Friday, September 5, 2008

Quid pro quo

Social rules are amazing, aren't they? Over the years, man created these rules to structure society and to establish a sense of confidence in one another through communication, which he believed would lead to greater understanding among individuals resulting in development of isolated social groups. This has held true and has stood the test of time. For over centuries, man has developed complex, yet inherent, austere, yet implicit rules and norms for behavior.
Yet, today as we stand on the brink of the great Intelligence shift which basically heralds the arrival of A.I on a truly large scale, man has started to breach those very rules and norms which have resulted in his rise through nature's vast ranks to reach the apex of the pyramid.
Through so called social networking capacities, people can spew stuff with absolute dour insolence and wipe their conscience clean. Humans are slowly relinquishing moral responsibilities towards society and revelling in the rule of the wild that exists within the immense void that is the Internet. When CERN gave us the net, it was for betterment of communication within geographically isolated humans amongst various other purposes.
But as we have started hiding behind our virtual selves, behind the paradoxically vulnerable image of invulnerability, we have also started the count towards the day when humans will cease to reside at the very top of the pyramid. Having ruthlessly worked our way to the top, disturbing nature and her very bosom, we have dug our own grave. As we now undo the strings that bind us we shall no longer remain "us". The virtual world at some point spills over into the real one, and before long, it engulfs the real one and the difference is lost in transit.
Over the years as we strive harder to improve the effectivity of A.I,as we toil to make a machine as seamlessly human as possible, we do not realise that we ourselves are becoming as machine-like as possible. Every step that machines take towards humans, we humans take two steps towards being like them.
People always try to hide behind the blind that humans have distinctive characteristics of emotions and spontaneity which A.I can never have. At the rate we're going, those distinctive characteristics will be mere victims of evolution and mother nature will have the last laugh as we fall prey to our own brainchild.
I guess that is why they say, "Everything comes at a price". And the price has to be paid one day or the other.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well written article.