In the Twilight Zone episode: I Sing the Body Electric, it tells the story of a grieving family, getting over the death of a mother figure. The father, who is a busy, working man, is unable to take care of his children to his full potential, and in return, seeks the help of a human-like robot. This robot is not just any old robot, but is able to be customized to look like anyone the person who orders her wants her to look like. One of the man's daughters is still having a rather hard time getting over the death of her mother, and feels betrayed by the purchase of the machine. Over time, the family warms up to the mother-like mechanism, and misses her as she moves on to a new family. After watching this episode, I feel as though we can make some comparisons. Robots are not a rare thing in the 21st century, and are getting more and more advanced over the years. It is getting to the point to where it is getting hard to distinguish a real human's face between that of a robot. In fact, robots are now able to be created to look like our loved ones who have passed away, so realistically that we are able to pick the voices and speech patterns these robots have. This suggests that in the future, it will be common to create robots that allow our loved ones to live on in a more eternal robotic form.
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In the TED-Talk, Boaz Almog: The Levitating Superconductor, Almog goes over the scientific phenomenon called Quantum Locking. Quantum locking is a term used to describes an action caused by the Meissner effect and magnetic flux pinning, which in short, is a mess of quantum physics. The Meissner effect happens when a superconductor in a magnetic field expels the magnetic field inside of it, leaving the magnetic field around it to bend. This effect paired with flux pinning is the reason for this levitating effect. Since this is science fiction class, the video titled above sparked something within my head. When Almog placed the saucer upon the magnets, having it lock in place, it reminded me of movies and television shows featuring UFO's. Something noticeable that that UFO's do, is levitate in one set area, sort of like a helicopter. However, these space crafts do not have 'wings' like helicopters do, but have an agility much greater than helicopters, or any other known spacecraft we have here on Earth. My theory is that these crafts are able to fly using this quantum locking gibber-gabber. This is the age in which computers can now outsmart human intelligence, therefore, taking our jobs and originality. But are we ready to accept this sort of advancement, or are we worried that these A.I.'s are revealing a dark reality. Computers have come a long way over the years, ranging from calculators to robots that can perform military tasks. But another thing A.I.'s are now capable of doing is creating art. Not only creating drawings or paintings, but literary arts such as poems. Now, these poems are anything but amateur pieces of work. In fact, when asks, most people would find it hard to tell the difference between a computer made poem versus a human made one. But what does this mean? Have computers finally reached our level of intelligence? In my opinion, I think things are a bit more complicated than that. These machines are not just generating words out of their own 'heads'. In order for these computers to create these poems, they must first read through human made stories/poetry to develop a sense of how we speak. After doing that, they are able to recognize the words that go together, and sort out those that do not. This is not the same as a computer developing a brain of it's own. However, we are not far from that. The idea of suspended animation is a science fiction lover's dream come true. Suspended animation is the process in which and organism has the ability to almost freeze in time, allowing it to seemingly be reincarnated. To me, this sounds like the common idea of cryogenic chambers, or at least the type of cryo chambers you would see in your everyday sci fi film. This idea that pertains to freezing in time could be revolutionary in trying to understand our human mortality. Those able to be suspended would have the ability to be suspended after a horrific accident, and after only hours would they be able to get the help they need and be perfectly fine afterward. This is not a crazy idea and happens often in nature. Not only this but humans have been reported to be able to do this sort of thing with their body. It's just a matter of being able to replace the material in your brain that makes it impossible to live without a certain level of oxygen with something that makes it possible to go without these certain levels of oxygen. Being able to do this would drastically change the way we view life and death, here within our human world. In the Twilight Zone episode, To Serve Man, aliens make landing onto earth. Once on our planet, these aliens promise to help us change and improve our technology and end up doing so. After a while of peace on earth, these aliens allow humans onto their ships to travel to their planet... This is where the twist came in. Humans are food. Just like many farmers around the world, these aliens distress man kind, causing the meat to taste better. The humans are allowed to shop on their planet, and are served luxuriously, only to be slaughtered by the aliens. This scenario was hinted throughout the film. People getting onto the ship were weighed. The aliens did not speak of other planets to the extent of ours. This leaves us to assume that those planets have been eaten and taken advantage off. Something this makes me think about is the fact that from a person looking in, we see this as wrong. But why do we see this as wrong? We eat cows, chickens, pigs... Beings from other planets need to eat too. I think it's interesting how the creators were able to misconstrue our day to day lives into some kind of science fiction scenario. This scenario is happening right in front of us. Another noticeable thing is the fact that the book, the main goal of the people to interpret, was called To Serve Man. Once you've seen the film, you then realize what context that title is in. Technology is advancing. The idea of robots living amongst us humans is prevalent. But what will these robots have that we do not? Currently, scientists have created mechanisms which allow the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and those missing limbs, to walk. But what will happen when these machines are able to make the human species see in ultra-violet? what about when we are able to hear within the wavelengths of bats and whales? What happens when an average human can no longer outrun a modern day being? The idea of this technology can be fascinating. Not only is it interesting to watch our intelligence sprout into beautiful creations but it gives us hope. The blind can see and the deaf can hear. Years ago, this was just fantasy. However, we are living in an age in which fantasy has become reality. But what happens when these advancements get out of hand? Could robots become weaponized? Could we be destroyed by our own creation? |
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November 2017
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