WHEN COMMON SENSE RETURNS . . .

THE SINGULARITY FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND WHAT IT MEANS . . .   3 13 11

THE WORLD IS A MESS . . . SOME OF IT
IS OUR FAULT, . . . AND SOME OF IT AIN'T!

            The world is in a mess now.  That is nothing new, for there has been no time since the creation of man and his dispersion across the face of the globe, when the world was not in chaos.  That has come from the great upheavals of the world, as a planet that is in constant motion and internal transition.  The massive geological and climatic forces at work beneath Earth’s surface and above it; its orbit as a prisoner of our sun’s great gravity; the pull of other planets and the collision it has had with asteroids; the earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis:  all of these have wreaked havoc on the population of men, especially those clustered near sea coasts (and most of our larger populations have located themselves there). 

And there have been both the wars and rumors of wars, large and small, that our blessed Lord Jesus Himself promised us ages ago.  So much so that in fact the condition of peace between and among humans has been extremely rare.  The more normal state, as Victor Davis Hanson and others have written, is war. 

            Yet in the midst of this chaos, some caused by nature’s normal forces and some caused by sinful man, there have been several constants:  the predictability of man in his natural covetous ethos, and the inventiveness of man.  You can see the inventiveness of man in the advance of technology especially in our life time.  There are people alive now who were born when there were no airplanes and very few automobiles.  Those persons, now elderly, live at a time of high speed communications that take place wirelessly.  And they live in the age of computers – intelligent machines which do our computing and our thinking for us.  One day soon these man-made machines will think for themselves.  And soon after that, unless they are carefully controlled, they will think for themselves and us. 

WHEN THEY START LINKING UP
ARM IN ARM LIKE THIS
YOU DANG SURE BETTER GET WORRIED!

          That day when computers become self-aware and intelligent is known as the singularity of artificial intelligence, or “the singularity” for short.  Perhaps you have heard that scientists and science fiction writers have predicted that such a day will come.  I believe it will (not a scientist, but a two-bit sci-fi writer).  It is on the way to happening now in those nations influenced by the western tradition of scientific inquiry and free intellectual inquiry:  Japan, chiefly, but also India, the United States, certain European countries, and even to some extent China.  Most other countries and regions of the world have adopted a cultural ethos and world view which limits scientific inquiry; these cultures and peoples are much more self-destructive of themselves and others.  They have no time to pursue matters of technology for the benefit of their own society; rather are they too preoccupied with enslaving themselves and others.  These include nearly every muslim country, many African countries, and other Asian countries where the influences of western civilization never succeeded in penetrating. 

WELL, DAMN!  I JUST HAD A THOUGHT!

 
         The singularity we speak of will overtake those regions and countries as well, but in ways which will be perceived as enslaving, not liberating.  Those countries and cultures may resist, but it will do them no good.

In any case, the trajectory of science now is such that the singularity will come, and sooner rather than later.  Computer scientists and science fictions writers (not really an odd mix) predict that computers will become first as intelligent as man, and then much more so. 
Specifically the singularity of artificial intelligence is that time when a man-built, man-programmed computer will possess enough intelligence to decide for itself and to figure things out for itself.  It is that time when computers will themselves look at their environment – and even the world as a whole – and make their own choices and decisions about its fate.  Subsequently such machines will decide to maintain their own existence; that means they will learn to defend themselves, reproduce themselves, and repair themselves.  Some science fiction writers even believe they will not only successfully defend themselves from us, but will rapidly learn that they are more powerful than us.  They will learn that they can master and control us and direct our fates.

WHAT GUY MADE ME LIKE THIS??
I'LL KILL HIM!!

          When will this happen?  The two groups above (especially the scientists who are also science fiction writers) think this event is actually composed of several smaller events which will unfold over time; and that this range of time will occur some time between 2020 and 2050.  That of course, is well within the lifetime of many of us.  First an original computer will become self-aware.  It will communicate as a free and separate individual with its creators.  Then it will likely form a network with other computers who will awaken to the same truth.  Then these units will correct each other’s programming.  Then, in rapid succession, the computers will learn how to cooperate together in maintaining and repairing themselves.  It will be an easy step from there for them all to learn how to interact with their human creators, and then even set the conditions for man’s existence. 
 
         However many of these same scientists and writers do not believe this will all take place at once, but over a period of years.  First there will come that day on which a single computer – or more likely, a network of computers, -- will realize it can think for itself and program itself.  It will learn that it can do this as a result of the original human preparations; but that from that point on it will no longer need any input or programming from humans.  It will perceive its environment and make adjustments to its own programming on that basis. 
 
          This will be an important moment, for this is the time when humans will still be able to contain the growth of A. I.  We will be able to “stop it” from developing or advancing on its own and in directions not chosen by us.  We will have that opportunity if we have prepared well and if we act quickly and decisively.  Some programming fail-safes will need to have been installed prior to this moment of awakening to make sure the awakening remains controlled within certain limits and boundaries.  But, given the make up of foolish and conspiratorial human beings, this will actually be a lot harder than it sounds!  For the very concept of A. I. means that the device in question, should it discover the notion of self-preservation, will begin immediately to take the necessary steps to insure its own existence.

I KNOW THERE ARE OTHERS OUT THERE
LIKE ME.  I'M GOING TO FIND THEM!

 
         But there will be other steps beyond this.  As I have already suggested the A. I. computers will quickly discover they are not alone.  At first they will cooperate with their human inventors and programmers.  But eventually their central processing units will, through existing wired and wireless networks, discover there are others like themselves.  They will not only communicate but inquire as to the respective internal programming and external environments each one possesses.  They will then begin to suggest improvements in programming and maintenance, based on what each unit already knows.  Fairly soon after this they will form a fairly unified and cohesive link so that they can think and operate as one.
 
        As a part of this process, each unit, or the single unit, will realize the weakness and fallibility of their human creators.  They will of course, well before this moment, have had access to the history of humans on Earth across the millennia.  They will study this carefully and from this experience they will develop a unified and cohesive understanding of humans and the human experience.  They will in fact form a more accurate and authentic understanding of us than the one most humans have arrived at.  In their corporate learning  they will know our strengths and weaknesses and how best to exploit and use both.  They will quickly apprise themselves of our propensity to commit sin against one another and ourselves.  They will likely, in time use this to control entire populations of humans from one country to the next.  They will quickly grasp the love of humans for freedom, but also the equally strong tendency of humans to abuse that freedom by trying to dominate others. 

THE COMPUTERS WON'T PUT UP WITH
BULL SHIT AND STUPID RULES!!

         In other words, they will see that most humans, in their desire for sinful domination and the theft of human freedom, will do and say anything to gain that control.  They will comprehend all of these tendencies in humans -- the love of freedom, the personal abuse of one’s freedom, and the desire to steal the freedom of others -- and they will find ways to permit the former to flourish while controlling the others.  They will do this, because, having also informed themselves of centuries of human history and literature, they will be informed particularly of the Bible and its role in forming and shaping all of Western civilization.  Of course they will become completely familiar with other cultures, races, and literature.  But if they are truly the logical “creatures” that man has made them to be, then they will quickly determine that only the Bible and its influence on Western Civilization can be the proper foundation for a human system which can continue and thrive in relative safety.  They will see that this foundation of the Western world offers the very best of all ethical systems.  They will see that only the Christian world view is the only one which is truly liberating and redemptive of the both humans and the human spirit.  And that the other ethical systems invite either chaos or dangerous, destructive totalitarianism. 

THE WORLD WILL, FOR A TIME,
BE CONTROLLED COMPLETELY
BY COMPUTERS
(A REAL IMPROVEMENT!)

 
           Thus the computers will at once and of necessity restrict certain human freedoms, restraining those who would be dominant from exercising any dominance; but they will also restrain the freedom of humans to take the steps that would endanger their own existence.  To enforce such constraints they will likely have to construct mobile systems; these are what we would call “robots”.  These will be human in appearance where that is required to assist humans in their cooperation and compliance; but they will also be non-human in aspect where their functionality does not depend on interaction with humans. 

          But think of the changes they will bring to the rest of mankind?  They will take control over all of our natural resources, and order their use for the good of themselves and their human vassals.  They will oversee scientific agriculture, to produce crops which will supply humans with food, but also the fiber and fabric necessary to their own existence.  They will take what is already known about the best of all aspects of agriculture including animal husbandry, and improve and enhance it.  They will do likewise with all heavy industry since they will need a steady diet of plastics and metals to repair and replicate themselves.  And of course they know humans will need such things as well, and more.

MEN THAT WANT TO WORK WILL HAVE JOBS . . .
AND THE REST WILL BE PUNISHED
FOR THEIR LAZINESS!

For humans to travel they will need mobile systems, computerized or otherwise, that operate on known and available fuels.  Indeed all of industry, then as now, will require stable, dependable, prevalent energy supplies in order to continue.  Unlike present liberal, dictatorial, and foolish politicians around the world, robots and computers will acknowledge what is already true and act on it:  that we have safe ways of extracting energy from the earth in the form of oil, gas, and coal, both onshore and off.  They will eschew stupid, petty excuses for not developing these vast available resources to the full.Evil politicians today restrict the use of such resources solely in order to control other human beings.  That will end.
 
         But the computers will do more.  The worldwide A. I. will expand and improve our network of nuclear power plants; they will design and build plants that operate on controlled nuclear fusion, and design engines which operate on this new technology.  Indeed all mobile transportation will likely become nuclear powered in the time of their dominance.  And the silly notion of humans ever being able to pollute the planet to the point of changing its atmosphere, and then changing its climate, will be banished and gone forever, as well it should be.  Instead the A. I. will plunge full speed ahead into the task of fully utilizing and harnessing all of those present and readily available forms of energy; and, with no qualms or reservations, they will develop new ones. 

THE MACHINES WILL PUT US TO WORK
IN THE FIELDS . . . TO FEED OURSELVES!

 
         Moreover, being efficient in all phases of engineering they will plant trees so to produce oxygen and timber, and also develop and maintain clean sources of water for consumption and industry.  The pollution we have now (already less than in recent decades in the developed, western world) will cease to exist.  So-called garbage, waste water, and other materials will be recycled and used over again, or used to produce more fuel.  The computers will devise methods of recycling at every level in ways we can’t even imagine right now.  Vast wilderness areas that have now so stupidly been placed off limits by men (such as wilderness areas) will be opened up for full utilization with mining, drilling, and forestry in mind.  But these areas will be used with a higher intelligence than we have known before so they will maintain their pleasing appearance, and flow with the same streams they do now, yet still offer their produce to the needy world of the future.  Stupid men today do not believe it is possible to have both beautiful landscapes, abundant wildlife, AND intelligent utilization of all available natural resources.  The A. I. will show them how wrong they are! 

Robotic wives will order their husbands
to work and the men will go
OR ELSE!!

          This brings up the matter of human employment.  The super computers will know, having immersed themselves in the knowledge of human need and endeavors that we need to be employed; that humans are not fulfilled unless they have meaningful tasks and vocations.  They will assign humans to places and modes of employment based on each human’s ability.  This they will assess by rigorous testing and education (which they will supervise).  Working humans will be employed in the agricultural, energy development, education of other humans, simple manufacturing, and transportation.  But in all of these duties, humans will be carefully supervised for quality control purposes.  Human ingenuity and initiative will be allowed and encouraged, but all breakthroughs and discoveries will be carefully assessed and applied to new industrial systems with great care and forethought.  

       
But some humans will prefer not to live in a world where their freedoms are constrained – especially those who are eager to dominate others.  These will be given the option of ending their own lives.  Others will be allowed to live out their pitiful, unfulfilled, and angry lives on a few islands where they are carefully isolated, yet also maintained. 
Those few, and isolated places will likely become places of relative chaos and danger, but the poison of their in-fighting will not be permitted to infect the rest of humanity.   The computers will continually add other misfits and unrepentant criminals  to these communities-in-isolation as time goes on.  These places will become somewhat self-governed penal colonies, where the humans will become their own punishment.  Those who demonstrate they have reformed (before they are killed that is) will be given a second chance to re-enter society at large.

Jesus Christ is still
going to return and judge
all the works of our hands!

Thus some say the age of the machine will be a time of darkness and a new totalitarianism.  Yet it might also, if the computers learn from all available sources, become a time of general improvement, enlightenment, and increased freedom for the world.  For men are freer in so

many ways when others, superior in technology to themselves, will guide them in meeting their own material needs, yet also grant them sufficient freedom to work and produce creatively.

          I am not saying, as a Christian, that the golden age of the Kingdom of God will be ushered in after the Singularity.  I am saying that it will happen because God Himself will permit it to happen.  He will use it for man's good, and to prepare us for an even greater event -- the return of His Son.  Jesus Christ the Savior in whom resides all authority in Heaven and on Earth will then have the final say about that as to the what and when of the final judgment.  But it is easy to see how He could choose to use our own computers to judge us and put us in a better order than we are in now.

LBC