Movie Theater Transcendence

[Strykervet]

Just saw this on disc last night. I searched and nothing came up, so I thought I'd mention it. It's about the Technological Singularity (sort of) but it's about a guy that makes AI in our time. I won't go into detail to spoil it, just that it's really a great movie if you haven't seen it.

The military raid part was a damn joke, but the rest was pretty cool. Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman. Hard to go wrong with those two.

The reality of this (sentient AI) will be much different I suspect and most people won't even be aware of it except for news feeds. It'll likely be panned much like Watson was, despite massive differences.

If you are into science or technology (the really advanced stuff that's going on at universities) then you'll dig this movie.

 

[UNRL Ghandi]

My wife and I just rented this movie On Demand Friday night and we both liked it. It's an interesting concept for sure and the tug between right vs wrong, man vs machine, emotion vs data analysis was portrayed well. I found myself rooting for both sides throughout the movie. After watching it, I also found myself having an internal debate regarding the notion of if mankind could achieve this level of technology, would it be beneficial? Ultimately I feel like it's good in theory, but we'd just end up with an overpopulated planet full of blandness, since nothing would really surprise or inspire us and we'd undoubtedly be faced with a new set of problems that are unforeseen at the present.

 

[Strykervet]

Exactly! It does make you think and it does portray those values well.

The true singularity won't happen like that and neural symbionics won't happen for a long time nor will nano technology in medicine. But yes, a new sentient being, or "computer" built by man --thinking and smarter than every person that's ever lived on Earth all at once just like he says in the speech in the beginning-- that's all true and v1.0 is just a little over a couple decades away.

What we do with it... Who knows, that's the next generation's problem.

 

[UNRL Ghandi]

I hope I'm dead by then. If not, better believe my house in the woods will be surrounded by copper fencing.

My brain can't comprehend the idea of humanity having a lot of time left before we either destroy ourselves or run out of natural resources, but if we are to our successors as the Egyptians and Mayans are to us, it's possible to believe that a thousand years from now that the technology is not only possible, but probable.

I do think that the idea of a true singularity would result in a dull world. People ask why God created man. When we as humans eventually know everything and nothing is new to us anymore and we've conquered medicine to the point where we are essentially immortal, we'll understand.

 

[Strykervet]

Interesting post. Lots of folks have different ideas because we just don't know. In college, I worked on the equations that predicted it and sure enough, it's median time is slated to be 2040 (so that's why you hear that number pop up a lot, it's derived mathematically using certain theorems). Most likely it'll be a bit later than 2040.

Anyway, you can't complain the movie doesn't make the mind think. And on top of it, raises important questions, like the right for the AI to exist, etc. Also, anthropomorphizing AI isn't the best idea, but it's the only way to convey it on film I think. True AI we simply wouldn't understand --how we look at dog intelligence is how AI would look at our intelligence, ie, it'll be a lonely construct at first.

But bear in mind it could fight for survival, a characteristic trait of living autonomous creatures, and it would never be in the wrong as it's the next evolution in mankind (synthetic or not, and what is synthetic anyway?) and being the only super-sentient being on Earth, it would be incapable of wrongdoing in any capacity in order to survive. And to make it all more complicated, there will be no way we could fully understand what's going on in the "mind" of this AI.

Interesting stuff. Though the movie was Hollywood, we did in fact spend a good deal of time discussing this singularity at university (or transcendence as he calls it in the movie) and it's very real and on the horizon. Good thinking movie for sure.

Again, the contractors and "military raid"? Come on. I can do better myself and I'm disabled!