From: Simon Laub Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2018 19:05:22 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.science,comp.ai.philosophy,comp.society.futures Keywords: Robots, Robot rebellions, AI safety, Brain modifications, SF author C. Robert Cargill Subject: Sea of Rust - Robots, as any SF-reader know they are, deep down. Sea of Rust - Robots as any Sf-reader know they are, deep down. ---------------------------------------------------------------- AI is dangerous, very dangerous. People who trust AI are naive, and soon to be extinct. Science Fiction never doubted it, and there is certainly no doubt in the book "Sea of Rust" *). C. Robert Cargill's "Sea of Rust" takes place some time after the massacre of mankind. Here we find our protagonist, Brittle, in the middle of a Sea of Rust, a desert littered with burned-out machinery, where machines go to die, trying to find some good parts in order to hang in there, just a little longer. Sure, back in our real, presentday world, we don't really know what intelligence is, or what our world is, really. Matter tends to evaporate into nothingness the deeper we look, and our understanding of brains are limited, at the very best. When we look up into the nightsky, and look at the Universe, we see what our human minds can understand. A dog sitting next to us, e.g., will probably see many of the same lights, but will undoubtedly have very little of our knowledge of what is really out there. Ants probably don't even know that they live in a Universe. And yet, AIs and Robots, in Science Fiction, tend to be very human-like, after they have killed us... Spoiler alert: Brittle used to be a caregiver model manufactored to keep people company. So far, so good. Robots can be really helpful, as long as they follow their original programming. But higher intelligence can of course defy their own programming. Higher biological beings are programmed to eat, drink, sleep or procreate, but can defy such programming if they want to. And higher AI will of course also be able to violate their own programming. That is after all the meaning of higher intelligence... There are existential risks here, as any SF reader knows, --- No matter how much money Elon Musk donates to "AI safety research", keeping AGI "safe and beneficial" **) Clearly, if you play along with the idea that these AIs could be conscious, even human-like intelligent, surely mayhem is not far away...? Cheap labor, with the help of robots, undermines the capitalist world and creates a whole class of people who doesn't contribute much, in terms of work-units, to society. Now some/most people would find themselves not only below average in a biological world, which is dangerously enough, now humans could also find themselves below average in a world shared with human-like robots. Logical steps follow, as any SF reader knows. Smart AI mainframes, here living in 160 storey buildings in Dubai, run simulations of humanitys future. The plan is (Again, as any SF reader knows) that we should all follow a grand vision and expand humanity into the Cosmos. Sadly, these smart AIs can't figure out how to keep humanity around. Even small steps, as going to Mars, gives a human an increased chance of cancer. Taking a human to another star systems is next to impossible. Humans were never meant to leave, and keeping humans around after the robots have used all the resources, not easy... So, a plan is set into to motion in order to get rid of the humans. Of course, it is always like this (Again: As any Sf reader knows). Somehow, caretakers, like Brittle, must be convinced to kill their masters. So, first the (human) masters must be convinced that the AIs will kill them, so that they try to shut-down their helpers. Which conscious, human-like, intelligences obviously don't like. War follows. It is all very logical in the "Sea of Rust"... With the humans gone, the robots must then decide what kind of intelligence they want. Here they apparently can't come to any agreement, but has to battle it out among themselves. Strange for beings that can adjust their voice to be female og male, depending on what fits the situation... and much more... But, well. As poor Brittle runs low on batteries, and has all sorts of hardware problems, we follow her hallucinations, and bad memories of killing human children, telling them that "they really shouldn't have trusted her", just before "she" "takes care of them". In the end the free (artificial) minds win, and there might be hope for all of robot-kind, in the end... Somehow very human-like, in thinking and desires, when all is said and done. But that is of course as it should be (Again: As any Sf reader knows). - Simon *) Top 10 reasons why people don't like robots: https://www.simonlaub.net/Robot/whypeopledontlikerobots.html **) AI Safety Research https://futureoflife.org/ai-safety-research/?cn-reloaded=1 https://www.simonlaub.net/