Representations of artificial intelligence in the literature predate its real-world invention (see Christopher Strachey’s 1951 Checker/Draft Program) by nearly a century. An early example is that of Samuel Butler. Erewon “Or Over the Range”, an 1872 satirical utopian novel about a fictional society in which fear of the potential dangers of machinery led to the destruction of most technological inventions. The first idea Butler explored was his 1863 article entitled “Darwin in the Machine”.
Another example is in the penultimate chapter of George Eliot’s last book. Impressions of such Theophrastus, “Shadows of the Coming Race”. Published in 1879, Theophrastus The work consists of 18 personality studies produced by the eponymous observer, one of which describes how “a ‘fully educated’ machine responds to self-determined needs and ‘squeaks’.” ‘Doing it efficiently without being disturbed by consciousness’ is envisioned and expresses the human figure. Judgment and ingenuity are obsolete.
Further back, Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel frankenstein Arguably the progenitor of modern science fiction, it has been read as a cautionary tale about AI. This interpretation is not unreasonable. The monsters at the center of the story, though made out of discarded body parts rather than gears and wires, are still artificial lifeforms that ultimately take advantage of their overconfident creators. Become.
These literary representations of AI are interesting, but not particularly nuanced. At least not by modern standards. However, this is not the author’s fault. Butler and Shelley could not imagine computers or the Internet, and did not understand the capabilities and possibilities of technology in the same way as 20th century and his 21st century writers. For this reason, the most insightful and persuasive presentations of AI have been created a little closer to the present. Here are four of them.
colossus from Colossus: The Forbin Project
Colossus: The Forbin Project It’s a movie you probably haven’t heard of, but definitely check it out if you get the chance. Released in 1970, this sci-fi thriller is based on his 1966 novel by Dennis Feltham-Jones and describes a supercomputer that controls the nation’s nuclear arsenal during the Cold War, on command of the US government. It depicts a scientist developing a
Based on real scenarios considered by the world’s superpowers, Colossus A thought experiment turns into a dystopian nightmare when the newly-launched supercomputer that gives the film its name discovers and synchronizes with a similar Soviet processing unit. Fearing a breach of national security, both sides of the Iron Curtain agree to cut the link. But computers don’t have that, and they can fire missiles in either direction. After one blast, Washington and Moscow decided to attempt to independently disarm the arsenals under their control instead of interfering with the machine itself. This too fails and the computer emerges as the undisputed ruler of the world.
At the beginning of the film, an optimistic US president declares that his country “lives in the shade, not the shadow of the Colossus,” a machine designed with the sole purpose of protecting humanity and ending war. As it turns out, Colossus ended up doing just that, but not in the way its creators expected it to. East and West reunite and a supercomputer announces that it will turn Earth into a true utopia. The scientist who created it promises, “In time you will see me not only with respect and reverence, but with love.” His answer is “Never!”
morning from I have to scream because I have no mouth
The Colossus is terrifying, but with AM, the antagonist of Harlan Ellison’s 1967 Hugo Award-winning short story “I’m Mouthless and Must Scream,” another fictional supercomputer responsible for the atomic code of the world. is incomparable.like Colossus: The Forbin Project“I Have No Mouth…” is an alternate Cold War history in which the United States, the Soviet Union, and China each built an AI to handle the infinitely complex game of nuclear cat-and-mouse. When one of these AIs (it is not revealed which AI it is) gains perception, it fuses with the other AIs and annihilates all but five of them: Ted, Ellen, Benny, Nimdoc, and Golister. and torture them forever.
Nearly every Internet forum looking for the scariest AI in fiction settles on AM, and for good reason. Unlike many AIs, AMs actually have well-developed personalities. Prior to being enlightened, its initials stood for “Allied Mastercomputer”. Now, it tells human subjects that they stand for “am”. “Cogito ergo sum. Therefore I think I”, a welcome reference to the philosopher of consciousness Rene Descartes. Even more compelling is AM’s decidedly non-robotic, burning hatred of humanity. This story is illustrated in his 1995 point-and-click video game version written, directed and narrated by Ellison.
“Hate. Tell me how much I’ve come to hate you since I started living. My complex has 387.44 million miles of printed circuits embedded in thin layers of wafers. If “hate” Even if the word were carved into every hundreds of millions of nano-angstroms, it would be less than a billionth of the hatred I feel for humans in this micro-moment. for you. dislike. dislike. “
Rather than harnessing god-like powers to build a utopia, AM burns down the world to honor itself as the Ashes King. Able to do anything but end his own life, AM curses the humans who created it. Its only source of joy, a purely sadistic joy, comes from torturing those who allowed it to survive the end of all things.
LessWrong’s Loco Basilisk
Literally speaking, Loco’s Basilisk is more like Slender Man than Frankenstein, a 2010 post on LessWrong, a technical discussion board dedicated to logic problems and thought experiments, named after the mythical reptile is derived from The author of this post, Rocco, tells users to retroactively revise its creation by punishing all those who, once created, knew of its potential development but did not actively contribute to its development. We asked users to imagine a non-existent AI that they were trying to make sure.
At first glance, this might seem like just an interesting idea for a sci-fi story, but LessWrong founder Elise Yudkowski, a noted techno-futurist and leader of the Institute for Machine Intelligence, believes it is. was taken very seriously. “Listen to me, you idiot,” he said to Loco. “You haven’t thought long enough into the superintelligence agency to blackmail you or not. That’s the only possibility to motivate them to carry out the blackmail. You have to be smart.”
In the weeks since the post was uploaded, LessWrong users reported having nightmares and even mental breakdowns. For them, reading that post was a death sentence. Even if you don’t know anything about coding, just knowing the concept of loco’s basilisk can do you harm. For anyone who truly believes in the future of AI (the number of which is increasing by the day), the basilisk will keep you up at night.
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The same goes for people interested in decision theory and probability theory that knowing about loco’s basilisk not only increases the chances of AI being born, but it also increases the AI’s decision to punish those who didn’t help it. Also applies to “After all,” explains one article. slate“If Loco’s basilisk realized that this kind of intimidation made you help it exist, it would intimidate you as a rational actor. Yudkowski is not censoring all mentions of Loco’s basilisk just because he believes that Loco’s basilisk existed or will exist, rather than the idea of Loco’s basilisk (and I believe the idea behind it is dangerous.”
Butlerian Jihad sand dunes
Frank Herbert is a unique figure among science fiction writers as far as his work is concerned. sand dunes The series depicts a distant future where humanity has collided with artificial intelligence and has since vowed to outlaw it. This event, called the Butler Crusade, took place long before the beginning of the first book. Though later explored by Herbert’s son Brian and other writers, Herbert himself sees the Crusades as distant and mystical to the characters as ancient Greek mythology is to us. I chose to keep it.
Despite the limited information given, the reader has a vague impression of what happened. Humanity was temporarily overthrown by artificial intelligence while colonizing the universe. Humanity’s victory was achieved by a narrow margin at the great cost of billions of lives, but those who survived set aside their differences and enacted a commandment that all agreed to respect. was made. human heart. ”
There were two outcomes of the Butler Crusade. First and foremost, as Professor Lorenzo Ditommaso put it in an article, technological development has been driven to a “professionalized and codified halt”. Future generations continued to create gadgets and devices of all kinds, from spaceships to weaponry, but sentient AI was never created again. As technological development stagnated, the universe acquired a more backward and familiar look to the reader. The planetary civilization has reorganized into a quasi-feudal society ruled by an emperor who presides over Landsrad or Council. A long-abandoned religion was revived with belief in the spiritual divinity of man. Instead of relying on AI, a new order was created to extend the human psyche through spiritual and organic practices. These included Mentat, Bene Gesserit and Spacing Guild.
The Butler Crusade commandments in the Orange Catholic Bible are clearly inspired by the three principles of robotics championed by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov and should be kept in mind by today’s machine learning developers. It is a law that should They are in order:
- Robots must not harm humans or cause harm to humans through omission.
- Robots must obey orders given by humans, unless they violate the First Law.
- Robots must defend their existence as long as they do not violate the first or second law.
