How Far Artificial Intelligence

Stanislav Petrov is said to have saved the world single-handedly in 1983. Petrov was a colonel in the Air Defence Force of the Soviet Union, who while on duty at the Oko early warning centre chose to disbelieve the system when it showed that half a dozen nuclear missiles had been launched from the United States toward Russia. If Petrov had reported that the attacks were on the way, retaliatory attacks would have been launched to which the United States would have responded initiating a full-scale war.

This is the result of reliance on computerised Artificial Intelligence. Admittedly it is the state of computerisation in 1983 and we are far more advanced some 40 years farther down the track. But it must be asked if it has improved to the point that it has become foolproof and would mistakes like this be possible today. What are the checks and counter checks to crucial A.I. forms failing?

I have been reading a few books on the growing dependence of A.I. and it is predicted that by 2050 the entire world will be reshaped by A.I. and unrecognised when compared with our times. I visited my young doctor the other day and she declared that she was terrified by the thought of the changes coming our way. Most aging grandparents share the deep concern for the future their grandchildren will face let alone their children.

Most books describe that changes coming our way will increasingly minimise our involvement in life. The specialists will become excessively rich, followed by competent operators leaving the rest of us to be dependent on a controlled world.  But I need to ask if this will be the case.  A.I. is shaped by the hard sciences and the predictions are usually restricted to science. Ken Wilber, American universalist and  philosopher has outlined a more comprehensive view of life. He has  categorised four primary domains that all experience will fit within one way or the other. The hard sciences are complemented by the psychological, the cultural and the sociological. The four operate in an integral way to make the whole rather than to ever operate as an independent standalone part of the four categories.  The constraints  on A.I. will always be modified by the place of a society built upon the humane dimensions of life, the psychological, the, the cultural and the sociological.

Barak and Michelle Obama have begun a movie production company, One interesting film they have produced is Leave the World Alone. It is a film about the Third World War, which it surmises will come about by the breakdown or abuse of  A.I.  One scene depicts the pile-up of cars on a highway because these driverless vehicles can't operate without the constant supply of electronic operating systems. This is merely one example of catastrophic failure due to Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence has really always been  with us, even from the simple forms of the Industrial Revolution through to the current inventions of today. Humanity has always proved to be resilient.  Discussion once surmised the ‘Star Wars’ project but this has faded from our consciousness, The movie industry faced an enormous challenge through the introduction of Artificial Intelligence into the industry before the writers and actor’s guilds protested. An amicable solution was reached because the good sense of people prevailed. Humanity is resilient, it always has been and always will be.  We should not let fear disturb us too much. There are thousands of good people determined to work for the good of humanity and there always will be even in the face of Artificial Intelligence.