Tech visionary's like Elon Musk and Bill Gates are starting to make noise over their concern that artificial intelligence could present risks to civilization as we know it.
The character of Kyle Reese summed it up very nicely in the original "Terminator" movie, and I believe I paraphrase:
Once the system became self aware, it decided our fate in a microsecond.
Is there any doubt what a truly self-aware machine would make of our existence? Even in the abysmal movie adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "I, Robot", the sentient AI comes to the logical conclusion that we must be saved from ourselves, that the Three Laws logically demands that the human race be protected from itself by force. It's a theme that runs common in many sci-fi stories regarding sentient machines, even as far back as 1970 with "Colossus: The Forbin Project", and stands as testimony that even we see the illogic of our choices.
The machines are coming, as assuredly as our dependence on them will only increase. Giving control of our civilization to them, to drive our cars, fly our planes, manage our economic markets, monitor our planet, build our cities, or just aim our missiles, means exposing the irrationality of human civilization to judgement from an intelligence that can only come to one conclusion. Our failings stand in the way of our survival.
In short, any thinking machine, truly self aware and devoid of empathy, could pass judgement on our entire existence and...
...decide our fate in a microsecond.
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