Evolution? Really?

All the way back in 1968 it is very apparent that people still had that fear of machines, and I found it interesting that in 2001: A Space Odyssey they could project so many things that were still possible and people are still fearful about to this day. Obviously written during the Space Race, this movie is, to me, hilarious because it points out issues that people had with the quick advancement of technology and possibilities seeming endless, and the endlessness seems to still be something that frightens us to this day. This movie was comical also because thinking about what I was doing in 2001 and that I did not even exist in 1968.

This week, though, I want to discuss the issue of artificial intelligence as "the next step in evolution" because of the way in which this movie starts. In this film, it begins showing early hominids and their first discovery of using tools, which according to my archaeology teacher this semester, used to be what people thought made a human, human. Now, though, we know that many other creatures have tool usage. But this use of tools gain these apes advancement in society. Then fast forward to closer times and they have gone from a bone as a tool to a thing like Hal.

Through the archaeology class I have taken it has helped me develop my own understanding of what evolution is. It is the gradual change overtime of humans and other animals that is natural and not intentional. We have talked a lot about the issue of intention in class, and my teacher has repeated that its not like hominids chose to stand and their morphology to change. Because of this, it is extremely hard for me to see the development of technology and eventually artificial intelligence as a stage in our evolutionary process.

I do not think I would consider our search to expand past physical organic bodies as an evolutionary step but more of a experimental process. It seems as though we just like to see how amazing and far we can take something. It is completely intentionally, but we are not exactly sure if we will complete get there all the way. And going with my first blog where I decided the artificial intelligence would not be human in my eyes, I cannot deem the creation of it as an evolutionary step in mankind as well.