“…somewhere those words were being whirled into the most complex structure ever conceived by man; that a trillion facts would blend and coordinate into a whole, and that from that whole, Multivac would abstract its best help.”
This statement comes from a short story, All the Troubles of the World1, by Isaac Asimov, first published in a magazine, Super Science Fiction, in 1958. Multivac is an immense computer, centralized in Washington, DC, with terminals, tendrils, and connections to anything and everywhere in the world. It had started, like everything else of human origin, as an idea which had grown from concept to actual reality, finally leading to Multivac which was tasked with taking in all the facts and information known to man, both collectively and individually, from which it would determine the best course of action for humanity. All humans were required to participate in the collection of knowledge, inputting even their most private thoughts into the system on a regular basis. Eventually, Multivac became competent enough to predict future crimes, enabling authorities to arrest those named before they had taken action to commit them. It was not even necessary to think about committing the crimes anymore as Multivac could apparently predict, with some certainty, what an individual would consider prior to the thought even entering his mind and take pre-emptive action to prevent it from happening. The movie, Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, drew heavily on this concept.
In short, the ultimate electronic nanny. I hate them. I really do. They are everywhere, from nagging beeps to remind you to “buckle up”. Road signs which flash red warnings at you that you are driving too fast and order you to slow down. “Slow down!” “Slow down!” Increasingly, they are taking shape as health-related monitors which are synced with your ever-ready companion “smart” phone. How long will it be before we are told to gaze into a retina scanner in order to start our car or become unable to drive it because the reader in the dashboard has determined that an inappropriate level of alcohol on our breath has been detected?
Asimov, one of my childhood favorite authors, who was extremely prescient, died in 1992, well before the age of AI and the ubiquitous adoption of the program. My guess, understanding his bent toward individual freedom, is that he would not have welcomed its advent, even though he predicted it with clarity. I am constantly amazed at his ability to project events and developments many years into the future.
Let me rephrase this statement and bring it up to date.
“…somewhere those words were being whirled into the most complex structure ever conceived by man; that a trillion facts would blend and coordinate into a whole, and that from that whole, AI would abstract its best answer.“
Really, now. Isn’t this the way that technology is moving, spending gazillions of dollars on data centers, quantum computers, and communication devices, hoovering up any and all specks or truckloads of information it can. Legal or not doesn’t matter. Privacy be damned! You have it, we want it. Give it over. (BTW, make sure you read all the fine print in the Consumer Disclosure of the Terms of Service before you click the Agreement button, and we’ll make sure it’s so long and so complicated that you will just automatically click the button–so that you can experience the thrill and pleasure of our product without wading through all the legal terminology of your rights and responsibilities…and ours.) Applying for a job or a driver’s license? Have an appointment with a doctor, dentist, or shrink? Looking to buy beer at your local grocery store? Papers, please! Written anything and published it online or in print recently or within your lifetime? Know for sure that the entire world probably has access to it and whatever you said can and may will be used against you2…at some future time, even if you are long since dead and gone.
And on, and on, and on, scooping up the “facts” in an increasingly efficient manner and storing them somewhere, in an ethereal, amorphous, nebulous place which no one has ever seen but which has become an immense piggy bank for some few, well-connected persons and their governments. Asimov’s Multivac, which today we call The Cloud.
The man said, “Good afternoon, swearers and guests. I am Randolph T. Hoch, in charge of the Baltimore ceremonies this year. The swearers3 met me several times now during the progress of the physical and neurological portions of this examination. Most of the task is done, but the most important matter is left. The swearer himself, his personality, must go into Multivac’s records.”
“Each year, this requires some explanation to the young people reaching adulthood. Until now…you have not been adult, you have not been individuals in the eyes of Multivac, except where you were especially singled out as such by your parents or your government.”
“Until now, when the time for the yearly up-dating of information came, it was your parents who filled in the necessary data on you. Now the time has come for you to take over that duty yourself. It is a great honor, a great responsibility. Your parents have told us what schooling you’ve had, what diseases, what habits, a great many things. But now you must tell us a great deal more; your innermost thoughts, your most secret deeds.”
“This is hard to do the first time, embarrassing even, but it must be done. Once it is done, Multivac will have a complete analysis of all of you in files. It will understand your actions and reactions. It will even be able to guess with fair accuracy at your future actions and reactions.”
“In this way, Multivac will protect you. If you are in danger of accident, it will know. If someone plans harm to you, it will know. If you plan harm, it will know and you will be stopped in time so that it will not be necessary to punish you…for the good of all.” (Ibid. Bolded emphasis mine.)
It will know. It will know. It will know. The repetitious monotone sounds so machine-like that it brings back memories of an episode of Dr. Who, from a long time ago before the show went woke. At the very end of it, a portal opened in a wall and short, squat robots started pouring out, each one chanting over and over, “Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate.”
Will this be the logical end of AI? Can we look forward to a time when everything about us, our thoughts, our passions, our habits, our goals, dreams, and visions will be known to the Machine which is being built out? Will it pass the point of no return where Man no longer has control of it, but becomes subservient to its dictates? Will it develop, as some predict, into Skynet, declaring war on humanity wherever humanity can be found? Will it become, in effect, the all-seeing eye of Sauron?
As los Mexicanos say, ¿Quien sabes?
In the meantime, I will maintain and build my faith in Jesus, the Christ, Who owns the future. I’m not going to lose any sleep worrying about it.
- Doubleday, 1990, ©Nightfall, Inc. ↩︎
- The infamous Miranda warning which police are supposed to recite when arresting criminals. Unless they kill them first, as happened to Alex Pretti recently. Incidentally, one of my cousins was shot numerous times in the back and killed while walking away from the heavily armed goons. Suicide by cop, they called it. ↩︎
- Swearers were those young people who transferred from child status to adults at the age of 18. Every year, in every city, a ceremony was held to welcome them into the world of Multivac. ↩︎
Poor Roger's Almanac 