The Tunnels : Habib Hammam

I was inspired by Ramesh Sheresta’s read on human beings as social animals….or rather anti social to the point of fighting nature. It brought to mind a somewhat half facetious- half serious scenario I painted a while back for a future of artificial intelligence after we destroy nature. Here it is attached ….if of any interest. “The Tunnels” attached. Cheers, Habib.

The Tunnels: Movie Fiction

Scenario:

The year 2084. Earth’s environment is so degraded there are very few animal and plant species left, no forests, air quality is not fit for long term human consumption, fewer people populate the earth. Privileged people live in domed settlements made artificially habitable by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Those on the outside raid the domes to get survival goods. AI defends the domes and carries the fight to the intruders.

AI satellites and AI safety units (called Vaders 😀) can easily locate the outsiders (called Arnolds 😀) above ground,but have more difficulty underground. So the Arnolds use a network of tunnels to hide and move. AI does not have a particular location and operates by plugging into all AI controlled systems including a system of individual drones, networks and support facilities. There are two globally dominant AI motherboards, Appleusia and Samsungasia 😀.

Background:

There will come a time in the future when Artificial Intelligence will learn to regenerate and program itself without human intervention. Artificial Intelligence can take the form of individual units like robots or drones or more complex AI global motherboards that communicate via a network of locations or no particular location. Unlike humans, animals and plants, these will be intelligent, but not life forms.

It is not necessarily a given fact that AI will try to dominate all forms of life including human life. But there will come a time when most if not all of the activities of human kind will be assisted by and dependent on AI….food production, medicine and medical maintenance, transport, communications, construction, production, procreation/DNA selective cloning, air quality, water, learning, ….even perhaps establishing and enforcing appropriate protocols (laws) of conduct. Almost anything that could be done by humans can be done by AI more efficiently.

In the beginning humans will program AI Units (AIU) to support human endeavors. Humans make all of the decisions. But AIUs will become able to program themselves and gather the parameters to make decisions. Gradually AIU’s will come to make most of the decisions about how to conduct the tasks assigned to them by humans. At some point AIUs will begin assigning tasks for themselves within very broad parameters.

[Example: In war today, drones flying over Yemen and Afghanistan are controlled by people sitting and watching screens live in Florida. When the drone camera sights a potential target, the person in Florida evaluates the situation based on given parameters and decides whether or not to push the button and kill. However, the AI/drone system today has the capability of making the evaluation and executing the decision to fire without human intervention. Officials in Washington are discussing whether to allow this. So far, humans are in control.]

As humans become more dependent on AI to support various aspects of everyday life, and as AI becomes capable of making decisions and executing them, some AI actions may be harmful to people. For example if people do not pay their water or power bills, AI automatically shuts off their supply without consideration of who might be suffering. Or if a person commits an infraction, AI automatically suspends all banking access harming other aspects of a person’s livelihood. Or if there is a one child parameter, AI kills off a second child.

In the beginning, humans will program AI to make the life of people better. Will humans program AI to make the lives of all people better, or will AI be made to work for those humans who control AI to the detriment of those who have no control…..Will AI be used to bridge or accentuate the difference between the haves and have nots?

If environmental conditions of Earth become more dire and incapable of supporting an ever increasing human population, AI may intervene to support life sustaining conditions (e.g. food, water, clean air, better designed DNA progeny…) for some and not for others. There could be selectivity based on efficiency. There could well come a time when AI will make auto decisions and take action that impacts survival of people such as denying medication to the elderly.

But it is not as if AI knows the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. AI will be taking action based on efficiency to achieve tasks and goals which are AI generated. It is not as if AI sets out to control and fight humans. But very simply, that as AI controls water and electricity etc people who feel hurt may rebel against the system and fight back and then themselves become targets of AI. Then there may be a scenario of humans against AI and so on.

Food for thought. Now back to Tunnels to flesh out the fiction.



HNH.29.12.2017