Robots Alchemy
Androids, Cyborgs,
and the Magic of Artificial
Life
by
Texe Marrs
Intro
Will the Human Species
Survive Past 2035?
Are robots and computers alive? Soon this question will be affirmatively answered. Yes, they are
alive. Today they can walk, talk, smell, hear, and reason. In the not too distant tomorrow, robots and
computers will possess emotion, awareness, and consciousness. They will be alive, super-intelligent.
They will replace human beings.
Your universe will never again be the same. Ours is the last generation in which human beings have an
edge. We are now in the process of building and creating our own successors.
In Robot Alchemy, you will meet thousands of robots and computerized machines. Some are jerky,
clunky, and metallic. A few are people-like, with soft “flesh” and body parts that move smoothly and
efficiently. All are fascinating relics, examples of humans yearning to become creators of life. But you
will also ironically discover in these pages, humans ambitiously striving to become machines—bionic
men and women who strongly desire to become more than human; to extend their lives, to become
transhuman, even to become a form of “God.”
Eventually, the two groups, robots and bionic humans will merge. We will reach singularity. From that
point, the planet will be run by artificially intelligent computer systems, some in the form of robots, which
think and are far smarter than the entire human race combined.
People are slated to become inferior, obsolete. Robots will be a “better breed,” and this will be their
world. Dr. Paul Saffo of Stanford University poignantly asks, “What happens after we have truly
intelligent robots?” After reflection, he answers: “If we’re lucky, they’ll treat us as pets. If not they’ll treat
us as food.”
Over twenty-five years ago in 1985, I was privileged to author the first ever book on personal and
home robots, The Personal Robot Book. In that book, I stated: “Surely, the recent introduction of the
personal robot into the homes of thousands of families ranks among the top technological achievements of
all time.”
I went on to author other cutting-edge technology books, The Great Robot Book; Careers in
Computers; Careers With Robots; Mega Forces; High Tech Job Finder; High Tech Careers; and Project
L.U.C.I.D., the first book to explore the implantation of the biochip into human beings. I have been very
busy writing other books as well.
But my mind returns once again to The Personal Robot Book, in which I wrote:
“Perhaps the perfect robot has not yet been created. Maybe he or she is on the drawing board at one
of the many robot research laboratories now springing up around the globe. It could be that some
Einstein-like robot scientist is at this moment formulating plans and ideas that may, before too long,
produce a robot equal, or superior, to the human.”
In this current book, Robot Alchemy, I survey the incredible robot creation, its aftermath, and the future.
Surely, we are on the precipice of creating an incredible thinking machine that will surpass the human
mind and body. Will this momentous event ultimately prove to be our salvation, or it could be a
Frankenstein that will end life as we know it forever?[horror show dc]
If we could pick a date for this dramatic overturn of the human race, it might be about 2035, when
intelligent robots will reach parity in technological knowledge and dexterous capability with humans.
From that date on, robots will increasingly be superior, and everything will change.
I encourage all robot scientists and all peoples everywhere to carefully study this book and to ponder
what we are doing and where we are headed. Your very life and that of the entire human species may just
be at stake.
—Texe Marrs
Austin, Texas
1
If We’re Lucky, They’ll Treat Us As Pets
“The truly interesting question is, what happens after we have truly intelligent robots. If we’re very
lucky, they’ll treat us as pets. If not, they’ll treat us as food.”
— Dr. Paul Saffo,
Stanford University
The push is on. Everywhere, around the globe in thousands of places, men and women are stretching
the outer envelope of robotics. In Japan, America, China, Germany, Russia, Brazil, they’re innovating,
thinking of entirely new ways to create technological systems that walk, talk, see, speak, and communicate
with each other.
In his website, Alchemy of Change, Gideon Rosenblatt recently wrote, “We are sitting at the edge of
the age of robotics.” He noted that independent hackers had, over the past year, quickly figured out they
could reuse a Microsoft Xbox Kinect 3D sensor as a low cost of machine vision, to enable machines to
“see.” Then, said Rosenblatt, they could marry that available technology with Google’s new Android
Open accessory, combine it with a low-cost electric operating platform, and—presto!—the robot hacker
has a robotic nervous system.
“Small, interchangeable pieces of robots that people can combine in endless ways. Small pieces
loosely joined. That was what made Web 2.0 (the internet) rocket to life—and its likely to do the
same in the field of robotics. Hold on to your antennas. We’re about to take a wild ride.”
Now, whether Rosenblatt is correct or not about an imminent “wild ride” based on economical,
intelligent robotic components that convert into vision and nervous systems, he is right on with his
observation that robotic “hackers are coming out of the woodwork” building new types of robots.
Robot enthusiasts, including untold numbers of “hackers,” are joined by roboticists and scientists at
distinguished universities such as M.I.T, Princeton, Carnegie Institute, the University of Texas at Austin,
the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Stanford University in the U.S.A., plus dozens of
universities in Europe, Japan, China, and elsewhere. Altogether, thousands of outstanding academics are
constantly coming up with incredible new advances in robotics, bionics, and related fields.
Robotic Capability Increasing Exponentially
The power of Moore’s Law is rapidly at work. Moore’s Law, a scientific maxim, holds that computer
knowledge increases exponentially, doubling approximately every two years. This law, first expressed by
Intel Corp. co-founder Gordon E. Moore in 1965, has proven uncannily accurate.
We now have robots with the incredible ability to perform tasks and functions we usually expect only
of human beings. Robots have the ability to exercise all the five senses—hearing, feeling, smelling,
seeing, and tasting. They can walk miles (actually, run), speak thousands of words a minute, smell odors
that humans cannot detect, and some have a keen tactile sense.
Robots come in all forms and sizes. There’s the humanoid (shaped like a human), familiar to us
because of cinema and science fiction, but also hundreds of other shapes of robots. There are military and
spy robot wasps, bees, birds, animals, and snakes, robot platforms that dive under the seas, robotic arms
on spacecraft, and robotic drone aircraft. Where there is imagination and need, you will discover a robot
to fit the bill.
The one thing that robots lack today is human intelligence. Though robots can play chess and have
been gifted with artificial intelligence that enables them to perform uncommon tasks—marvelous in terms
of yesteryear—the machines nevertheless lack the capacity to “think” and “reason” like human beings.
Robots cannot “love” nor do they feel “pride.”
Robotics and artificial intelligence scientists say, however, that robots are close to developing what
some might call a “soul” or the “juice.” Robots currently lack this human-like capability to autonomously
create, think, and emote. One can build a robot that can listen to a human’s problems, then appear to cry
and show extreme emotion. Robots can seemingly openly express pain, anger, disgust, or sadness, but it’s
all an act. Such demonstrations of emotion are purely mechanical and are not based on sincere, affective
empathy.
Additionally while very intelligent robots can “create,” currently the robot’s qualitative power to
evaluate knowledge and calculate solutions is limited.
Surpassing the Human Species
True, creative artificial intelligence is at least 25 to 30 years in the future, according to prominent
roboticists such as Ray Kurzweil of Google Corp., Rodney Brooks at M.I.T., and others. That’s when the
robot reaches and then surpasses the knowledge-level and creativity of human beings. From that moment
forward, things begin to radically change.
Then, robots will become the masters of humans, infinitely more valuable due to their demonstrated
intelligence and virtues. Being conscious, the machines will quickly develop their own framework and
structure of intelligence. Robots will create more intelligent brains for robots, and Moore’s Law (the
doubling of computer power every two years) may escalate significantly.
Soon, the thinking capacity and computing power of the robot will so far outpace the human brain that
human beings cannot possibly keep up. The intelligent robot will create solutions and machines to solve
them, odd and queer to our way of thinking. Indeed, humankind will eventually not even be able to think of
such solutions or imagine the problems incurred to be solved.
At that point, we may find that humans become the subordinates of robots. We will at first be charged
with tending to them, catering to their eccentric needs and desires. We shall ultimately become
inconsequential slaves, unintended consequences of our own morbid, abundant curiosity and ambitions.
Humanity will have become a prime example of the ages-old dictum, be careful what you wish for.
The Alchemy of Robots
In the Medieval Ages, alchemists worked incessantly at their mysterious craft. Their goal was to take
certain base metals—lead, iron, etc.—and to create from them gold. To do so, they needed the
Philosopher’s Stone. While there were many who actually sought to literally turn lead into gold, most
were simply using the coded language of alchemy to express esoteric goals.
In their Great Work, these alchemist philosophers believed they could effect spiritual transformation.
Theirs was a hermetic science related to mythology, religion, and spirituality and focused on finding
perfection, immortality, and liberation.
Strangely, modern robotic scientists seek, in their own way, to practice a form of alchemy. Theirs is the
task of the transmutation of common metals and materials into “gold”—robots. These robots are precious,
indeed, for they incorporate the processes of life. Robots are, to some degree or other, alive! [bulls*#t, just a glorified processor dc]
In effect, the roboticists have performed what primitive man would proclaim to be “magic.” In turning
on the robot, in supplying an autonomous power source, the robot begins to talk, move, and speak—to
demonstrate signs of “life.” Its computer “brains” allow it to do so.
Psychiatrist Carl J. Jung once described the human brain as, “a machine that a ghost can operate.” With
robots, the “ghost” is whatever animating process is provided by the roboticist maker.
Here is how H.J. Sheppard, quoted in Darke Hieroglyphics: Alchemy in English Literature
(University of Kentucky Press, 1996) describes alchemy:
“Alchemy is the art of liberating parts of the Cosmos from tempered existence and achieving
perfection which, for metals is gold, and for man, longevity, then immortality and, finally,
redemption. Material perfection was sought through the action of a preparation (Philosopher’s Stone
for metals; Elixir of Life for humans), while spiritual ennoblement resulted from some form of inner
revelation or other enlightenment (Gnosis, for example, in Hellenistic and western practices).”
Robot scientists, on the whole, deny the existence of a creator God. However, whether they admit to it
or not, they themselves act as “God” to effect life, albeit artificial life. Roboticists, modern-day
alchemists, have done an outstanding job in their pursuit of robotic life. They have done their best to
liberate the latent “spirit” in inanimate (base) materials; but, as yet, the “perfection” and “spiritual
enablement” to which Sheppard refers has eluded their efforts.
“Redemption,” then, is not obtained. [nor will it ever be dc]
The supreme question is, once technological singularity has been achieved, and the robot creature is
adjudged superior in intelligence to man in its “thinking” apparatus, even if the robot becomes man’s
master, will it attain these key attributes? Will the robot be spiritually enabled, redeemed? Or will the
machine become a tyrannical beast, a heartless creature without a soul?
“If We’re Lucky, They’ll Treat Us As Pets”
Today, humankind fortunately has control over the soulless beast. Though autonomous drones and other
robotic instruments prowl our skies and roam the landscapes of battle, DARPA (the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency) and the scientists retain the power to lock or unlock the robots’ potential to
inflict harm on human life and property.
But eventually, the human control will be relinquished, as more intelligent robots and completely
autonomous robotic craft become ubiquitous. Then, seeing that robots are superior to humans in
judgement, will man give in to their new robotic masters?
Paul Saffo, of Stanford University, warns, “We’re going to reach the point where everybody’s going to
say, of course machines are smarter than we are.”
Reflecting on this point, Saffo went on to say, “The truly interesting question is, what happens after we
have truly intelligent robots. If we’re lucky, they’ll treat us as pets. If not, they’ll treat us as food.”
Food? Yes, indeed. The Department of Defense has been working on a robot that would run off
biomass. Called EATR (pronounced “eater”), which stands for Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot,
reportedly the robot “can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass…(and other organically-based
energy sources).” Fox News even reported that the EATR robot would be able to eat animals and human
remains on the battlefield, plus wood chips, twigs, and vegetables.
And in the event you would like to escape the EATR, the government could send out packs of
hunter/killer robots looking for you. The Pentagon is now developing a Multi-Robot Pursuit System to
search for and detect non-cooperative human beings. According to the New York Times (February 16,
2005) and New Scientist magazine, the boys and girls at Defense are spending over $127 billion on a
project known as Future Combat Systems (FCS) to develop robotic soldiers, and a good part of the money
will go for hunter-killer robots.
The hunter-killer robot will be very advanced, equipped with DNZ sniffers, facial recognition
cameras, armed Taser guns, machine guns, and rocket launchers. With the personal characteristics of the
person(s) to be apprehended, the robot can, for example, sniff the person out of a crowd and
autonomously eliminate him or her. Sounds like the Terminator robot, doesn’t it?
Which reminds one of the classic episode of the Twilight Zone series, To Serve Man. In this unforgettable
show, the Kanamits, a benevolent race of aliens, land on the earth with the seeming intention of serving
man. The Kanamits, who are about nine feet tall and have bulging bald heads, provide humans a cure for
cancer, offer a force field to shield man from invasion, show him how to triple the productivity of
agriculture, and even provide a super-efficient source of power.
One of the Kanamits gives a telepathic speech at the United Nations and leaves a book, which is in the
Kanamits language, unknown to man.
U.S. decoding experts go right to work on decoding the mysterious book which they find is entitled, TO
SERVE MAN. As the decoding work continues the Kanamits invite human beings to return back with them to their home planet. The Kanamits even set up an interstellar shuttle service to take human tourists on this
exciting journey.
With no more wars or problems on earth, many decide to go, including one of the top decoding experts.
The line to get on the spaceship is long with expectant people travelers. But just as the decoding expert is
boarding, one of his associates, terror-struck, rushes up. She screams at him not to get on the ship.
They’ve just deciphered the rest of the book. To Serve Man is a cookbook!
She is too late, and a Kanamit abruptly shoves him aboard the craft, just as the huge door solemnly
closes. The poor man, naturally, had no earthly idea when he booked the flight to the Kanamits planet
what To Be Served was all about. Likewise, humankind today cannot foresee the unintended consequences
of his frenzied campaign to construct the intelligent robot.
Neither did the hapless Dr. Victor Frankenstein consider the consequences of building a new creature
out of deceased body parts, a human corpuscle “robot,” if you will. As the sign read over the band saw
machine in my high school shop class, Think before you turn on the machine.
Serving Up Death Via the Drone Aircraft
While we anxiously await the inevitable day when we discover that robots are much smarter than we
mere humans, we may well consider the damage wrought already today by robotic instruments. For
example the deaths and horror brought by robotic planes, or drones.
According to a group calling itself the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC), up to
1,035 civilians have been killed outside legitimate war zones in the last eight years, including 200
innocent children. Professor Noel Sharkey, a member of the ICRAC and a respected roboticist, wants to
put an end to such killing and horrors.
“Who in their right mind would give a powerful unmanned Air Force to the Central Intelligence
Agency, a covert organization with such a track record for unaccountable and illegal killing,” says
Sharkey, of Sheffield University, in an interview with The Guardian (March 1, 2013) newspaper.
Sharkey notes that up to 50 other countries are developing drone technology, including Israel, India,
Russia, and China. In America, the law enforcement agencies are speeding drones into service. Some
65,000 to 75,000 are planned.
“Here is where the real danger resides,” said Sharkey, “automated killing as the final step in the
industrial revolution of war—a clear and sanitized factory of slaughter with no physical blood on our
hands and none of our own side killed.”
“We have records of civilian casualties, including numerous children, from drone strikes when there
are humans watching on computer screens and deciding when to fire. Think how much worse it will be
when drones deal death automatically... If you have autonomous robots then it’s going to make decisions
who to kill, when to kill, and where to kill them. This is a dumb, stupid machine and then you are going to
give it the decision to kill people?”
According to Dr. Sharkey, the world is sleepwalking right into a lethal technocracy. He calls for
safeguards to be put in place. Unfortunately, the military-industrial complex sees only power and lethal
capacity in pursing this technology; certainly it cannot imagine any real liabilities.
Like the decoding specialist in Twilight Zone’s “To Be Served,” we are all busy preparing to board the
alien craft for the new world. All Aboard!
2
Waiting for the Apocalypse
“Within 30 years we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly
after, the human era will be ended.”
—Vernor Vinge,
The Coming
Technological Singularity (1993)
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, is the world’s largest electronics manufacturer.
The Chinese company makes products for Apple, Intel, Sharp, Amazon, Dell, Cisco, Microsoft, Motorola,
and Hewlett-Packard. It has factories throughout the world, in China, Brazil, India, Japan, and Mexico,
and many others. Among them is the huge Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou, China where over 450,000
workers are employed.
These workers are employed at the massive, Zenchua Science and Technology Park, a walled, 1.16
square mile campus sometimes referred to as “Foxconn City.” There, they live in gray-scale worker
dormitories, with little more than a plain room, a small kitchen and bath which they share, and a TV. They
toil up to 12 hours a day for 6 days each week. Theirs is a slave drone existence.
Lately, news reports indicate that problems exist at Foxconn City and other manufacturing complexes.
Low pay, long hours, and terrible conditions have led to worker mutinies, strikes, and even suicides. Nets
had to be installed at the perimeter of all buildings, so many workers were going to the top and just
jumping off.
Things have gotten so bad that Terry Gou, the founder and president of Foxconn, finally was forced in
2012 to do something about it.
He brought in robots to replace the disgruntled, complaining employees. According to Singularity
Hub, Foxconn president Gou not only brought in the first installment of robots, he also loudly announced
that the giant company, the world’s largest, would replace over 1 million workers over the next three
years:
“It appears as if Gou has started the ball in motion. Since the announcement, a first batch of 10,000
robots—aptly named Foxbots—have made their way into at least one factory, and by the end of
2012, another 20,000 more will be installed.”
Evidently, the company had grown tired of worker riots, corporate audits, and suicides attracting
international attention. With robots, the complaints would diminish considerably and, finally, end
altogether.
Of course, robots themselves must be manufactured. But that presents few problems. In Fanuc, Japan,
robots produce other robots. In fact, the concept of self replicating robots is now catching on.
From the corporate and elite standpoint, it seems that Foxconn and thousands of other companies
throughout the planet have the right idea. Replace disgruntled employees with sturdy, intelligent robots.
And, as robots are growing more and more reliable and trustworthy, a company’s “people problems” are
solved.
What of the Workers? What Will They Do?
But, then, what about the over one billion human beings in China, the 900 million in India, almost 200
million in Brazil, and over 7 billion across the world? What are they to do? Where will they find
employment? How will they support themselves and their families?
Will the recent economic upsurge in previous emerging nations like China, India, Indonesia, and the
Philippines just abruptly end? Will the expectations of billions of workers be rudely dashed as smart and
dependable robots suddenly are rushed to factories everywhere?
Must these workers, inaugurated into the workplace only a few years ago, now be sorely disappointed
and return to their previous peasant surroundings, destitute and unemployable? Will this cause horrendous
depression on the part of the masses as they see robots replacing them and shiny, new, autos, TVs and
other consumer products continue to roll off the assembly lines?
Will their dashed expectations cause these tens of millions of workers to rebel and cause worker riots,
demonstrations, and political-economic turmoil? How can these workers be appeased, if at all?
Your Job is in Jeopardy
The problem is not only in China, India, or Japan. This is a dramatic change comparable to the Industrial
Revolution. It affects the whole globe. Computer engineer, software writer, scientist, construction worker,
carpenter, plumber, waiter, mechanic—whatever your current skill or field, you are about to become
obsolete.
Yes, obsolete. All because of robots and robotics. An explosion in robots and automation like you have
never seen. An incredible explosion, so huge that it promises to change the very face of the planet.
It will dwarf all that has gone on before, and make current hot issues puny and insignificant.
Immigration?—Why would undocumented illegals come to America when so many Americans are
unemployed, thanks to the proliferation of robots. Gun control? The criminal set finds that its assault rifles
and guns are superfluous among thousands of self-replicating robots.
Jobs? Well, the issue of jobs will take on an entirely new meaning. Why should you, a mere flesh and
blood human being, be hired when so many more well-qualified and artificially intelligent robots come
off the assembly line? Robots that don’t complain about the worker rights, don’t join unions, aren’t
concerned about the work hour schedules and who are duly unimpressed with how they are treated—or
mistreated—by employers. The robot never complains, never eats, and can work 24-hours a day, 7 days a
week, with a little time off for maintenance check.
Technological Singularity
Ah, but you are an “idea” person, a genius, a whiz-kid. No robot can compete with you, you say. You will
always be in demand. Well, don’t be too sure. We soon will hit technological singularity. That is the
stage, or time, when the artificial intelligence of robots will achieve parity with human brains. They will
be just as smart, and heaven knows how much more capable and dexterous.
Then they will go on from technological singularity to technological superiority. That is when the
robot is so much more intelligent. He reasons, he has emotion and sympathy, he diagnoses and repairs
himself. He’s able to outthink you, the human, and to do tasks more efficiently and more effective.
You cannot possibly keep up with a robot at this stage. Your seniority—years of experience on the job
—will give way to a computer chip and to amazing biological and inanimate materials that defy the human
body’s ability to withstand. You will, quite simply, become obsolete.
Thus will have arrived the long-awaited and much feared dystopia, a time when humans will, as a
whole, become woefully obsolete and our functions carried out by a better breed: robots.
The Human Era Will Be Ended
That time is almost upon us, if we are to trust those who have in the past proven uncannily accurate in
their predictions. If you are, say, now fifty years of age or less—which is most of us—you are likely to
see the era of technological singularity arrive. The lesser your age, the greater the impact this momentous
age will have on you.
Mark Dice, in Big Brother—The Orwellian Nightmare Come True, writes:
“The ‘technological singularity,’ sometimes simply called ‘the singularity,’ refers to a theoretical
time in the future when an artificial intelligence is created that is able to learn and advance
technology at a faster pace than humans are able to comprehend. Once machines exceed human
intelligence, they will improve their own designs and functions in complex ways that are too difficult
for humans to understand.”
It was a retired mathematics professor at San Diego State University named Vernor Vinge to whom we
owe credit for this unique concept. A science fiction writer, in 1993 he coined the term in his paper, The
Coming Technological Singularity. “Within 30 years,” he wrote, “we will have the technological means
to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.”
Whoa, hold on a minute: “shortly after, the human era will be ended?” That means somewhere around
2027 human beings will be finished as a species!
Why The Future Doesn’t Need Us
Just seven years later, in 2000, Bill Joy, the founder of Sun Microsystems (now a part of Cisco), popular
computer chip and server manufacturer, published an article in Wired magazine that shocked his audience.
It was titled, “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us.”
Joy explains that in a brief few decades (about 2020 or 2030) the humans will no longer be needed.
The worker functions will be performed by robots.
The vast majority of human beings, Joy said, will be rendered obsolete in the eyes of the controllers—the owners of robots. This shift will outstrip the impact of the Industrial Revolution.
What, then, will our controllers decide to do? Why should they continue with outmoded humans in the
workplace? Competitive forces must dictate.
They “may simply decide to exterminate the mass of humanity,” Joy concludes.
Human beings, homo sapiens, will, as our controllers judge, have proven themselves to be “useless
eaters,” or worse. Oh how the common people will long for that distant day and time when they populated
the factories, assembling cars, packing boxes, bolting and fastening parts, etc. The times when they were
needed. They complained back then but didn’t realize how good they had it.
Now rendered useless, they will at first be given government and corporate benefits. This is the
meaning of our currently fast-growth welfare state.
Finally, they will be exterminated, quietly, easily, and with no recourse. Unproductive, a drag on
society, why should the controllers, the owners, endure these “misfits” of nature?
Bill Joy says it was only a few years before, in 1998, that he realized the ethical dimensions. “I became
anxiously aware of how great are the dangers facing us in the 21st century.”
“I was also reminded of the Borg of Star Trek, a hive of partly biological, partly robotic creatures with
a strong destructive streak. Borg-like disasters are a staple of science fiction, so why hadn’t I been more
concerned about such robotic dystopias earlier. Why weren’t other people more concerned about these
nightmarish scenarios?”
Referring to Ray Kurzweil and Hans Moravec, two well-known robot futurists, Joy noted that, “By
2030 we are likely to be able to build machines, in quantity, a million times as powerful as the personal
computers of today—sufficient to implement the dreams of Kurzweil and Moravec.”
What are the dreams of men like Kurzweil and Moravec? In his seminal books, the Age of Spiritual
Machines and Nearing Singularity, Kurzweil postulated that by the year 2030, the intelligence level of
robots will rival that of humans. “The machines will convince us that they are conscious, that they have
their own agenda…”
The Agenda of Robots
But what is that agenda? Having taken our jobs, what then? David Levy says in his book, Love and Sex
with Robots, that men and women will seek robots as sexual partners. Even now, some purchase life-size
dolls. Imagine what a real robot would do, one with soft hair, beautiful skin tone, lovely eyes, and
pleasant personality, a mate who, the manufacturer contends, will always love and admire you. It’s simply
irresistible, isn’t it?
In the movie, The Stepford Wives, life-like robots assume the role of real women housewives, by
murdering them with their husband’s approval. The flip side is, what happens next, to the men? (Hmm.
That’s another movie).
In Switzerland at the Center of Neuroscience and Technology and the Brain Mind Institute, director
Harry Markram’s goal is to create a fully functioning replica of a human brain. He says his target date is
about 2020. One wonders what he will do with it?
Rodney Brooks is a highly acclaimed robot scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT). “One day,” says Brooks, “we will create a human-level intelligence.”
According to Dr. Brooks, this will be a significant milestone in history. Then we will go on to achieve
robots smarter— much smarter—than people!
By the Year 2030
How soon could such an intelligent robot be built, one that would be smarter and more capable than
human beings? “The coming advances in robotics make it possible by 2030,” says Bill Joy in his Wired
magazine article.
“Once an intelligent robot exists, it is only a small step to a robot species—to an intelligent robot that
can make copies of itself.” That would be the replicator robot, and you and I wouldn’t have to build it.
Other robots would do that. So the sky is the limit in numbers from there on.
“Given the incredible power of these new technologies,” he asks, “shouldn’t we be asking how we can
best coexist with them?” Joy suggests that we should proceed with great caution because, otherwise, our
own extinction is likely.
In Flesh and Machines: How Robots will Change Us (2002), Rodney Brooks reports that it could be
far sooner than we realize, maybe within 20 years or so. And the robot machines will meet all our
fantasies too, he reports:
“Today there is a clear distinction between the robots of science fiction and the machines in their
(the peoples’) daily lives. Our fantasy machines have… emotions, desires, fears, love, and pride…My thesis is…the boundary between fantasy and reality will be rent asunder.”
Are you ready for this? In just a few decades, maybe less, there will be superior intelligent robots that
meet up with all of your life’s fantasies. Want a robot that will desire you, fear you, love you, that has
pride in itself and its appearance? Well, here it comes. Not ready for it? Too bad, it’s coming anyway.
According to Joy, humanity has no plan, no control. He ponders, “have we already gone too far down
the path to alter its course?” The answer, of course, is yes. Since we don’t really have solutions, we plod
forward into the fog of tomorrow, ever hoping things will work out, fearing they won’t.
The Future Laid Out
Highly respected author and futurist Ray Kurzweil, in his 1999 book, The Age of Spiritual Machines,
takes us decade by decade—2019, 2029, and beyond into 2099 for insight into the technological marvels
that await us. He predicted that by 2009, “Books, magazines, and newspapers will be read on displays
that are the size of small books.” The introduction of the iPhones, Nook, and Kindle are proof that
Kurzweil was accurate. Kurzweil predicted iTunes, YouTube, the iPad and similar telecommunications.
In the military realm, he foresaw the arrival of the unmanned drone.
By 2019, we will have computers implanted in eye glasses and contact lenses, and computers and
robots that are roughly equivalent to the human brain. But we will also have increased friction between
machines (robots) and human beings. A “human underclass” will result—people inferior to the average
robotic machine. These tens of millions of people will not be able to compete and will not be
productively engaged in the economy.
After 2029, this problem grows more and more acute as human obsolescence becomes clear. People
will increasingly be merged with machines to take advantage of the machine’s greater capabilities. Many
will have phones implanted, and chips in the brain will create instant “authorities” in diverse fields.
There will be an encyclopedia chip, a travelogue chip, the possibilities are endless.
And the chip itself will be different. So tiny and minute you cannot see it, it will include and contain all
your biographical information, including your SSAN, your place of birth and employment record, your
criminal record (if any), your medical history. It may even contain your proclivity to commit crimes, to
permit the government to closely watch and monitor your every move.
Nor will the chip or neural implant be made of silicon. It will be of biological material: a nanorobotic
implant.
As the 21st century unfolds, Big Brother’s Police State continues to gather momentum and the freedom of people diminishes. The population is not increasing, it is declining as the world’s governments put
limits on size of families; marriage is circumscribed, and people see little or no hope for children to
thrive and prosper in a robotic world.
What Will Happen When the
Machines Overtake People?
“There is almost no human employment in production, agriculture, and transportation at this point,” writes
Kurzweil. That is where, though Kurzweil does not go there, Big Brother’s Police State comes in.
The human controllers, no longer dependent on the vote of a propagandized, dumbed-down electorate,
imagine themselves as members of a special clique. They see the world is run by super-intelligent robot
and computer systems smarter than the combined people. How can we diminish the population?, they ask.
How can we shrink it to a manageable size? Is this the true reason for today’s population control?
With machines dislocating the work force and employment continuing to decline over the years,
unproductive human beings will increasingly be given “freebies” by Big Brother. We’re already seeing
this now—a freeby economy, with increasing numbers on the government dole. The disability rolls grow,
unemployment compensation increases, Social Security and government-subsidized medical care expand,
and the numbers on welfare programs go up exponentially. As more and more people find they reluctantly
have no productive employment, they join the “slackers”—the huge numbers who sit around and do
nothing.
As long as this surplus of human capital is entertained and their brains are endlessly supplied with
weirder and weirder music and video games, as long as the internet provides gargantuan programs of
fantasies, and as long as the growing surplus of humans have toys (facsimile guns, crazy clothes, sneakers,
jewelry, skateboards, exercise machines, gadgets of all kinds etc.), the controllers in our government will
not be threatened. But as fewer humans go to colleges and universities (why seek more education when a
chip can expand intelligence instantaneously?), the issue of what to do with the huge and ever-growing,
unproductive force of humans will be paramount in the minds of the elite.
Those elitist human intelligences who use neural technology implants (chips) will have enormous
augmentation of normal human perceptual and cognitive abilities. They will be part cyborgs. However,
Kurzweil emphasizes that those who do not use the new brain and neural technologies will “be unable to
meaningfully dialogue” and interact with others.
Such people will be frowned upon as “useless eaters,” loathed as unwholesome castes unworthy of
human endeavor. Eventually, these human beings will be dealt with. Humans adjudged unworthy of
“continuing” in this world without added input from the authorities will be marked for disposal. Perhaps a
soylent green future is ahead?
Robotic Wars Ahead
In classical days, before the advent of robots and machines, the ages-old alternative of war would be used
to meaningfully employ—and dispose of—the surplus humanity. This was Malthus’ notion, that wars are
fomented for population control. But with robots as warriors, the Age of War removes the human element.
As we shall see, for over a quarter of a century DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency) and the Pentagon have assiduously worked to produce useful robotic machines that can
productively kill, maim, starve, poison, and otherwise reduce the population of the foe. Future wars will
be fought almost exclusively by high technological drone aircraft, interlinking complex and sophisticated
non-human ground machines, and autonomous robots.
There is no place to hide for human warriors who will be quickly chewed up and discarded as robot
combatants take the lead, finally replacing humans altogether. Future wars will be fought by intelligent
systems smarter and faster than humans, networking autonomously across the theater of battle. At most, a
few humans will direct the flow of battle from remote display television panels. In this way, entire
ecosystems, regions, or war would be used to meaningfully employ—and dispose of—the surplus
humanity. This was Malthus’ notion, that wars are fomented for population control. But with robots as
warriors, the Age of War removes the human element.
As we shall see, for over a quarter of a century DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency) and the Pentagon have assiduously worked to produce useful robotic machines that can
productively kill, maim, starve, poison, and otherwise reduce the population of the foe. Future wars will
be fought almost exclusively by high technological drone aircraft, interlinking complex and sophisticated
non-human ground machines, and autonomous robots.
There is no place to hide for human warriors who will be quickly chewed up and discarded as robot
combatants take the lead, finally replacing humans altogether. Future wars will be fought by intelligent
systems smarter and faster than humans, networking autonomously across the theater of battle. At most, a
few humans will direct the flow of battle from remote display television panels. In this way, entire
ecosystems, regions, or even entire nations could be defeated quickly and without physical human
intervention.
To Control the Humans That Remain
But the real trick of smart machines will be to control the few human beings that remain. In this light, the
CIA Director, General David Petraeus, recently hailed the introduction of the “smart” grid home
appliances and products now to be part of the Internet. Petraeus was ecstatic, calling the advanced
refrigeration, garage door opener, microwave, air conditioner, etc., a “transformation.”
This is great for clandestine warfare, as it would give intelligence agencies and law enforcement
authorities the power at any time to access any part of your home, business, or office and use it
clandestinely against you. Already this capability exists with the new automobiles and cell phones.
(Naturally, old concepts such as America’s “antiquated” Bill of Rights would not apply).
As robots become more intelligent and autonomous, achieving higher and higher levels of human
supervisory, managerial, and professional positions, the proportion of robots in the workplace will
dramatically increase. Today, a printing plant that used to employ a thousand humans gets by with only 30
to 40. In the year 2025, that plant may need only three or four.
As the intelligence level of robots increases, the corporate bosses now replacing workers will find that
they, too, are replaced. Where, then, will they work? Who will pay their bills? Who will take care of their
medical bills? Tens, no—hundreds—of millions of proud workers will find themselves out on the street,
demanding their governments foot their bills. And when the elite politicians finally are forced to say,
“No!,” what happens then? Will the bright new robotic age turn into an economic and social nightmare?
The Apocalypse Awaits
Movie after movie is coming out with themes of renegade robots marauding and taking over the world.
We love these movies but we really do not believe their plots. It’s too fantastic, too futuristic, we reason.
But is it?
In fact, academics and Nobel Peace Prize laureates, looking hard at the evidence of robot development
are now marshalling all their resources to prevent killer robots before they become reality. They say that
near-future intelligent machines, like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in The Terminator, will be
capable of independently selecting and engaging targets.
Human Rights Watch, based in New York, is willing to spend millions to make sure the public is fully
aware of the grave danger. It has launched the “Stop the Killer Robot” campaign. The organization
recently issued this press release:
“Fully autonomous weapons are being developed by several countries… Killer robots are weapons
with full autonomy able to choose and fire on targets without human intervention…robot warfare is
the next step up from unmanned drones and will be available in the next decade.”
Dr. Noel Sharkey, robotics expert at Sheffield University, warns that robots are unregulated and nations
will use them without paying heed to morality or to international law. “These things are not science
fiction,” he warns, “they are well into development.”
While Dr. Sharkey and others worry about killer robots in our near future, some are working to make
humans into robots. I’m speaking of the transhumanists who propose that it is humanity’s destiny to
ascend to the highest stages of cyborg development in its quest for immortality. We look at the coming
super-race in the next chapter.
37s
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