This comic made me happy:
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2085 (this one is totally G-rated, no worries)
This is the way AI should happen. Here's the full text:
UN hearing on AI Rights
Replace "AI" with "African Americans" or "women" or "transgender" or "non-heterosexuals", and replace "we created them" with "we evolved together" and it works nearly as well, and, sadly, much more happily than historically ever happened or is happening.
But I'd like to think that someday, we'll have evolved out the worst of our hatred, fear, ignorance, and lust for authority over others, and we'll do better. And we will share the world peaceably with the other conscious beings that exist. And we'll offer each other a glass of (celebratory beverage of choice) and invite everyone to join the party.
I'd like to believe that we'll act in such a way that the comic could come true.
A novel sentiment, and one that I share. But I fear that this kind of "global harmony" will only occur after our first contact with "alien" sentient species. And then we will suddenly realize how much we have in common with the rest of humanity. It's a sad commentary that discovering sentient life so different from us is what it will take for humans to bond as one and I hope we dont treat that "alien" sentient species the way we've historically treated people who are supposedly so different from us. But I fear we will :(
ReplyDeleteMy pessimistic side agrees with your analysis. I think the book "The Mote in God's Eye" is a good example of the unhappily likely approach.
ReplyDeleteThe stories we tell ourselves may reflect culture more than they shape it, they do seem to shape our culture at least a little. So I try to mention the stories I find that show our happier, more compassionate potential.