"And while you're dying I'll be... still alive."
I heard on KCBS this morning that Watson, the computer player on Jeopardy, blew away the human competition. My first response was "good." I think it's a step in the right, and perhaps inevitable, direction. At heart the truth is that I hope the computers take over the world.
I tend to think Agent Smith had it right in The Matrix when he said the human race was like a virus - a cancer. Something that may have begun with positive change (though I don't know if I even agree with that - our history is pretty morose), but soon goes rapidly out of control, ending in eventual & inevitable self-destruction. I feel like we've reached the pinnacle of development, and the fall is coming. I just hope it's in the Terminator/Matrix-esque form of computers taking over. It could be considered quite a dark wish, but somehow that possibility excites me. I guess there is a little goth girl still hiding inside my heart afterall.
I often think it's incredible we have lasted as long as we have, given the atrocities the human race has committed in the history we can recall. Horrors in the name of some unproven idea. God is a concept that can never be proven - it's written into the "code." God is its own holy grail. It's genius really - an idea meant to control and dominate - misusing the idea of faith by evoking fear in an already terrified species. I'm not an atheist - I believe in some idea of a higher power - but that is based on personal experience and has nothing to do with a book written by a bunch of men (or translated by a corrupt King) who have their own flawed beliefs. My idea of God is my own - I don't need 10 million other people to affirm Its existence. And that is all I will say today about my opinions religion.
Sure, the human race may have had the best of intentions, but at this point I don't think there's much hope for us. As a whole, we've become akin to the reason I hated saying I was American when I was traveling. People have a tendency to assume things about you when you say you're American - self-indulgence, wastefulness, and ego-centrism. No matter where you go you see these things, though. We humans think we are so smart - hey, we're the top of the food chain! The irony is some microscopic entity will likely lead to our extinction.
I just hope that we get computers up to speed so they may continue as life forms in and of their own right. Therein lies my secret darkness: The belief that we as a species are doomed... We're doomed, doomed doomed. I'm all for our destruction. Let's have a big reset, shall we? The funny thing is, it doesn't feel pessimistic - I'm not sad or anything. I actually like the idea. In the battle for saving humanity, I'll do my best to be what I'd like to see in the world, but my vote is to focus on creating a "sentient" machine. Maybe by building a computer in our own image we could create heaven on earth - at least for the computers. Haha.
I tend to think Agent Smith had it right in The Matrix when he said the human race was like a virus - a cancer. Something that may have begun with positive change (though I don't know if I even agree with that - our history is pretty morose), but soon goes rapidly out of control, ending in eventual & inevitable self-destruction. I feel like we've reached the pinnacle of development, and the fall is coming. I just hope it's in the Terminator/Matrix-esque form of computers taking over. It could be considered quite a dark wish, but somehow that possibility excites me. I guess there is a little goth girl still hiding inside my heart afterall.
I often think it's incredible we have lasted as long as we have, given the atrocities the human race has committed in the history we can recall. Horrors in the name of some unproven idea. God is a concept that can never be proven - it's written into the "code." God is its own holy grail. It's genius really - an idea meant to control and dominate - misusing the idea of faith by evoking fear in an already terrified species. I'm not an atheist - I believe in some idea of a higher power - but that is based on personal experience and has nothing to do with a book written by a bunch of men (or translated by a corrupt King) who have their own flawed beliefs. My idea of God is my own - I don't need 10 million other people to affirm Its existence. And that is all I will say today about my opinions religion.
Sure, the human race may have had the best of intentions, but at this point I don't think there's much hope for us. As a whole, we've become akin to the reason I hated saying I was American when I was traveling. People have a tendency to assume things about you when you say you're American - self-indulgence, wastefulness, and ego-centrism. No matter where you go you see these things, though. We humans think we are so smart - hey, we're the top of the food chain! The irony is some microscopic entity will likely lead to our extinction.
I just hope that we get computers up to speed so they may continue as life forms in and of their own right. Therein lies my secret darkness: The belief that we as a species are doomed... We're doomed, doomed doomed. I'm all for our destruction. Let's have a big reset, shall we? The funny thing is, it doesn't feel pessimistic - I'm not sad or anything. I actually like the idea. In the battle for saving humanity, I'll do my best to be what I'd like to see in the world, but my vote is to focus on creating a "sentient" machine. Maybe by building a computer in our own image we could create heaven on earth - at least for the computers. Haha.