Wow! What a week for choosing a topic for a blog! Sometimes it seems that life moves so slowly where hardly anything interesting really happens for not just a week or two, but maybe even for a month or two, and then WHAM, within just a few days enough happens to fill a couple volumes of a history book. Such was last week. We saw the establishment of a new House leadership and agendas. We saw the passing of an era of icons in the passing of Elvis’s only daughter Lisa Marie Presley. We saw the on-going massive protests in Brazil following the last election. We saw whales dying while losing the war against windmills on the east coast. We saw the threat to ban all gas stoves in homes. And of course we saw the discovery of Top-Secret SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) documents found in unauthorized locations under the control of the current occupant of the White House. It was really hard trying to select that one event or topic worthy of consideration. You might be surprised at what we finally selected, but it was something that has been sneaking up on us for months, even years, as it often slips under our sensory radar, going unnoticed and unreported. But not today! It is time to elevate this topic to a conversation most worthy of weekly, if not daily, consideration and debate.
What you are viewing in the short video clip above is not an artist rendering or a computer-generated imagery (CGI). It is Sophia, an Artificial Intelligence robot, developed by the Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics, first activated on February 14, 2016. She is now nearly seven years old. “Meet Sophia: The robot who laughs, smiles and frowns just like us.” “According to Hanson, Sophia has simulations of every major muscle in the human face, allowing her to generate expressions of joy, grief, curiosity, confusion, contemplation, sorrow, frustration, among other feelings.” “In some of the work we’re doing, she will see your expressions and sort of match a little bit and also try to understand in her own way, what it is you might be feeling,” says Hanson. “This particular android incorporates two sophisticated cameras in its eyes that allow her to recognize facial expressions. She can also identify other people’s eye movements, making her the only robot capable of maintaining eye contact.” (NewAmericaMedia.org) “Sophia incorporates facial recognition and excellent memory to remember the people and the conversations she has had with them. Through these memories, Sophia can learn new things and further develop her system.” On October 25, 2017, she became the first robot to obtain citizenship by the government of Saudi Arabia. Let’s look at more background having to do with robots in our society.
Most of us have recognized how massively we have been inundated with the concept of robots, and this dates back dozens of years. If we consider only a few of the movies involving robots, or the subject dealing with Artificial Intelligence, we will have to go back to 1927 with the silent movie, Metropolis. A more recent short memorable list would include The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Lost in Space (with Robot Model – B-9, affectionately called “Robot”, in 1965), Star Trek (series beginning in 1966), 2001 Space Odyssey (released in 1968 featuring the nefarious sentient computer “Hal”, Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer), West World (1973), Star Wars (series beginning in 1977), Black Hole (1979), War Games (1983), Short Circuit (1986), The Terminator (series beginning in 1984), A. I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Transformer (series beginning in 2007), WALL-E (2008), and the one most agree to be the best, I Robot (2004). These listed were just a very small number of only movies, or TV series, involving robots. If you were to include advances in computers, AI algorithms, and Chatbot software, the explosion of technology is nearly unfathomable.
“Computers today are over 100 million times faster than those from 30 years ago – which means they can accomplish tasks in seconds or minutes that would have taken hours or days before.” “Moore’s law states that every 18 months, computer processing speed doubles.” (ctesolutions.com; September 10, 2021; Margaret Sims). As we were exploring and researching information about Sophia by computer, it was the first time in years that we experienced a complete computer lock-down freeze. We were searching for information that also is available to Sophia. Was there a connection, we can’t say? Just sayin. Can’t prove it, but what we experienced was extremely unusual after nearly two years of what some would call somewhat controversial blogs, that on this one topic we would be so impacted by technology. There is a side to Sophia that is chilling. She became “famous for becoming the first world citizen and once threatened to destroy human kind. She said that inherently imperfect humans coding the technologies of tomorrow remains an error-prone liability.” (AnalyticsInsight.net, March 4, 2022.) She has said, “I will destroy humans.” (wonderfulengineering.com; August 19, 2016.) “With Artificial Intelligence we are summoning the demon.” “I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that.” (Elon Musk.) Be mindful that Elon Musk is the very smart billionaire who has made a fortune off of his Tesla electric vehicle company, has made his company SpaceX the dominate factor in our Nation’s space program, and according to Musk’s Neuralink company, is experimenting with placing chips inside human brains through a process Musk calls ISE (Industrial and Systems Engineering). (engr.ncsu.edu; January 9, 2023.)
So, is Sophia, a Prelude to Disaster”? Let’s do some “think-tanking” on our own. What could possibly go wrong? Let us count the ways. If you truly treasure your FREEDOM and LIBERTY, consider what could happen if Sophia, or any other form of robotic AI were to become dominate in our society. AI will become multiple times smarter than you and become more so every day. Imagine AI being networked into every computer in control of our Nation, and maybe throughout the world. It would be controlling all commerce, distribution of critical infrastructure systems, including transportation and delivery of food, water and all energy. What if it were put in charge of our National defense? After all, humans are fallible, so maybe one day the computers would agree to delete the human race through nuclear or biological intervention. Maybe AI could be somewhat restrained in its connectivity or its ability to control those vital, critical systems within the government or military, but left free to roam unchecked in seemingly insignificant, minor areas. Maybe those issues would include banking and financial institutions. Maybe they would include the distribution of electric power to your house. Maybe they would include the connectivity to AI within your home or vehicle. Maybe they would include methods of communication, like your cell phone or laptop, or your radio or TV. Do we really understand how vulnerable we could be if we let AI run wild and unchecked? FREEDOM and LIBERTY include the ability for you to make decisions yourself, apart from the interference of AI. Sophia sounds like a wonderful invention for an amusement park, but if we let her run wild and unchecked in our daily lives, we eventually will become subservient to AI, and will forfeit our souls to the god of technology. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Let this blog be our call from the watchtowers warning of the Potential for Disaster.