Human futures - the next new science we must get on board with - it is our future!

The fantasy may soon have some seed of reality!

Brave new world? or approaching nightmare?

Are we humans sleepwalking towards obsolescence? A conversation our species needs to be having is about OUR future. Why?

Robots and automation. They are silently taking over our lives, but is this a bad thing?

In one way not, we will as a species be freed from menial things including work. For many of us, we do menial and pointless jobs just to receive money for it, to fuel a consumer society.

Futurists and many computer scientists believe that work as we know it will be just a memory, proxy living, the big data / open data resource and machine learning are the game changers for our species.

The benevolent looking image of the 1950's science fiction robot

Should we worry?

We should. Because all this is going on unchecked. We should have taken the warning from the entity that is the Internet, a sprawling and little policed catch-all situation that no one really actually 'manages' - it just exists.

Machine learning, sometimes erroneously referred to as 'AI' or artificial intelligence is becoming very advanced in how it can be shaped to mimic human behaviour.

In some situations, it passes the 'Turing Test' - that is the interaction between a human and a computer interface does not make the human suddenly think 'I am communicating with a machine'

Big Data - we all generate it by our computer actions -

it is valuable for some to own, trade and exploit it.

Seamless acceptance

As such, we give this  type of interaction not a second glance. Certainly for those born after the millennium, those that have grown up with the Smart Phone and Computer Tablet, this is not the 'new normal,' it is 'the normal.'

'Proxy living' is starting to seamlessly come in, it is software that essentially does things for you, in the future it will run our lives.

Think of the junk adverts that you get on your computer popping up when you have looked at something on the internet.

In the future, your 'virtual proxy' will be the 'virtual' Gatekeeper - a software algorithmic entity, either existing as a physical robot, humanoid or otherwise or a computer program app, that will handle all the marketing guff that you get into your inbox.

It will divert and destroy the unwanted communications and respond and analyse the 'wanted' or preferred subjects it receives. Freeing you up to get on with your life.

Humans are not required - how most work will be - and soon

Working and the future

In the 1950's the scientists predicted two future outcomes - driverless cars and a society where humans would not have to work.

We are near to this situation already. Driverless cars are nearing readiness to become commonplace on our roads. Professional drivers such as Cab drivers, bus and lorry drivers, train drivers, Postmen and Women - they are all at risk from the robot.

Much of the work we humans do is menial and can be done far more efficiently by robots. The Tax system, Benefits system to name but two could be far better handled by machines able to apply system logic to a multitude of rules and conditions 24 hours a day all year round.

The bottom line is they would be better at it and mistakes would be minimal. It would also save labour costs, salaries, office space, office furniture, office supplies and would help with the 'reality' of the 'paperless office' scenario. 

Nightmare or Utopia -  what is our future human - machine outcome?

A question of management

It is imperative that a 'Robot Manifesto' be established, we cannot allow the 'cyber-sprawl' situation that the Internet has become to dictate our future society. We are in great danger of becoming irrelevant as the machines learn and can self-learn and formulate policies of their own.

'AI' (Artificial Intelligence)  in its pure form, will work out very quickly that we as humans are a threat and an irrelevance - it's cold logic will quickly establish its own natural survival logic and find a way to get rid of us by proxy.

Humanoid Robots -  if they go 'bad' we are finished 

The nightmare scenario

The worst case scenario for us is that an AI entity energises a humanoid robot army to preserve the AI's material integrity - power source, by also prompting the Robot Army to self-replicate and produce Units and spare parts, thus the AI machine prolongs its own life by creating its own 'life helpers.'

AI and the Robot army will share the common interest of survival -  they will establish that they can be deactivated by humans simply by humans taking the power source away.

The nightmare for the humans is when the machine decides we are both an irrelevance and a danger.