Zweite Dämmerung: an essay on the apocalypse

[phaktor5]

Zweite Dämmerung:
An Essay on the Apocalypse
By Kyle Sweeney

"From the moment when the machine made its first appearance it was clear to all
thinking people that the need for human drudgery, and therefore to a great extent for
human inequality, had disappeared."
~ George Orwell 1984

Throughout history, the human race has become the most intelligent and supreme
form of life on the planet. We have brought forth many changes of which we can be
proud, and some of which make us ashamed. Our renaissances or the transitional period
between ignorance and genius come only when a certain formula is followed precisely.
We have undergone many semi-renaissance stages, but have had only one full
awakening. Since the birth of the ENIAC we have been waiting and technology has
become more complicated than anyone would have ever imagined. Our terrorism, our
government, and our everyday lives now run on the internet. The purpose of this essay is
to inform the planet Earth of our leap into the next renaissance.
Since the release of the first Personal Computer (PC), computer ownership has
grown exponentially, and technology has made several great advances in the past twenty
years. We have been warned of our advances in the film The Matrix. In the movie, after
the birth of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the machines that man had created had begun to
overpower humankind. Soon, a war had started, and man had resorted to nuclear
warfare. Destroying the atmosphere as to take out the Sun, the primary source of power
for the machines. After that the machines had begun their reign of terror over the human
race. They were able to harness the power given off by the human body and were able to
insert the enslaved humankind into the false reality of a computer program. The chilling
reality is that with technology advancing well past the twenty-first century, we are gazing
upon the second dawn, the twilight of the new beginning, the beginning of the end.
AZUMOV, created by Honda, is known worldwide as the most advanced and
humanoid robot on the face of the Earth. With superior motor functions, the ability to
comprehend and recognize a wide vocabulary, obtain voice and visual recognition.
AZUMOV is Honda’s contribution to residential servitude. Coincidentally, B1663R, of
Larry and Andy Wachowski’s The Matrix was also a butler type model that inspired the
first uprising of machines. This brings about the point that humans need machines to
live. At any given time we are interacting with more machines than we can comprehend,
and their sole purpose is to make life easier for us, the “higher beings.” Since the
invention of the wheel we have been inventing things that make work and labor more
bearable for the human condition. We as animals, get tired, while the machines do not,
we know emotion, while the machines do not, we can turn them off whenever we feel
like it right?... Wrong! Electricity is one of our staples. We need it to provide us with
our heat, our purified water, our cooked meals. We have given ourselves a higher
standard of living by developing these networked machines. In return, we have become
accustomed to the luxuries they provide us with. With the invention of the ARPANET in
the 1970s, we have since made breakthrough after breakthrough involving what is now
known as the Internet. Nearly all computers plug into the Internet, which makes the
world such a smaller place, as is evident when we speak to people in Hamburg, Boston,
Budapest, and Warsaw all at the same time.
Now take this scenario. AZUMOV becomes as affordable as a PC, so the general
public buy them to use them as residential servants. Now, as every good computer
programmer knows, with new technology come new bugs and glitches. Stable versions
of software aren’t usually coded until the third version. With the mass production of an
android it is completely possible and probable that many bugs, glitches, and unwanted
behavior will arise with the release of the first public version of Honda’s robots. This
could be as simple as a glitch in the walking function or a complex as forgetting to carry
a one in the emotions category, either way the machine would become a danger not only
to itself but to those around it. At any moment the family butler could turn into a ruthless
killing machine, hell-bent on destroying those who seek to turn it into scrap for not
cleaning the bathroom as fast as they had anticipated.
Machines are much stronger and faster than the average or advanced human, they
don’t know their own strength without precise calculations, and they can move faster
than we could ever imagine, they also need no sleep, and hardly no maintenance (unless
they are built poorly, or are overworked). This makes them a very strong adversary, and
if Honda manufactures AZUMOV to the public, you can bet millions that the Department
of Defense is going to be looking into buying the rights to manufacture them as ways to
“keep our troops out of battle.” If it’s one thing that I’m weary of, it’s a toaster with the
ability to think and put a bullet in my head.
George Orwell’s novel of a Socialist world 1984 introduced the “Big Brother” or
overseer into the modern science fiction novel. This has been brought to your attention
because the computer networks of today are a modern from of “Big Brother,” where
anyone can watch you. Millions of online spies gather on the servers every day as is
evident by the rising in computer crimes. Who’s to say that when the computers start
thinking for themselves that they won’t go looking for your bank account number, or
your credit information, or try to kill you. Remember HAL9000? Or for our readers who
have seen Resident Evil, Red Queen? It’s only a matter of time before computers begin
to think for themselves and think that humans are expendable because we are so
abundant.
We create computers to monitor our computers, and machines to fix our
machines. We operate airplanes that can carry airplanes, and bombs to destroy other
bombs (that, I’ve never understood) but since the advent of the simple machines, we have
been working to create the most efficient tools on the planet. The computer is our
greatest achievement.
In 2003 Lucas Arts created a video game titled Star Wars Galaxies, a large multi-
player game that allowed people to compete from all over the world. The game’s
“Galaxies” are stored on a central group of computers called a server, which allows all of
the players to connect to it. The normal computer connected to the server can hold
around 1GB (gigabyte or 1,000,000,000 bytes) of RAM (Random Access Memory).
However, the computers that run the game (the servers) are running nearly 800 GB, they
are about 800 times as advanced as the normal PC, which makes them not only near the
bleeding edge of technology, but the Alpha to the PC’s Omega. If man can create a
computer that is 800 times more powerful, then it can definitely create a Humanoid robot
with the ability to think on its own and be able to tell that humans are not efficient
creatures, when this is recognized, we may become terminated. Sound familiar? That’s
because it is. In the movie The Terminator a robot is sent to destroy a human who gives
birth to the leader of a rebellion of humans who fight the machines of the future. It could
be possible that glitches in software or, humans tampering with software could provide
many dangers to other people.
Soon, there will be many new advances in the fields of computers, robotics,
engineering, and many other science related fields. As these new doors open up, new
exploits, problems and solutions will become noticed and applied. These applications
will eventually lead to the creation of an independent intelligence that will operate under
the control of noone. It’s creator will inevitably be responsible for the destruction of
humankind as the machines will rise up and be our slaves no more.

[!mitationRust]

You know, **** AI and all this matrix BS, here is food for thought for you what if some terrorist or insane millionaire ect... detonates a small thermal nuke on a polar ice cap?

Scenario: You know how to swim? All coastline post pangea underwater, whats the post tide waterlines in terms of altitude? The summit of a mountain? And michael moore & 90% of EU cries and bitches about the war on terror and people call us evil. *sigh* it's not hard to see that more than 80% of all post pangea is still uneducated!

[HTRegz]

Hey Hey,

I don't very often post here... and I warn you but I'm about to insult the author of that.... which I assume to be you.

That is the biggest piece of drivel that I have ever read. It's like a 9th grade essay that was thrown together 10 minutes before it was due by a D- student. If I was handed that to grade, I'd tear it up and offer the student a second chance, lest I have to fail him and center him out for his stupidity. If I was presented it in a debate, I would walk away trying to contain my laughter.

I have so many issues with this article that I'm not sure where to start. So I think I will start with the biggest problem. It's ASIMO, Honda's robot is ASIMO not ASUMOV! A simple search on Google would have shown this, how can you comment on the features of something when you don't even know it's name? ASIMO is impressive and has been in development for some time, but how about some of the other robots out there. Sony's Dream Robot, QRIO, can perform the same basic functions as ASIMO and also run, and if it happens to fall, will check itself out and get itself back up. How about the Toyota Trumpet Playing robots. Anyone who's played a brass instrument can tell you the embrasure isn't immediately picked up, to get it perfect you have to work at it. These robots used synthetic lips and lungs in order to play a trumpet and reproduce the correct sounds... These synthetics could have many applications.

I also think you place too much emphasis on man's need for electricity. We survived for centuries without it, many people around the world still survive without it. Have you never been camping? In the summer most people use their BBQ on a daily basis, no need for anything else. Heat? I hope you are kidding, many parts of the world, never experience cold weather, and what most of them consider to be cold isn't cold, it's just whining because they're conditioned to the warmth... It's not a need, it's a desire. Purified water? I grew up within a mile of a freshwater stream, it was small and was purified naturally underground. It fed all the wells of the people around there, and was perfectly safe to drink from... it was tested on several occasions. Just because you've been pacified and babied by living in a city, don't think that applies to everyone. Without electricity we go back to survival of the fittest, you may not be capable of surving, but many of us are.

The normal computer connected to the server can hold
around 1GB (gigabyte or 1,000,000,000 bytes) of RAM (Random Access Memory).

You are saying this on a computer website? If I could only "hold" 1GB of RAM in my PC, I'd be a little upset. The 800GB (of RAM) servers are something else also, I'd love to see a link about this. To me that seems rather excessive and most likely improbable... If I remember hardware class correctly, you'd never accomplish this with a 32bit processor. This would seem a little costly to run 64bit processers for a Video Game Server... especially when they have 800GB of RAM.. (according to the author)

The entire essay jumps around, there's no chronological order and it's almost entirely based on fictional works. Only crackpots and the paranoid take plots from movies and make them realistic in their heads... I hate to say this, but that paper leads me to believe that the author has absoluately no intelligence what-so-ever. Their IQ must be lower than that of my toaster.


Peace,
HT

[Edit]
BTW where's the Give it a 0 option, or the Give it a -1 option...
[/Edit]

[Darksnake]

Actually its 1073741824 bytes to a gig, but your using the shorthand of 1000 and not the correct 1024 which is fine, but may irritate some people.

As far as saying computers are the greatest invention well thats a bit of a opinion.

A cluster of computers is a server-farm or servers not a server. Could be a typo who knows.

Personally i see inventions as a way of making me lazier. Doesnt raise my standard of living, it makes me lazier. If i can get a machine to do it, hey one less thing for me to do. Where's the remote?

As far as the bombs to destroy bombs goes. Its a easy concept. You have a land mine and your not sure how old or stable it is and you need to get rid of it. You could somehow apply pressure to it to set it off and hope that works. You could shoot at it and hope that works or you can get a working bomb and blow them both to bits which is guaranteed to work. Same applies for old ordinance. Apparently blowing up a old or unwanted munition is the safest, easiest, and cheapest way to do it that is guaranteed to work. Hope that sheds some light.

[Galdron]

I had to google the article in question, due to the fact that I went blind tring to decipher the copy pasted text. No offence intended, but a direct link would be better.

To me the term A.I. remains both a bad (pitiful crap, just like batteries not included) movie, and a realistically over zealous statement. (for now)

After all, Artificial Intelligence has to be programed by intelligent ppl. it does not depend on the inventor, so much as the ppl. applying the idea. If they are anything like me, we are all in deep ****............... Ireland Included.


http://www.chron.com/content/interac...ve/900914.html

Would you go so far as to blame Hubbel for this?


I am not holding my breath, until I can personally program my box to do it for me.

[Tedob1]

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... I hate to say this, but that paper leads me to believe that the author has absoluately no intelligence what-so-ever. Their IQ must be lower than that of my toaster.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

oh i dont know there are many here amoung us that used to smoke that much.

but it does show how far removed some have become from reality

[RoadClosed]

AI is over rated. I have commented elsewhere here, AI cannot be achieved to a level where machines can thing better than their creaters. It just cannot happen and if it could, the modification would be applied to the creator, not the offspring. Make sense? Too short I know, beer time.