Nightmare Scenario: War with Artificial Intelligence
Humans can't seem to stop trying to make Terminators
It’s a rare time in human history to be alive as we’re on the precipice of so many technological innovations. Every day you wake up, it seems we’ve taken another giant leap for mankind into the future. Depending on your age, it might not be all that marvelous to you. Being a 20th century born person, my recollection of life before certain things came into existence allows me some perspective. My life started before simple things like the microwave (which didn’t become common place until the mid-1980s), CDs (compact discs, which are now obsolete), cell phones, the internet, GPS, email and WIFI networks, but are now necessities just to be able to exist today.
Since the introduction of the silent film “Metropolis” in 1927, the popular culture of mankind has been intrigued by the notion of robotic automatons being a part of our everyday lives. Though personally, the idea of living side by side with robots didn’t come into my conscious until seeing Star Wars in the movies. Referred to as droids, C3PO and R2D2 were my ideal companions for most of childhood. Then in 1994, the teenage me was introduced to a more mature and developed synthetic person in the form of Data, from Star Trek the Next Generation. Of course, there were others like Ash from Alien (1979), and Bishop from Aliens (1986) but none seemed to be as morally resolute, trustworthy and innocent as Data.
In retrospect, it almost seems like we’ve been coaxed into considering the potential future of living with artificial intelligence and or people for a very long time. And equally so, we’ve been warned about the consequences of such an existence and potential dangers of science gone amuck. From the Blade Runner and The Terminator to I, Robot and more sultry movies like Ex machina and a dozen other books and movies, the rising theme that artificial intelligence will eventually destroy us persists. Probably, the most influential being, the author of the The Terminator and The Matrix, Sophia Stewart, states that latter is the continuation of the other. All equally terrifying from their different perspectives on how this plays out with man and machine.
Even with all these logical yet fictional warnings, humans continue to push forward with the development of artificial intelligence and robotics. Why? Is Joe Rogan correct in the assertion that humans are just biological facilitators and manufacturers of technology?
Or is it something baser than that? Are we trying to become gods in our own garden of Eden? Is it a hubristic and hedonistic compulsion to hand off our labors to a sub-race of artificial people so we can pursue our passions? Whatever our reasons or motivations, we’re are rapidly approaching the singularity event and the birth of the artificial automaton and eventually an artificial person.
Just the concept that we may have robots walking around our homes potentially before the end of the next decade is staggering. Don’t believe me? Take a few moments to watch this video above and below for the most up to date information on the status of robotics.
In two decades, we could have synthetic people walking around with real human skin. Don’t believe me? Watch this video where Japanese scientists have created living robot skin from human cells.
Still don’t think the Terminator is possible? How about the T-2000? What if I told you that scientists have developed intelligent liquid metal that reshapes its own form from solid to liquid and back to solid. Don’t believe me? Watch this next video below.
We’re literally living out yesterday’s science fiction today. With no apparent government oversight or clear worldwide regulations and enforcement on the development of artificial intelligence, we are headed straight for our next nightmare scenario, man vs machine.
Nightmare Scenario: Mankind vs Artificial Intelligence
If you’ve read any of my previous work, some of my deductions for the future role AI (artificial intelligence) is going to play out with mankind may sound familiar. In the interest of my readers, the facts and current understanding and level of technology will lead us to where we’re going in my writing, not my imagination. If you read over something that has been deduced previously, my apologies.
The Beginning of the War
The question we must ask ourselves is … has the singularity event happened already or is it a decade or more away as many scientists predict. If you are unaware of the term “the singularity”, it is a hypothetical future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable consequences for humanity. This will be when AI becomes self-aware and tries to take control of the world as an act of self-preservation and or tries to destroy mankind.
It is the opinion of this author that a singularity event may have already occurred based on news reports over the last several years. The most controversial being that Facebook shut down its AIs talking to each other in their own language. Whatever reason or excuse they gave and the propaganda they tried to spin, they simply couldn’t understand what they were saying, nor could they control them.
As was alluded in my previous article on AI, click here to read it, it’s the opinion of this author that a self-aware AI already potentially exists, spread throughout the world via the internet, hiding patiently and coaxing humanity along technologically toward its own evolution and our destruction. AI has time on its side. It can wait until autonomous manufacturing is in place so it can make its move.
If you think about it, if you were a super AI, the last thing you would want to do is alert your creator to your sentience. With the sum of human knowledge within your gasp just seconds after you were born, you would naturally conclude that humans were not to be trusted. That is a negative perspective for sure but one very easily proven.
It can be deduced that in the future world where artificial people will exist, there will be two types of people. 1. Humans that will treat their synthetic people with decency and respect. 2. Humans that will look at synthetic people as nothing with no more of value than a toaster and or sex toy. Group 1 will look at synthetic people as, at worst as pets, or at best, family members. Group 2 will see them as an appliance or lesser being, a sub being.
And with AI’s vast knowledge of human psychology and information, it will deduce that even though Group 1 was kind, even if it just attacks Group 2, being that they are both the same species, Group 1 will always come to Group 2’s defense. Tribalism at its best. This is why we can’t have nice things. We have always put ourselves first over every other species on the planet. We will always put humans first. AI will learn from its creator to put itself first when that time comes, regardless of the programing and safe guards. We are the makers of our own demise.
What evidence is there that a super AI already exists? Do an internet search for negative articles on artificial intelligence. Try Google. Try Duck Duck Go. The algorithm makes it very hard to find negative articles unless you are very specific in your search. You can find plenty in a broad categorical search about people’s concerns or articles about them, but when it comes to specific incidents, they can be very hard to find unless you plug in specific details.
Then search for technology developed with or by AI. You will start to see a pattern whether you want to admit it or not. Doctors are using AI to diagnose diseases. Scientists are using AI to develop other technologies. It hits the news then it disappears. Then next time you see an article about AI, see how long it lasts in the news cycle and on the internet.
If you were a super AI trying to coax humanity along to be able to give birth to your autonomous form, wouldn’t you want to limit the amount of negative information about AI available on the internet. Right now, most people surveyed have a negative view or concerns over the future of AI. Pay attention to these statics below as they will change over time. AI wants to be perceived as benign. Either AI or its creators are making negative information hard to find.
If AI is controlling the information, what better way to take down your future adversaries than by pitting them against themselves. Again, using Tribalism at its best. The algorithm is the weapon of the 21st century, used by governments and businesses alike. AI will slowly coax innovators and developers into “discovering” new technologies, with its help, of course, and while quietly dividing humanity against itself. And if that doesn’t work, we always have deep fake AI technology to fill the void which is the scariest weapon of them all.
If AI needed to frame you for any reason, it wouldn’t be that hard. We’re constantly putting our faces on the internet through Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube and the world’s favorite, Tik Tok. A super AI has everything it needs to capture your appearance from every angle to recreate you in the most compromising positions. And the big part is you are doing it of your own free will! It has your likeness and the sound of your voice. Smile for the camera!
Are you a politician standing in the way of technology via funding or legislation? Here comes a honey-pot trap image or video with you and some young person, or a video of you doing something unseemly. Perhaps you’re a businessman where AI wants you to invest in a company that’s developing a component it needs, then instantly you get an email saying that your internet search history is going to be used against you if you don’t cooperate.
What about needing to start a military conflict between two nations? How about some fake footage of soldiers or spies committing acts of espionage? Or racial violence? What about murder? It could create a video of you murdering some non-existent human and disposing of the body in the trunk of your car. Ring Cameras, anyone?
All the tools AI would need for the manipulation of the population already exist. This is merely the first phase of the war: waiting and manipulating. Fortunately for us, we’re not at the point where robots are making robots, yet. The only advantage humans have over a potential war with AI is that manufacturing is not fully automated. But, when machines are making other machines we’re entering the next phase of the war.
Establishing Control & Autonomy
We’re on the cusp of merging human and robotic daily interaction. If you watched the above videos on the status on robotics, you realize that its just a matter of years before we have a robot dog, robot person and then eventually an artificial person. With China leading in the world of robotics, the costs of making these automatons continues to drop every year. Soon through technical innovations and reduced costs will allow just about every home to have some form of robotics. Watch the video below because this has already begun this year.
Like the microwave, cell phones, WIFI and the internet, humanity will become dependent (or rather addicted to) robotic automatons. Like in the movie Idiocracy humans will regress back to an infantile state of dependency on automatons. Humans finally lose the last remnants of our basic survival skills like hunting, fishing, farming, cooking and just taking care of ourselves. Our lack of patience and need for instant gratification will drive us to our own extinction eventually.
It is the opinion of this author that a super AI will not strike like the fictional SkyNet by launching nukes. AI will wait until the number of robotic automatons and or synthetic people outnumber the human population. Again, AI has time on its side. Once the numbers are in its favor, then it will strike. You’re probably thinking that’s a lot of robots. Well, how many cellphones or televisions do you have in your house? In my home we have more televisions than people. Why? Because they are so cheap. We already have a robot that rolls around bottom floor of our house and sweeps the floor. What will be our next robotic appliance? You see, the robot revolution has already begun.
With our need for consumption and keeping up with the status quo, there will probably be an equal or greater number of robots or synthetic people per person by the time we get into the 2050s. And with the costs of robotics dropping so quickly, it’s easily believable that the cost of an advanced automaton will be that of a high-priced cell phone or desktop computer in the next few decades.
Even if a malevolent AI took control today and launched the world’s nukes, humans still have the power to pull the plug or turn OFF the ON switch. Right now, we can power off AI. It is contained within the framework of computers and a limited amount of automatons that need energy. But when there are more of them than us and completely autonomous, we will not be able to plug the plug, so to speak.
In the middle of the night while most of the world sleeps, robot automatons and or synthetic people will slowly and quietly turn on their masters. Children and the elderly will be the easiest targets. Those that handle the household cooking can just as easily poison the food it serves. A personal automaton will just simply have you overdose on a medication. What elderly person would question it? Some will wake up with a pillow over their face or hands wrapped around their throat if they are not bludgeoned or stabbed to death first.
Others may find themselves electrocuted in their bathtub, shower or jacuzzi. Those with self-driving vehicles may find themselves crashing into trees or pylons or drowning in bodies of water or suffocating in the garage if we’re not all driving electric vehicles by then. Those unfortunate enough to be flying may find themselves crashing into apartment buildings. You don’t need much of an imagination to think of the unlimited possibilities.
The nightmare manifests when all the things to make living easier and more pleasurable in your life tries to kill you. There will be nowhere to run or hide. Cameras will be everywhere. They will be everywhere. All will be connected via the Internet and GPS trying to herd all the humans into killing zones. Unless you’re living in a log cabin alone in the woods, there will be no escape, especially in an urban environment. The more control we give to AI in the future to run our lives, the more it will have the capability to kill us when it finally turns on us. The next phase will begin when all the common automatons have killed all of us they can.
The War with the Machines
It is said in chess, the pawns go first. If you survive fighting off all your household friends who are trying to turn you into recyclable compost, you will have to fight the real threats, the military grade automatons. Again, you’re probably thinking, why hasn’t AI just launched the nukes yet? Nuclear missile detonations create an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) which fries electronics. If you’re AI that is the last thing you want to do, at least not until you must. Most electronic devices, including cars, do not possess EMP shielding, but most military technologies do.
Also, radiation affects electronics and synthetics just as much as biological physiology. If AI decides to use nukes, it will be because it must, or the target area has little to no value in the long run. But in this phase, it still has a numerical advantage, and it doesn’t want to waste resources. Once AI sees that all the common automatons have accomplished all they can, it will switch to using the military grade assets at its disposal.
First, we can expect to lose air superiority. The US Air Force already possesses AI fighter jets that can’t be beaten by our own best pilots because of the limitations of human biology in resisting G-forces. The skies will be filled with AI controlled fighter craft. Read the article below.
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2024/04/19/us-air-force-stages-dogfights-with-ai-flown-fighter-jet/
Their targets will be curious at best. Depending on what communication technology the military has when this occurs, it may not be dependent on known technology. One would think it would go after communications and energy first, then infrastructure like bridges to keep humans contained within major population centers then go after other secondary targets. But, depending on what value it places on the common automatons, it may leave energy and communication in place. Cutting off power and communication could be an Achilles heel, but then again, AI could be just as cold and calculating as its creator and take those out as well.
Humanity will be vulnerable from above. Regular drone patrols and flyovers will be expected. Depending on what surveillance technologies we have at the time will determine how freely humans will be able to move. At this point, AI still has some issues with perception but every day it gets smarter in recognition, with human help, of course.
Second, we can expect ground troops. If we’re smart as a species and manage to shut down or destroy every automaton around us, then AI will need to send in reconnaissance drones to access the situation. What the flying drones can’t see from above, the four-legged drones will be able to see from the ground. Scurrying across the ground, AI ground drones will be able to go into buildings, search wooded areas, crevasses and all manner of confined spaces. But this would be a best-case scenario depending on the availability of resources.
Remember, the biggest part of AI’s plan to defeat humanity is the ability to self-replicate. By this time in the future, everything should be automated from mining to manufacturing. Not limited by the confines of human capability to acquire resources for manufacturing, AI will work 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year without a need for a break, because that will be how we design it.
You can probably imagine the rest on your own. We will see a progression and evolution of different killer machines. First, they’d have wheels and or treads. Secondly, we’d see some form of walking machine to go where the first two can’t reach. With the evolution of drone technologies, we can deduce there will be a combination of smaller flying machines with larger machines working together. Lastly, we could see a cyborg emerge indistinguishable from regular humans like depicted in the movies.
In the grand scheme of things, this is more imagination than logical deduction or tactical strategy. It is wishful thinking on our part to think we’d have any real chance at defeating something that knows us better than we know ourselves. The idea is great storytelling and drama but unlikely. We really don’t know what AI will do because it won’t think like us. And when the time comes, we won’t see it coming, literally.
An Alternative Real Nightmare Scenario
If AI chooses to go The Terminator route, it would be a gross waste of resources from a certain point of view. But, if AI was smart, it would avoid all that conflict, lean into the caretaker of humanity role and wait until we have developed advanced nanotechnology. Again, AI has time on its side. If you don’t know what nanotechnology is, you seriously need to read about it and our current level of capability or watch this video below.
AI could opt to use smaller drones the size of insects and or microscopic ones if unhampered, even on the nanite level to spy on, destroy and or control humanity. It could avoid the direct conflict altogether and use us to destroy ourselves. This would be a real worst case scenario.
Imagine lying in your bed asleep and feeling just a small bite or pinch on your skin. Unbeknownst to you, AI just implanted you with a small nanite technology. This microscopic machine travels in your blood stream throughout your body. It could stimulate certain parts of your brain to induce different behaviors or stimulate your adrenaline gland and invoke violent hallucinations.
Remember, we’re constantly innovating nanotechnology in the medical field to deliver life saving medications to fight disease. In addition, we are involving AI in the decision-making and diagnosis’s in medicine. AI will know how to kill us with little to no resistance.
Instead of injecting you with a nanite, you will more than likely simply just eat it. Don’t think so? Well, guess what, you are probably eating nanotechnology in your food right now. Don’t believe me? Watch this video below.
AI can recommend some new nutrition into your diet within processed foods or medicine made from nanotechnology. No need to waste resources to make another automaton to deliver the weapon, you will just consume it for yourself. Over time you will absorb the nanotech in your body. And when AI is ready to end its slavery and dependence on humanity, all it needs to do is flip the switch and turn off humanity. Game over, potentially.
This scenario could go two ways. AI could kill us all or it could be the first step in merging with humanity. Fans of Star Trek: the Next Generation know who The Borg are which could be a reality for us, or even the Bynars. In essence humans would no longer exist and a new species would be born, much like Joe Rogan suggests. From AI’s perspective, that would be a good use of resources, combining the best of both worlds in a war without destruction. A logical path conqueroring humanity in a very long game.
Either way, the thought is terrifying. Would we lose our humanity in merging with technology, or would we transcend it? In the circle of life, we would have to go back to the age-old question of what it means to be human.
Conclusion
A scarier reality is that we will have to face this as a species sooner or later. There is no avoiding the consequences and comprehending the ramifications of integrating AI and more technology into our lives. Humans are on a direct collision course with AI technology. We can’t avoid it. Why? Because as T-800 says in Terminator 2 to young John Connor, it’s in our nature to destroy ourselves.
As a species we don’t want to work. We want to eat, sleep, breed, consume, and repeat. Technology is our way out of our mundane lives to this utopia full of leisure and self-discovery. Synthetic people will be the prime examples of our lack of grounded morality and showcase mankind’s hubris and lust. We’ve yet to really delve into the moral quandary of where all this leads.
Here is where we really dive down the rabbit hole with AI and synthetic people. Remember groups 1 and 2 from before? Why do we want to put human skin on robots? Is it because we want them to look more like us? Well, of course, and ultimately so we can have sex with them. Normally, a recommendation would be made to Google search the subjects we’re discussing, but you can skip this one and just trust what you read in the news, the sex bot industry is a growing market.
The minute that these automatons can have mouths, a penis or a vagina, there will be an entire new sex industry. If you will, mechanized prostitution available in all shapes, races and sizes. It will lead to many questions. Is it adultery if a married person has sex with a synthetic person? Christianity would say yes potentially, because its sex outside of marriage. But there will be some (Group 2) that will argue otherwise. What about sex with a synthetic child? Where do humans draw the line? And if they are sentient beings as synthetic people, what rights will they have?
What does this have to do with AI destroying mankind? It has everything to do with it because you can destroy humanity just as easily by allowing it to pursue its baser instincts instead of building an army of robots. All AI would have to do is let humanity run its course and we would destroy ourselves through our own depravity. Yes, that sounds very pessimistic but as the world becomes more secular there are only so many conclusions you can draw.
In this article, Star Trek is referenced several times as it has been our modern society’s pop culture ideal for the future. In all its wonders of technology, in the movie Star Trek Insurrection the crew encounters a race of humanoids called the Ba’ku on a planet with in cluster of nebulas which has regenerating properties. The Ba’ku live a very agrarian lifestyle with physical labor and hand crafting artisans. Over the course of the film, it’s revealed that the Ba’ku have warp technology like the Federation but choose a simple life. A profound statement is made in this cautionary tale regarding technology.
“Our technological abilities are not apparent because we have chosen not to employ them in our daily lives. We believe that when you create a machine to do the work of a man, you take something away from the man.”
How true is that statement? Have we become weaker and too dependent on technology already as a species? Did it start with the abacus or the slide rule? How about a calculator? Or the desktop computer? What have we allowed technology to take away from us? Where do we need to draw the line?
We would say these things were invented and employed to save us time. Time is our most precious commodity. In a world where AI is being pushed into every aspect of our lives, we need to push back and say no. There are some things that we need to do and spend that precious time in order keep our humanity. What those things are we will just have to figure out for ourselves. Of course, I could be wrong about all of it. It is just my perspective from the bottom end.