Perhaps because I began reading science fiction in grade school, I grew up suspicious of advanced technology, visitors from space and robots of every kind.
I joined a science-fiction book-of-the-month club when I was in sixth grade in the middle 1950s. That’s how I stumbled across a short story called “To Serve Man.’’ Later, around the time I was a senior, the Rod Serling-hosted television series, “The Twilight Zone,’’ did an episode based on the serve-man story. “Twilight Zone’’ had some scary stuff.
If you haven’t read the story or seen the TV episode by now, you probably never will. I can give you the basic plot. A bunch of nine-foot-tall aliens show up. They say they come in peace to help humans. They do good things, too, giving earthlings many reasons to trust them. Somehow, earthlings find a book on the ship. A code breaker named Michael Chambers deciphers the title, which is “To Serve Man.’’ Oh, how nice.
Everything is going swimmingly until late in the story when Chambers cracks more code and basically tells other humans, “Uh, gang, bad news. This is a cookbook.’’
That may not sound like a big deal to you. The fact that I still remember it six decades later tells you it had an impact on me. I know I can never become very trusting of folks from outer space, not even E.T.
I can’t tell you how many stories I read over my years as a sci-fi addict that had that sort of diabolical scheme. Many involved robots. Sometimes the inventor was an evil scientist scheming in a high-tech laboratory in a rock-walled cave. More often, the inventors were well-meaning folks creating robots to improve life for humans. Almost always, the inventor took things too far. The robots developed minds of their own, took over the world and enslaved or destroyed the human population.
Yul Brynner starred in a movie that involved robots in a western themed amusement park. They went rogue and created chaos. I get so nervous I can barely watch those films or TV shows.
Same thing with those “Jurassic Park’’ themed movies. Some scientists think it will be cool to bring dinosaurs back to life. Why? Because they can. That’s their only answer. And “because they can’’ never answers the next, seemingly obvious, question: “But just because they can, should they?’’ A world of values clarification goes into that second question.
Some people today are asking that sort of values question regarding developments in artificial intelligence. No matter how you slice it, artificial intelligence means robots, one way or another. I have worried over that my whole life. I’m pleased someone else is joining the conversation.
Maybe you heard about how artificial intelligence is moving into areas in which certain apps can answer questions for and carry on basic conversations with humans. They write essays, take the bar exam, do all sorts of human things. And they are just warming up.
A CBS news program recently featured Geoffrey Hinton, known as the godfather of artificial intelligence. He says AI’s advances could be compared to the Industrial Revolution or electricity, maybe even the wheel.
Recently about 1,000 tech leaders and researchers signed a letter requesting a temporary halt to further development of artificial intelligence systems. They worry that technology could push beyond human abilities and begin to act on its own.
Some developers say that isn’t going to happen. One leading tech person said the science is nowhere close to that.
Okay, but that godfather of artificial intelligence? He said on CBS that we might be approaching the time when computers come up with their own ideas to improve themselves. “That’s an issue, right?’’ Geoffrey Hinton said.
Asked about the odds of artificial intelligence trying to wipe out humanity, Hinton replied, “It’s not inconceivable, that’s all I’ll say.’’
I don’t know about you. If the godfather of the science says it isn’t out of the question that technology could someday try to wipe out humanity, that’s a topic worth a little more conversation. Seriously.
I mean, folks thought those nine-foot aliens were here to help until Michael Chambers decoded the cook book.
