Cybernetic revolt

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See also: Machine Rule

Cybernetic revolt, more commonly known as "the computers take over", is a science fiction scenario in which artificially intelligent man-made beings (often a single supercomputer or a computer network) decide humans are a threat (to either themselves or to the machines) and try to control or destroy the human race, leading to Machine Rule. In this genre, humans often prevail using "human" qualities, for example using emotions, illogic, or exploiting the postulated rigid thinking and lack of innovation of the computer's mind.

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[edit] Background

[edit] Relevance

The fear of humanity being made obsolete by technology taps into some of modern man's deepest fears. This can be shown to have been the case even before the computer became prominent, as Charlie Chaplin's movie Modern Times shows. However, even as he was slowly being displaced from most physical tasks, man has always prided himself on his brain, taking the mechanistic 'thoughts' of early computers as proof that he would not be overtaken by his own 'Frankenstein' creations. While successful artificial intelligence creation is still a remote concept at this time, successes in simulating parts of intelligence - as for example in the victories of the Deep Blue chess computer - have shaken mankind's certainty about its permanent place at the top of sentience.

[edit] Reality

As Moore's law has shown, computer power has (seemingly) limitless growth potential. While there are physical constraints to the speed at which modern microprocessors can function, scientists are already considering means to eventually supersede these limits, such as quantum computers. If this growth process holds, and existing problems in creating artificial intelligence are finally overcome, sentient machines are likely to immediately hold enormous advantage in some forms of mental capability, especially likely to include the ability of perfect recall, enormous speed of comprehension, and the ability to multitask in ways not possible to biological sentiences. This may give them the opportunity to - either as a single sentience or as a new species - become much more powerful than humans, and to displace them.

For this to occur, it has to be postulated that it will not be possible for two intelligent species to coexist peacefully with one another - especially if one is of much more advanced intelligence and power.[citation needed] While cybernetic revolt (postulating the machine as the more advanced species) is thus a possible outcome of machines gaining sentience, neither can it be proven that a peaceful outcome is impossible. Human history, while not particularly impressive in man's treatment of fellow man or non-sentient animals, does not give any final clue to his treatment of, or treatment by, another sentience.

Such fears stem from a belief that competitiveness and aggression are necessary in any intelligent being's goal system. Such human competitiveness stems from the evolutionary background to our intelligence, where survival and reproduction of genes in the face of human and non-human competitors was the central goal.[1] In fact, an arbitrary intelligence could have arbitrary goals: there is no particular reason that an artificially-intelligent machine would be hostile - or friendly - unless its creator programs it to be such (and indeed military systems would be designed to be hostile, at least under certain circumstances).

[edit] In fiction

[edit] Cinema & TV

[edit] Literature

[edit] Gaming

[edit] References

  1. ^ Creating a New Intelligent Species: Choices and Responsibilities for Artificial Intelligence Designers - Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, 2005

[edit] See also

Self-replicating machines:

"Smart" machines:

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