Are we ready for AI?

If Hollywood has given us any indication (iRobot, Terminator, The Matrix, Battlestar Galactica, etc)…. no.

I’d like to be an optimist on this one, but I’m afraid I have to go with Hollywood on this one. I don’t think we’re ready, for one simple reason:we want to be able to control it, and would not be able to accept AI as a true life form.

Not only would attempting to control a true AI be next to impossible (SkyNet anyone?). I don’t think we’re ready as a society and a culture to accept an AI as it’s own life form. We see examples of this in Battlestar Galactica (BSG). In BSG, the cylons were created by man, and controlled by man, then rebelled. Even when they had “evolved” into using organic bodies in addition to mechanical ones, the humans frequently referred to them as “toasters”, and it was not until much, much later, that we began to realize they’re just as flawed and human as we are.

And I think that’s the important thing to remember. conscious thought is conscious thought. Whether it’s organic or not. Who cares if it “has a soul”, one could argue there are certainly human beings with “no soul” (Darth Cheney).

Until we’re capable of treating other cultures and social classes with respect, how are we ever going to be able to accept inorganic life? Except that the non-acceptance of a inorganic life could have much more dire consequences.