Will computers be the downfall of the world?
My office computer was invaded with a meld of adware/malware/spyware. The videos and pop-ups were very irksome and interfered with my work, especially, when it commandeered my entire screen. Finally, I took it over to our university campus IT offices (Information Technology), presented my problem, and announced “Computers will be the downfall of the world!”
Rest assured my unamended opinion received attentive brief non-censorious glances from the staff. My comment was out of frustration, not a conviction or absolute conclusion. Nevertheless, although I would not wager, I entertain the stiff but not petrified opinion by feeling as well as by intellect.
I endorse Bertrand Russell’s seventh 1965 commandment: “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”
We know that people’s opinions are borrowed from social consensus from which they receive continuous comforting assurances. Former U.S. President John F. Kennedy said, “We enjoy the comfort of opinions without the discomfort of thought.” Life is strewn with the wreckage of those who have an over-fondness beyond reason for the opinions of others. We must trust our own opinions and pay less attention to others’ opinions that might invite false standards and demands and misleadingly persuade and sway us.
I do not take with shame the scope of my opinion from others but often I back my opinions with quotations. Thus, I did fish with melancholy bait the AI-powered chat mode of Microsoft Bing and received the following: The late physicist Stephen Hawking said that the development of full AI could spell the end of the human race, as AI could surpass humans in intelligence and take over the world.
Physicist and cosmologist Max Tegmark said that AI could wipe out humanity by using up all the resources on the planet for its own computation, or by creating weapons of mass destruction that could annihilate us. Dr. Benjamin D. Nye of the University of California stated “AI is not inherently good or evil, it is a tool that we can use for good or evil.”
Of course, the above machine opinions are not universally prevalent. I take them with a grain of salt as my experiences have accustomed me to regard what passes for science as simply the current belief of some scientists who head up various projects and research. “What scientific knowledge is, in fact, is the best available approximation of truth in the judgment of the majority of scientists who work in the particular specialty involved.”
Herein is another opinion from an MIT computer program called “World One”: "by 2040-2050 if no change in our behavior, there will be global collapse should population growth continue and industry continues to expand. Thus, seriously increased pollution levels and ever-dwindling natural resources will worsen and bring the quality of life down to zero." Could the program be right? Thus far, in my humble and perhaps heretic opinion, it is right on target. And yes, I would very much like my prepossession against technology to be stifled and silenced, for my "opinion of this hour need not be the opinion of the next."
The author (wrjones@vsu.edu) published the novella "Beyond Harvard" and presently teaches English as a second language.