kill" (Russel 2).  It will be unjust for a human to die because of a robot whom they cannot even defend themselves from. If humans are to go to war, the only way a humans life should be taken away from is by another human. Robots such as AI should be able to be controlled by humans. Humans should put restrictions on technology in order to not harm innocent people. Meaningful human control is when nothing is able to go against the orders of humans. AI robots should be in the control of humans at all time and should have no self conscious. In the article Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, many things are argued on whether robots should be accepted into our society or be blocked out. In the first section of the article Take a Stand on AI Weapons, it claims AI robots are bad because of military usage. The second section Shape the Debate, Don't Shy From It, is about how robots are not bad they are just not properly introduced to society. The third section Distribute AI benefits fairly, talks about society will not be able to benefit from them because they wouldn't be able to afford them and how robots can actually benefit us medically but doctors wont accept them. The final section Embrace a Robot-Human World, is about how society should learn to accept technology advancement because it can actually benefit us. The medical field are one of the people who will can be impacted to the usage of robots in our community. Doctors believe that robots will not be able to accomplish any tasks a human can do. Doctors need trust and they wont be able to trust a machine that has no proof when advising what procedure to do on a patient. Although doctors care about human lives, I believe they wont accept robots because they don't wanna lose their job. Everyone who isn't rich fears that as well and that is why I say robots aren't properly introduced to the public. Before I finish my long blog post, I want to leave you off with something that came to mind when reading this article. WALL-E is an example of how robots can benefit humans. Throughout the movie you can see robots (who are controlled) make humans live their life easier.

2001: A Space Odyssey 

First off I want to start off by saying that the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey is a pretty interesting movie. What I like about the movie is how it shows us how human technology is advancing through time. At the beginning of the movie it starts off with Apes, which were considered humans, and how they soon become a thing off the past due to another human specie advancement. As the movie progresses technology advances as well. Like in the movie, we have also been able to advance in technology and travel to outer space. In the movie there is technology assistant called H.A.L. 9000 computer and it aids Dr.Hayward Floyd in finding the discover on how to live forever. Although this movie may seem unrealistic, I believe that someday this will come true. We might already be at that type of level of technology. Resources such like Siri resemble Hal. It would be no surprised to know that there is something smarter than Siri, because Siri isn't as responsive as Hal. In addition to there being a technology device that would be like there could also be a possibility of it taking over humans life. We humans need to prepared because anything can happen and I wouldn't want to be thing of the past.

Technology is increasing by the day. In Hayles reading, she shows us how humans have now became post-humans. Technology is advancing so fast that soon there will be robots that look exactly like humans. Soon humans will be the thing of the past. In the Macy Conference on Cybertonics, they assumed that humans will become a "information-processing entities who are essentially similar to intelligent machines." Humans will no longer have a purpose because machines will be doing all the work in the world. Hayles defines humanism as post-humanism because of the increasing of technology. I would define humanism as the act of living freely in a world where you can do anything you'd like. Hayle's defines post-humanism as the union between humans and machines. I would define post-humanism as the world moving on from humans into a new specie. These two definitions differ from each other because Hayles definition is based on a scientifically idea. While my definition is based on my own feelings and thoughts towards humans becoming a thing of the past. I am post-human to the extent that humans today have far more advanced technology than humans 200 years ago. My intelligence has all grown from humans who were born before me. Although I am afraid of becoming a thing of the past I would still love to see human intelligence inside a machine. I believe our world would actually benefit from our technology advancement.