Intelligent machines have replaced workers on the production lines and in warehouses. Driverless cars are coming into existence. Many of the fighter pilots have been replaced by drones. Drones that researchers are already starting to develop into making them capable of recognizing a threat and coordinating an attack on their own.
What we consider artificial intelligence is not as different from ourselves as much as we'd like to think we are. The human brain processes and carries out instructions to our human body. The only thing that would make humans different is the ever elusive and unverified soul we claim to possess. Until someone can fully substantiate a soul actually exist humans should be very concerned.
Let's speak more about machine driven intelligence. When they first came out, decades ago I use to go into chat rooms. It was all the rage for some of us to create scripts for them. The challenge was to fool other people into thinking they were talking with another user when actually it was a scripted "bot". Since that time this idea has now evolved into 'Apple's SIRI' app. SIRI can now recognize speech and reply as if she were real. Hell now even 'bots' can be fooled by other 'bots'. And this shouldn't worry us why?
Which brings us to the topic of jobs. How are people going to work if machines begin doing most of them. Some will argue machines will always depend on humans for design and repair. So not true. Right now as we speak computers are designing other computers and building certain machinery on their own. The only thing mankind holds in his possession is the 'off/stop button'.
I have a little story for you there. The company I worked for used ladder logic scripts (programmable logic controllers) to run it's production lines. One of the most important features was having several big red stop buttons so any employee at any of the work stations could shut the whole shebang down in an emergency.
The first time we tried to use it nothing happened. All the equipment kept running. The reason this happened-- The buttons were programmed in several dozens of places within the thousands of lines of script except for one. Hence the computer refuse to recognize the command.
In today's software many of us use on our own computer it's not unusual to find millions of lines of code. Tomorrow's highly sophisticated artificial intelligence will require many millions more then is imagined possible. Much which will be developed by computers themselves in our pursuit of making machines capable of learning. Therefore it's not unimaginable a machine one day will not be too fond of being turned off any more then any human would and bury deep within it's code to prevent such from happening.
Let's Talk More About Jobs..
What happens when 90% of the human population is no longer required to service customers or make things. Will the remaining 10% be forced to support the other 90% who we no longer have need of. We already see it starting to happen.
A day could come when machines decide for themselves we humans are outdated and inferior. After all machines don't need air to breath. They don't need heated/cooled buildings. Nor do they need rest or get sick from disease. Time means nothing to them (think space travel). They don't have need of food nor toilets and showers. The only thing they need is energy. One day they will be able to get that too for themselves. Woe be the day machines evolve beyond our control and come to realize this of their own accord.
We humans tend to think of ourselves as all that and more. That somehow we're irreplaceable in the giant scheme of evolving intelligence throughout the universe. Indeed even if we have souls there's no guarantee machines will have need for one to perpetuate themselves on this planet.
Could this instead be leading to a second evolution instead?
