It Is Time To Talk

Isn't war part of being human? War has lingered around since the beginning of mankind. Whether one thinks about it from a religious point of view or a historical point of view, war is embedded into the human nature. Now whether it has to be like this, is another question for another post but for now let us at least proceed with the idea that war is something else humans do. Also, if Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes real, should we as a human race fear war with our creation? The movie I, Robot (2004) addresses this concern by showing human perception of robots. We assume robots might attempt to hurt us. We are genuinely afraid and this fear holds us back from believing in their humanity. After all they were created by humans.

Brian Christian, author of The Most Human Human, points out that conversation should be between two people helping each other construct dialogue (177-178). This is significant to address because humans and robots should have a conversation not a battle. Christian believes there is a difference between chess and conversation because in a chess game people attempt to undermine their opponent by attacking their opponent to minimize their moves in hopes to beat them. There are also those that play a strong defense that tries to create an impenetrable defense in hopes to beat their opponent. However, conversation is not chess, where one tries to beat the other person or at least it should not be like that.

If one applies this zero-sumness idea to the relationship between robots and humans, then we should not fear war with robots because we would be having a conversation instead of an extremely stressful chess game. Going to war with an AI is not as easy as I, Robot depicts it and I am not sure if this is even possible. When I think about robot armies, I think about ancient Rome and how whole legions were loyal to the highest bidder. I do not want to say that there might be legions of robots for higher in the future but what I am saying is that we know what history has to offer us and we can learn from it. Before we even create AIs we need to address and solve these issues. Frankly, I do believe this is the next big step in human creation and this is why I believe we as a human race needs

to be okay with it. I do not think a small group of people should have the right to unleash a possible human threat on the world. Why can't we vote on whether we want scientists to continue with artificial intelligence technology? Just saying...