I thought this comparison was humorous because these last few weeks that we have been discussing AI and technology advancements I keep noticing the biblical and spiritual allusions. When thinking about the creation of AI, many see it as "playing God" which creates moral issues for some. When I first read this question a few days ago, and I thought to myself definitely a hell to me. But when I returned to Christian's argument, he has me convinced it would be a purgatory as well with the potential of going either to heaven or hell. When looking up the dictionary definition of purgatory it states that it is for "sinners who are expiating their sins." Christian, though, defines it as a place where good people get to go to get "purified" and then adds "tested" and to come out better on the other side. I'm not catholic, but in my understanding, purgatory is a place of hopefulness; not exactly a better than Earth place but past what we have now, and trying our best to make sure we are correcting our mistakes. Christian added being tested, and I think I agree that is what extreme advancement in technology will do. We will be tested on how we use it–for good or bad. The way in which they act is going to be what will make the future past that either a heaven or a hell.
Maybe it is my pessimism talking, but I definitely do not think the immediate future is going to be "heaven" even if it would be in time. Like Christian example of why it could be a heaven, Ray Kurzweil made an argument thinking about making things that end up more intelligent than humans (since AI's intelligence would grow exponentially) and being eventually be able to upload your consciousness and in a way "live forever." I really think we are not meant to live forever. I think this is too optimistic we can not move form our current state straight to heaven on Earth. Heaven is supposed to be free of flaws, and I do not believe that can be here before tests. Overall, whether or not humans (and technology alike) pass the test in which purgatory will give them to make amends with their sins or potential sins of humans will be the deciding factor on whether or not our technology will be our success or demise.
Throughout The Most Human Human, Christian reminds us that we should be just as worried about humans becoming more machine-like as we are about machines becoming more human-like. Which do you think is the greater threat? Why?
“To be human is to be 'a' human, a specific person with a life history and idiosyncrasy and point of view; artificial intelligence suggest that the line between intelligent machines and people blurs most when a puree is made of that identity.”
My first blog after watching Ex Machina I aimed to come up with a definition of what human was, but unlike Christian here in this quote, I focused on the physical and the coming to being aspect; while, Christian focuses on the ways in which we are made unique and our actual identity. I defined human as an organic, God-made homo sapien sapien, but even though I referred to Christian's above definition regarding our threat to become more machine-like, I became more open-minded about defining a human as the semester closed. In this fashion, he is explaining the qualities of a human rather than the physical make-up. When thinking about the qualities, I do have to agree with Christian's warning of having to be more worried about humans becoming more machine-like instead of the other way around.
I want to disregard the way in which, yes, humans are also becoming more-machine like in the physical aspect because, they are. With advances in medical treatments and prosthetics, humans actually are more physical machine. But by focusing on the qualities as well, I have had this fear for quite sometime. I remember when watching Her, I had such a sad feeling come over me when he walked through the city and everyone he passed was completely engrossed by their phone in hand instead of spending time in the present. I also remember when I was in high school I would get angered by friend's addiction to their cell phones when we would be at events like dances and games. I think by over connecting to these machines, we are under-experiencing parts of our "life history."
I recently read an article from the Atlantic by Nicholas Carr titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" In this article he examines how technology is affecting the way we think and communicate. He states that he has felt a shift in the way he used to think, that it is "changing." Instead of being able to get lost in moments or prose, he gets "fidgety" and wants to move on. We mentioned in class many times that our iPhones are in a way are just another part of our body. Machines have access to so much information that we could not possibly be able to store it in the way that it does, thus our machines act as another brain for storage of snapshots of our lives, conversation, Google, and so much more. In this way, our ability to now have more and more access to data storage that is another way in which humans are becoming more machine-like. Idiosyncrasy and a specific point of view were other characteristics Christian gave "human." These aspects are lost when we can dial in and gain understanding of so many points of views and take from our idiosyncrasy when being at constant contact and shaping of so many people.
Though, I do join the fear of us becoming more machine-like, I do not necessarily fear that it will do only bad. My fear lies more in not being able to set it aside and experience the way in which I think we should all experience–organically. Furthermore, there is one thing that I truly believe will always be a hopeful thing to set our species from the machines we build, and that is the idea of a soul. We have spirituality; whether or not one believes in a creator, we still have "essence" and something that is intangible. Christian states "existence without essence is very stressful," and I hope that as we develop we never lose this essence of being really truly human.
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