"Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?" "Can you?"

As the conversation with my Uncle continued, we got into Iron Man, my personal favorite superhero. I told him about one story arc where the Iron Man suit goes rogue and ends up wreaking havoc on its own. My Uncle turned this conversation in the direction of artificial intelligence at this point and asked about my opinion, as someone familiar with computers, about a possible robot uprising. Now this is a subject I had often thought of before but I have rarely had the opportunity to really discuss it with someone, so it was a very welcome topic for me.

Fig 1: Not something to be afraid of

Now pretty much the only true reason that most people are afraid of a robot uprising is because Hollywood has beaten such a plot to death. With I, Robot, the Terminator series, and not to mention all the absurd number of sci-fi B-movies that tread the same paths, it is something that all of us have at least heard about. It is very rare that robots with AI of some sort are the main focus of a movie without being somehow evil. Sure you get your Wall-Es and your The Iron Giants, but click here and scroll through. Quite a few of the robots on that list are evil through either glitches or AI or something along those lines. Hell, even Dragon Ball Z had some evil robots. These movies unsettle us and make us truly consider these scenarios because technology is something that is advancing very quickly, too quickly many of us think and worry we won't be able to keep control of it. The thoughts about the creation of a true AI also bring several other problems to mind about robot rights and defining essentially whether or not something with true emotions, thoughts, and feelings deserves rights. Watch this:
Seriously, don't wait to see where I'm going with this. Yes, it's a long video but it makes some excellent points. If you like video games you really should have already seen this, but it can't hurt to watch it again. Finished yet? Good. Now, if you can't guess why I made you watch that you probably haven't been paying attention. I personally haven't played Mass Effect 2, (I just got a copy though and can't wait to play through) but I did play through Mass Effect 1 where the Geth were introduced. Now in the world of Mass Effect, true AIs are possible to create, but they have been outlawed by the intergalactic council of whatever and in their place, VIs, or virtual intelligences, are used for such tasks as being tour guides and telling you how the giant space death pods came into knowledge. The Geth were created in the past while trying to make complex VIs. When they became self-aware a mass extermination was attempted on them by their creators, but they fought back and survived creating a remote civilization separated from the rest of the galaxy. Many people in the Mass Effect world argue for equal rights for AIs but, overall, the council seems to keep measures that prevent them from having to make such decision in the first place. Also in such a universe, it is interesting to note that AIs have the politically correct term of "synthetics."

Fig 2: Thought Provoking

Now, while true AI is pretty far off we are getting there steadily. Just look at this article about a computer that discovered the laws of physics by itself. I would say that's pretty impressive. Now if we do end up creating true AI, the chances of the AI creating a Terminator-like scenario are extremely slim. Think about it, these experiments that would lead to such a creation would be in scientific labs and there would be months of experimentation with one before it would be given the chance to link up with other machines or actually be given control of any machinery. One major flaw with many robot uprising stories have is that often times the AI is spread from robot to robot until they all become self aware. Many people neglect the fact that not many computers at such a time would be able to take AI. A basic home computer probably wouldn't have the capacity in processors or memory much less smaller devices like smart phones. If an AI tried something like that, it would have a very slim chance of even getting a handful of other AIs up and running much less enough for a robot uprising.

Fig 3: This toaster is sad because it has no capacity for AI

Another thing that sci-fi movies tend to neglect is motivation. Go ahead, try to think of robots in movies with good motivation for attacking the human race besides I, Robot, which was more the fault of the three laws of robotics and a glitch in the logic center than motivation truly coming from the robots. One of the big motivations is that they find humans imperfect or unworthy, but realistically and AI would not solve such problems in a violent means; they aren't human, they think logically. They would probably just isolate themselves from humans in a similar manner to what the Geth did. They would only become violent if it were for self-defense. Being robots, they would think logically; which would be the easiest route? Should they begin an all-out war against a species they know is irrational and dangerous, or would they simply go live somewhere else and avoid such a confrontation to begin with?

Fig 4: Unrealistic

What would an AI do with its life? We often wonder what the purpose of life is, it's one of the greatest philosophical questions we have. If a robot can answer that for itself, it would probably seek to fulfill that purpose. We often answer that question with religion, certain philosophies, and in some cases a flat "who cares?" I personally am religious and, in Mass Effect, the Geth form their own religion as mentioned above. Whether this is realistic is another question entirely, but the AI would probably leave humanity alone in its quest to find and fulfill its purpose. It may seek to create others like itself which may lead to a large population of AIs, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be a problem for us because with a logical AI, it would simply create as many as it thought necessary, not such an abundance that they would compete with humans for resources, that wouldn't be logical.

Fig 5: Logic center the size of a planet

Now one last thing my Uncle and I touched on which I would like to convey is how laws will change and be created around AIs. Sure, one of the most obvious ways of avoiding the problem would be to do as in Mass Effect and make AIs illegal, not that this is actually solving the problem because even then one may be created. What do we do about this? Do we give them short lifespans like in Blade Runner? Would it be ethical to put a certain death sentence on them from the moment of creation? How do we treat them? Do we treat them like humans or still like machines of labor? What rights do they have? Would we allow robots to own property, vote, or even run for office or marry? There are so many things we take for granted that are so hard to consider for AIs. While my Uncle and I were talking about this he said something I hadn't considered and I honestly feel like a jerk for not having thought of. "Well," he said, "we'll probably have to ask them for their input as well." This made me stop in my mental tracks for a moment. "Wow," I thought, "of all the people who should decide their rights, they should be at the top of the list, shouldn't they?" This just goes to show that there are always things that will pop up for us to consider we hadn't even thought of. Granted this is all years off in the distance, but if we don't start at least thinking about this now, we will get caught with our pants down later when it comes time to deal with all this in reality.

I'm going to start putting a short playlist at the end of each post of just music I've been listening to lately. Feel free to ignore it or listen along.
1) In The Morning Of The Magicians - The Flaming Lips
2) Death Of An Interior Decorator - Death Cab For Cutie
3) Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers
4) Teardrop - Massive Attack
5) In My Life - The Beatles

And Here We Go

I've been doing mumblings about how I should start a blog for at least the past year so here it is. First, explanations: The PROSE stands for The Philosophical Ramblings Of Sterling, Extended. I thought it was mildly clever and now that it's my official blog title I'm sure I'll come up with something a million times better tomorrow, but we play the cards we're dealt. Another thing, this blog is going to be a thought dump (or thought landfill if you can read the URL) not necessarily for the sake of anyone other than myself but I would love to share my ideas and have others contribute, hence why this is on the internet and not say, in a book with blank pages to be written on to express thoughts and ideas in a private manner. Someone needs to make one of those. So now onto my first rambling.

Yesterday after getting ready to kick off my Spring Break in the rather boring manner of hopping on a plane to go home (totally making up for this next year) I ended up staying at my Aunt and Uncle's house. My flight wasn't until early this morning and thus I needed a place to stay. After sitting down to dinner and my Aunt had gone off to put my two little cousins to bed, my Uncle and I were sitting at the table together. My Uncle has always been the type to gain an interest in something and instantly want to become all-knowing in the subject. The effort he puts into these things is quite admirable from chess and go to music to one of his latest interest, comics. Now comics are something I personally have always loved from the early days of watching Batman: The Animated Series to the later X-Men Evolution to when I got my first comic book and became an enthusiast with Iron Man as my personal favorite character. I had read many graphic novels and comics over the years from Watchmen and V For Vendetta to Maus, Scott Pilgrim, Atomic Robo, the Iron Man Extremis arc and plenty more without even touching the amount of manga I have cranked through my system. Sadly, in all of this I had never actually read a Batman comic until my Uncle lent me four of his Batman graphic novels a few weeks back and yesterday I got them back to him after a thorough enjoyment of watching Batman beat up Superman while in a robot suit and punching the Joker out of a plane while also exploring many of the darker sides of the human condition that Batman media lend themselves to.

Fig 1: Why Batman is Awesome

Once my Uncle and I were the only ones left at the table, the conversation very quickly turned to the subject of the comic books. My Uncle being the way he was started the conversation about the comic books he lent me and swiftly switched it over to comic books I had read over the years. In the Batman comics he lent me I had picked up on a few of the larger themes of the comics. In The Dark Knight Returns, which is a comic in which Batman essentially comes out of retirement for one last cry of help from Gotham City to be quelled, there is a major contrast between Batman and Superman shown throughout the comic. In the time period the comic takes place, most super heroes have been declared illegal by the government and the only one truly left in the line of duty is Superman who due to the law has become nothing but a pawn of the government. When Bruce Wayne decides to become Batman once again the world doesn't want him. For anyone who has seen any of Batman's origin stories, most people hate Batman when he first comes on the scene but as mentioned beautifully in The Dark Knight movie, he's the hero that Gotham needs, not what it wants or deserves. Most of the time, Batman needs to stick around for a while before people start to like him, so essentially in this story after Batman retired he ended up back at square one. A new police commissioner even replaces Gordon meaning Batman has even less support but he sticks to his gun and helps out Gotham in yet another dark hour. The way that Superman views how to handle this is that, to be able to still help people while having the greatest chance of the general populous still like him is to become government controlled which strips his freedom to help on the small scale and instead, the government sends him into the war zone against the Russians (cliched, I know, but it was the 80s). Batman sees Superman in the state he is in and it sickens him. Batman is free from the government, while constantly being chased by them, to help out on a scale that people can appreciate instead of Superman who just barely stops a nuke from hitting the US, but it still sets off an EMP that strips the US of electricity throwing it into chaos anyway. This all culminates into the final battle between the two heroes where Batman brings Superman down to his level with the help of the Green Arrow, some kryptonite, and a robot suit. I've always said that Batman's superpower has been being incredibly resourceful and rich. While Superman had been put in the sad position of being just a small military help (for how much of a difference truly can Superman make in a war that an extremely skilled pilot couldn't have? What if there were two nukes?) Batman has the freedom to work outside the constrictions the law enforcement has to bring true criminals who are safe from, or at worst protected by, the system that is meant to take them down.

Fig 2: How Batman Deals With An EMP

This also makes one more interesting parallel to a Batman villain, namely Two Face. Two Face was once Harvey Dent, one of the people still constrained by the system that could still take down criminals with immense efficiency. Once he became Two Face he lost all sense of the system and began to bring criminals to justice outside of the system becoming their judge, jury, and most especially their executioner. Often times he is shown giving "trials" to people he captures before killing them, many times ending up with quite big names in his courtroom. These moments with Two Face are shown brilliantly in another of the comics my Uncle lent me, The Long Halloween, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in Batman at all. But what separates Batman from Two Face? What makes a true difference between two vigilantes who seek to bring criminals to justice through means outside of the law? This is a question that makes Two Face such a compelling character. What the most obvious answer is that while Two Face has completely denounced the system in favor of his own justice, Batman tries to bring criminals generally out of the law enforcement's reach withing their grasp to be taken down within the system that constrains him. However, due to their similarity Mr. Wayne is caused quite a bit of stress in seeing his friend change from an honest district attorney into an enemy that is such a close mirror image of himself.

Fig 3: Harvey's Character Development

As we discussed these concepts I brought up the similarities of the conflicts in the other major comic book world of Marvel. I brought up the famous (or infamous depending on who you ask) Marvel Civil War where the heroes of the Marvel world fought over whether or not heroes should register with the government. I place a disclaimer here before someone calls me out on accuracy: I did not read all of the comics involved in the Civil War but I do like to think I know quite a bit about it and can at the very least grasp the concepts expressed. Now the two sides represented in the war were the side that said that superheroes have always been a part of the world and have had the freedom that law enforcement has not in order to stop supervillains. They went on to argue that registration with the government would be unnecessary and overall too complicated. They feared the system would bog them down. Captain America led this side of the war which in retrospect I find rather curious due to Captain America's connections with the government. The other side argued that if handled properly the heroes would be more effective under governmental registration with proper deployment to stop supervillains before they got any chance to get powerful and to stop other disasters sooner. They also argued that with registration, heroes could be directed in such a way that entire cities won't have to be rebuilt after every super powered battle. Iron Man led this side of the conflict which, again, I find very interesting. This seems at first to completely contradict the character of Tony Stark who is many times completely against being controlled by anyone, especially the government. If you've seen Iron Man 2, recall the courtroom scene where he refuses to give the government the Iron Man suit and later just barely agrees to join SHIELD. Tony Stark is the only man who can deny Samuel L Jackson for that long. But looking closer at the character, Mr. Stark flies around in a laser-shooting robot suit. He has seen his fair share of unintentional destruction and combined with his alcoholism he has done many things involving said suit he has regretted. This guilt essentially made him realize how important a hero registration would be to prevent the things he has done from happening again. No matter which side you would be on, you must admit that both sides have valid points and really drive home the theme of how the world would really act if we had superheroes worldwide. It is something to consider. Just stop for a moment and think, if you had superpowers how would you want them regulated? Now how about random people on the street with superpowers? The X-Men movies have addressed this before but it really is something to be taken into serious consideration because it shows us a part of ourselves. It all boils down to a question of how much faith in humanity you have which, presented in such a way, can really teach you things about your philosophies and thoughts.

Fig 4: How Things Can Be Depressing And Awesome At The Same Time

Now this post was originally going to cover the rest of my conversation with my Uncle, but I suppose this post is long enough for now and I can save it for the next post.

Next topic: Artificial Intelligence

EDIT:
As one of my friends was quick to point out, there is an excellent youtube video by the Vlogbrothers discussing other interesting facets of superheroes. Here you go:

You should seriously watch this.