Recently, a group of scientists led by world renowned physicist Stephen Hawking published an unusual article dedicated to the premiere of the sci-fi thriller "Superiority".
Alas, Professor Hawking did not acquire the laurels of a recognized prophet like Nostradamus, famous for his predictions - quatrains. Only a very few journalists (mainly scientific observers) listened to his words about the maturation of the "network monster" in the virtual depths of the Internet. The British scientist even expressed such a paradoxical thought: maybe the computer community, united by the World Wide Web, in every possible way hides the approaching threat from humanity?
Technogenic apocalypse
Together with Hawking, the "intellectual alarm" was supported by the professor of physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Max Tegmark, the Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek and the professor, specialist in the field of computer science Stuart Russell. They jointly published an analytical review on The Huffington Post under the alarming title "Getting rid of the careless attitude towards superintelligent machines."
In this article, scientists, based on an analysis of the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster, propose their scenarios for the future of artificial intelligence, and not all of them cause optimism. "Hawking's creative team" expresses their main idea as follows: "There is a temptation to classify superintelligent computers as science fiction, but that would be a mistake, and perhaps the worst mistake in history."
Since, despite the big names, the performance of the Hawking team was almost imperceptible, scientists made another attempt to attract attention and published an essay in the newspaper The Independent under the lengthy title "The Film" Superiority ": The Fruits of Artificial Intelligence - How Serious We Take Them ? ".
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Alas, this "intellectual-eschatological demarche" did not attract wide attention of readers, and yet the conclusions of the theorists foreshadow one of the loudest coming sensations: our civilization is being carried away in the crucible of "technological singularity"!
Technological singularity
Exactly 20 years ago, the world shuddered from a new danger, which could well be called an innate genetic disease of civilization. It was predicted to humanity by the American mathematician and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge in his cult work "The Coming Technological Singularity." The essence of Vinge's model of the future is very simple: “Over the next thirty years we will have the technical ability to create superhuman intelligence. The human age will be over shortly thereafter."
Vinge only sketched outlines of the future death of earthly civilization, preferring to develop details in his science fiction novels. However, his theory was quickly overgrown with details in the research of students and imitators.
It should be noted that the prototype of cyber dust is first encountered in Stanislav Lem's novel "Invincible". In it, the classic of world literature brilliantly predicted the organization of wireless networks in which nodes are able to communicate with each other and "swarm", performing many tasks. Ordinary robots, even those with super-developed artificial intelligence, are much inferior to their miniature counterparts in functionality.
The concept of smart dust was recently seen as a distant prospect for micron-sized robots. A single microcyber, like any collective insect - bee, ant or termite - is capable of little. However, many microrobots are capable of destroying everything in their path, like a stream of tropical ants.
Naturally, cyber dust clouds will only be an external manifestation of the death of the human mind in a technological singularity. At the first stage of this global crisis, artificial superintelligence will be at the helm of civilization, controlling various “cyberbots” (mobile microdevices). It can be neurocomputers, and quantum computers, and even some "cyborgonized" complexes with human participation.
This is the meaning of the phrase “technological singularity” proposed by Vinge, as conditions in which modern models and ideas about scientific and technological progress lose all meaning and a completely “inhuman” logic of artificial intelligence begins.
The advent of nanorobots
Scientists have already demonstrated the possibility of creating "super-integrated" nanorobots, enclosing in a cubic centimeter many sensors, sources and converters of energy together with receiving and receiving communication devices.
Many of the most advanced nanotechnologies in robotics are finding priority applications in the space industry. This makes it possible to fairly accurately predict one of the main points of development of the coming crisis. It should be noted that alien research is primarily associated with the collection of information about any manifestation of living matter. Already today, great progress is being observed here, and soon "smart grains of sand" swarming in the rarefied atmosphere of Mars and the acidic clouds of Venus will become quite common.
And then it will be necessary to recall the terrible predictions that in the event of a clash of interests between the machine superintelligence and the human, the latter will have very little chance of avoiding the pursuit of ruthless nanobots. After all, they will be guided by supersensitive sensors that instantly recognize the slightest signs of living.
The algorithm for the destruction of people by an artificial superintelligence using nanobots can be as follows. At first, the microrobots form a single swarm. The Overmind tells the swarm the general coordinates of the targets. Each robot, knowing its coordinates and target coordinates, uses supersensitive sensors and selects the nearest target. To make the final decision on the attack, the microbot analyzes how many robots have already headed towards this target. If their number is sufficient, he begins to look for another target or remains in reserve. So the swarm very quickly disintegrates into separate teams - clusters rushing to destroy living beings.
War games
In the wars of the future, planned by the American military, a cloud of microbots carrying a charge envelops the enemy's armored vehicles and shelters. Then the swarm of cybers searches for priority targets, splits into clusters of the required size, penetrates into unprotected places and simultaneously explodes.
Other Pentagon developments include intelligence using sophisticated software algorithms and sophisticated surveillance and communications capabilities. Smart nanobots are expected to enter the US and NATO armies in the first quarter of this century. This is how the cyber-insect attack described by the "golden feather of Hollywood" Dan Brown in the bestseller "Point of Deception" becomes possible.
There, miniature flying robots imperceptibly move in the direction of the desired object, simultaneously choosing the optimal places for recharging in the rays of sunlight or simply near heated objects. Such multifunctional nanobots are able to conduct video and audio surveillance from a variety of angles, as well as actively interact with humans. They could inject psychotropic drugs, poisonous substances, or simply explode, flying into the depths of the auricle.
If we add to such apocalyptic pictures the structure of the World Wide Web and implant chips controlled by the superintelligence based on the same quantum computers, the collapse of the technological singularity seems inevitable …
Doomsday technology
According to leading experts in the military-industrial complex, as the concept of nanocyber becomes more widespread, manufacturers will equip literally every detail, device and every room with sensors, which will open up the possibility of monitoring and controlling a wide range of technological processes. There are also innovative ways to solve the food problem by deploying hydroponic farms with moisture and acidity sensors on literally every plant.
In general, the prospects for the rational use of sensor networks are very great: from agriculture to full-fledged environmental control systems, including global monitoring of the atmosphere and hydrosphere for radiation and toxic substances. The future is not far away, when the entire urban infrastructure will be equipped with sensors - from buildings and structures to public transport and the human body itself. And all this one way or another can lead to the collapse of the technological singularity …
Is it possible to effectively deal with the coming crisis?
At first glance, the fight against the Internet, top-secret military-industrial complex projects, cybernetic nanotechnology and neurocomputerization seems completely hopeless. Meanwhile, opponents of the very idea of a cybernetic apocalypse quite rightly believe that not a single real way of creating an artificial superintelligence is yet visible.
Without this main component, technological collapse could be carried over to almost the end of this century, or even the next. In fact, this means that the evolution of artificial intelligence will take some other path - say, cyborgenization and neurocomputerization.
Oleg FAYG