COLUMN: Finding the Humor in Tech’s Foibles

Spot, the four-legged robot dog made by Boston Dynamics, runs with a human companion. Photo: Boston Dynamics

From Skynet to Alexa, Technology’s Ascension Changes Lives

An online video recently showed a Boston Robotics dogbot slip and fall on a banana peel. Much like an old movie slapstick scene, it’s undeniably funny. You can watch the link below.

The number of AI and computer-driven items enveloping our daily lives raises worrisome possibilities. The rate at which electronics are hacked and info is stolen is frightening enough. Throw in autonomous drones, electromagnetic powered bots smaller that a pinhead that can move over wet or dry surfaces without motorsand various other marvels of invention, and you have an automated world that can run amuck if it chooses.

Usually in the sci-fi movies, it’s a human virus that defeats the advanced civilization attacking from Remulas 5 or some other invented planet. The alien weapons and spaceships are far more advanced than ours. They have force fields that deflect our missiles. Usually it’s something simple, like the common cold that wins the day. We should be so lucky.

Our lives have been shaped in turn by the Industrial Revolution, the Internet Revolution and now the AI Revolution.

By having machines take over our own manual labors, we have given ourselves immense amounts of leisure time and activities. but has that been good for the human race overall? Have we not been driven to the couch for the evening’s television? Have we stopped writing letters for snail mail, and instead click on send for the email we typed? Have we even turned over the act of driving to autonomous vehicles? Flying super-sized jets has become a part-time job for pilots who flip the switch to autopilot after take-off and then take over to land. The more we introduce AI into our lives, the less actual physical movement we will be required to do. And that, friends, is not healthy.

We must remember to walk or run more. To mow lawns or garden on our properties. To exercise our brains and spirits. To be human, instead of machine-assisted zombies who don’t have to recall phone numbers or even do crossword puzzles⎯asking Google for the answers.

The advancements in our world are nothing short of miracles, especially in the realm of medicine. But the notion that there won’t be problems with these mechanical miracles is foolhardy. I can’t think of anyone involved with AI who isn’t at least a little frightened at the power they have and the amount of power we continue to give the AI universe on an hourly basis.

Should we slow down?  Too late. The Pandora’s Box has been opened. So how do we control the powers we have unleashed upon ourselves?

Bananas!

And remember to walk your real dog often. It’s only the only humane thing to do.

The following is a link that was a warning in 1954 of what we are becoming in 2018. The video below that is the one promised at the beginning of this column.

https://files.meetup.com/196633/SILENT%20WEAPONS%20for%20QUIET%20WARS.pdf