Editor's Note: Some people will just say, “Murph is pulling our leg or is having some summer fun with us," while others will say, “Murph has flipped; he has totally gone bonkers." But I assure you, the content we will cover in this article and that which will follow over the next several months is intended to give you real “food for thought” and, perhaps, some nightmares.
I bet more than a few of my readers are fans of science fiction. And, as sci-fi fans, at least some of you may have enjoyed the various “Terminator” 1 movies. If you did, and you're reading this article, you may well understand the link I'm making between the growing publicity over Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Terminator Timeline.
In the first "Terminator" movie, James Cameron set a fundamental timeline that was carried through – albeit with a few minor adjustments, and sometimes a few conflicts – in all five of the "Terminator" movies.
The future war between humans and the machines led by an ‘Artificial Intelligence’ that had taken over the entire computer systems of the world, supposedly takes place in 2029. It seems that time travel is also possible by the time 2029 comes around. So many of the movies in the series make use of the ability to "go back in time" in an attempt to prevent, or insure, that the future war begins exactly as Cameron set it out in the first "Terminator" movie.
In Cameron’s second installment, "Judgement Day2" we are provided with more information about the all-powerful AI that is termed "Skynet," which was initially designed to be a defense system for the U.S. Military.
The date upon which this AI system goes live is set into Cameron’s timeline as Aug. 29, 1997, a date that is coined as "Judgement Day."
On this date, when the system is activated, it has already expanded itself beyond the simplistic role of defense. It now wants to ascend to the role of leader and take control of essentially everything in the world via the network itself.
By the way, did you realize that what we know as the internet today (actually Web 2) went live in 1999?
We had internet and the World Wide Web even in the late 1980s. It expanded significantly in the mid-1990s. But what most of us think of today as to all this internet-connectivity, including WiFi, started in 1999.
Today, we don't just have the internet, but the Internet-of-Things (IoT), in which all kinds of devices (with computer chips) are connected, as well as computers, servers and mobile devices.
Certainly, we have not reached "Skynet" potential with IoT yet, nor has AI grown to the point that it's ready to dominate the planet. But are we on course for such a juncture?
Eminent scientist and professor Stephen Hawking3 has said, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”
The primary reason is that humans are slow to develop and respond, while AI is evolving at a stellar and alarming pace, Hawking believes. How long before AI computers are put in charge of so much that we as humans have very little ability to control them or alter the course of the history they impose upon us?
Do you remember the computer in Stanley Kubrick’s "2001 – A Space Odyssey4?" It was called the HAL-9000. Of course, we all know that if you add one letter to the word HAL you come up with "IBM."
At the time of Kubrick’s Odyssey, IBM was the only company building super-computing machines, and today, they're leading the way with AI in the form of a system they refer to as "Watson5."
A variety of scientific leaders have commented on the ability of Watson in the near future to solve many of our world problems. On the other hand, is Watson simply that Skynet AI in the early stages of its preparation for taking over and producing the rise of the robots?
Hal-9000, while in charge of a space craft headed to Jupiter, goes nuts and, essentially, begins eliminating the humans on-board because they pose a threat to Hal’s existence and mission.
In a sequel to the original movie, we find that Hal only went crazy as a result of conflicted programming, something called a “Hofstadter-Mobius loop,” because Hal was instructed to lie to the humans on-board, even though his fundamental programming prohibited lying to humans.
Hal was the most "artificially intelligent" computer known at the time, yet it had a nervous breakdown. And, in doing so, posed a greater risk than being without a computer at all.
In the third movie, "Terminator 3 – Rise of the Machines6" – there is a slight adjustment in the timeline. Judgement Day, originating out of the takeover of the Skynet Artificial Intelligence system, didn’t occur in 1997after all. It was delayed until 2004.
All kinds of machines are running the world at the behest of Skynet, and among the machines are the Terminators that have been given the responsibility of terminating humanity. After all, the machines have each other and Skynet, they don't need anything from us lowly humans.
While countless numbers of persons today are asking if AI may displace them in terms of their employment and careers, I'm wondering if humans will still be needed at all once AI takes over?
So, the question is, "Have we set Judgement Day in motion in our lifetimes via the Artificial Intelligence devices currently in development?
Will we wake up at some time in the future to find that some Artificially Intelligent Megabot or network has added humanity to the hit list for extinction?
Over the next few months, in my series that I'm calling, "The Future of Humanity in an AI World," we'll examine more of these concepts and glimpses into a "not so sci-fi future as it may seem
In the meantime, keep a good eye out for all those things you have got hooked up to the Internet of Things.
Footnotes & Credits:
1 - The Terminator (Terminator 1) - 1984 Sci-Fi film directed by James Cameron, distributed by Orion Pictures.
2 - Terminator 2 - Judgement Day - 1991 Sci-Fi film directed by James Cameron, distributed by TriStar Pictures.
3 - Stephen Hawking - English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at University of Cambridge. Quote cited herein taken from an interview conducted by the BBC with Professor Hawking.
4 - 2001 – A Space Odyssey - 1968 Sci-Fi film directed by Stanley Kubrick, adapted from a screenplay and novel by Arthur C. Clarke, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
5- IBM Watson - an artificially intelligent question answering computer named after IBM's first CEO, Thomas J. Watson.
6 - Terminator 3 - The Rise of the Machines - 2003 Sci-Fi film directed by Jonathan Mostow, distributed by Warner Brothers and Columbia Pictures.