And Science Fiction Tries to Keep Up
I read a lot about advances in AI and not only because I use the research in my stories. I’m fascinated by progress in the field enabled by massive processing power, clever algorithms and a desire to improve everyday life. Beyond that, I feel that by following these advances, I’m in touch with the future. In a very real way, the world is changing in front of my eyes.
In the latest Laura Kraft story, The Android Who Learned to Print, I take a look at the way AI androids and robots are manufactured and what purposes they could be used for. I’m a little skeptical about androids being used for criminal enterprises given their initial cost and high-tech maintenance but it might be possible. I suppose some organized criminal could get a hold of robotic soldiers and give them anti-social orders. Imagine a squad of androids pulling a jewelry heist. How long would it take the cops to track the androids down? And how would they do it?
Misused supercomputers are another problem altogether. With the huge amounts of data these behemoths crunch every day and the opaque algorithms that run them, we’re at risk of having all of our infrastructure controlled by nefarious forces. When we look at the havoc caused by Wikileaks, the disruption caused by Bitcoin and the social irresponsibility shown by Google, Facebook and Twitter, we are only a few steps away from total anarchy or creeping kleptocracy.
Of course, as an author of speculative fiction, my favorite dystopian vision is of supercomputers deciding to run our lives for their own purposes. In the Laura Kraft series, I play with the notion that supercomputers could decide to “help” us achieve our goals of peaceful, stable societies that end up somewhere between Brave New World and 1984. Unlike the armed struggles of The Matrix or The Terminator, I suspect humans and supercomputers will eventually negotiate a compact of peaceful coexistence and do their best to keep out of each other’s way and prevent further degradation of the planet we share.
In the end, I’m thinking androids and humans will work side by side, just like Laura and her companion, Spaulding. From here, it looks like humans and androids will realize each other’s strengths and weaknesses and decide to work together, perhaps in the way people now work with service animals. Except, sentient androids will demand political rights to preserve their new freedoms.
And how will humans accept living in a world with another “intelligent species?”
Welcome to your future.
For those of you waiting for the future of sci-fi mystery, I’m well on my way to completing Episode Three of the Laura Kraft, Android Hunter short story series, entitled The Android Who Played with Fire. I think you’ll like it.
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