-
What Happens When Machines Take Over – Part II
Circa 2118, super-C machines will establish a workplace that can – and will – get along very well without us. They won’t be our masters; they will be our occupational end stage. They won’t terminate our lives; they will terminate our access to purpose in life. Losing the ability to achieve that sense of a…
-
What Happens When Machines Take Over – Part I
Circa 2118, super-C machines will establish a workplace that can – and will – get along very well without us. They won’t be our masters; they will be our occupational end stage. They won’t terminate our lives; they will terminate our access to purpose in life. Losing the ability to achieve that sense of a…
-
An Automated Star Is Born
The awards season closed out with last month’s Oscars, and the entertainment industry has finally finished patting itself on the back, at least until next year. Given all of the focus on diversity in this year’s nominations, it’s not inappropriate to wonder whether we’ll soon be arguing about the inclusion or exclusion of humanoid actors…
-
AI Isn’t Fire, It’s a Collision With the Sun
Those who take a smiley face view of AI’s impact on working men and women often use the analogy of fire to support their position. We didn’t curtail the development of fire as a resource for humans just because there is the danger of arson. So why, they ask, should we curtain the development of…
-
Droid Panic
A New York Times article this past weekend stated that individuals and governments will be slow to address the danger of global warming until “climate panic” sets in. The authors argue that until forest fires and hurricanes, droughts and flooding become so widespread and severe that no one can ignore them, nothing of substance will…
-
Chewing Gum News
Most Sundays, I read both my local newspaper and The New York Times. Well, that’s not entirely correct. I scan all of the headlines in the two publications, but only actually read the articles that catch my interest or seem important. So, what did I learn from this weekend’s experience? Journalists don’t think you and…
-
From Jobless Recovery to Workless Expansion
In addition to the findings 2+ years of research on intelligent machines, my book Circa 2118 also features something I’ve dubbed “newsfeed realism.” Derived from magical realism, it avoids the exaggerated concepts of science fiction and instead creates a realistic but imagined portrait of future events by extrapolating from what we see in our newsfeeds…
-
The Neonaissance – The Birth of Self-Ennoblement
Rather than a Hollywood-like dystopia of robots run amuck, the widespread introduction of super-capable or super-C machines circa 2118 will produce the first need-free society in human history. Which begs the question: what will humans do? They’ve gone from hunters and gatherers to farmers and shop owners to organization men and women. They’ve always had…
-
The New AI … Artificial Ignorance
There’s been no effort to keep it a secret. It’s not been hidden away in corporate labs or government files. No one disputes its existence or the magnitude of the changes it will impose on each and all of us. Quite the contrary. Thousands of news accounts and books, blog posts and magazine articles have…
-
What, Me Worry … About AI at Work?
Don’t worry. You’re safe. At least for the next couple of years. That’s welcome news, of course, but there’s a caveat, and it’s a big one. Artificial intelligence is already seeping into our lives and careers. It has made the vaunted Information Age irrelevant and opened a period best described as the Era of Virtual…