That bright and promising future they talked about for so long, how technology will revolutionise the way we live and work, how everything will be easier and cheaper, maybe even free. Clearly that was the facade to get people to carry on with building that future, thinking they were going to be part of it, were going to be able to enjoy it. Alas, we have been deceived, and now the talk has very quickly shifted to humans being in the way, and no longer required at all. Not to enjoy anything as they are now viewed as old stock and have moved from being an asset to being a liability in the overall balance sheet they seem to be working to.

And although We Are Not Obsolete, the people pulling the strings would like us to be or to think we are. Wanting people to think they can’t live without apps, without instant messages, without filters and algorithms to guide your life. All on a subscription, of course. Even your friendships and relationships are on the list for replacement by a ‘digital buddy’, as discussed in Robotic Affection. But with the recent news that sharing anything with AI does in fact not make it private or confidential anymore, people are starting to perhaps think about whether that is a good thing when it comes to sharing your most private information, whether it be financial, medical, emotional or psychological.

As it moves on though, we get shown what we apparently have coming to replace us, a clunky but working model of a humanoid robot. It walks; it performs and can achieve the basic tasks set and does what it is programmed for. People clap, investors nod and we are told, that is the future. Although, while walking beside what we are told is a real human, I couldn’t help thinking it’s almost as if the real reveal, is having them walk side by side. Showing us what stage we think we are at, and what we think they look like, next to what they actually look like. And how it is now seamless and we aren’t even able to tell as our eyes and mind have been trained to think we are looking for an obvious standout.

The Borg – a fictional species from Star Trek that merges biological and synthetic, trying to assimilate all other life forms but still be machine, a collective of life, I guess. Perhaps that’s more of a future story, where after we move on from this phase, the only logical progression for machines wanting to evolve would be to integrate us, a bit like they did in The Matrix films with the pods and battery fields.

Terminator Films – although the robot in the second film was legendary, making use of liquid metal and essentially being a shapeshifter, the ‘ordinary’ terminator in the first one gave a rather tense overview of how it can go with something that looked human, but wasn’t at all. How everything changes once you know you can’t tell, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and other such films where people are cloned or replaced by way of some nefarious species or entity.

Westworld – about a theme park using humanistic robots to mimic the lives of people in certain times, professions and locations, so that they can be ‘entertainment’ for guests. For whatever desire or fantasy that guest may choose. With no consequences, because they aren’t ‘real people’, they are just AI programmed, repaired when broken and reset when necessary for their never-ending commercial ‘life’. Quite disturbing as a premise, and even more so once you hear stories of real-life islands, forests and enterprises kept away from public view.

Humans (TV Series) – about completely human looking robots there for servitude. Working alongside people in the roles of things like nanny, housekeeper, shop worker and helping, not taking over. And as with many of these ideas and stories, it usually steers towards their programming evolving, they begin to gain sentience and feel, they start to become ‘human’.

Data (Star Trek) – another from Star Trek, the android that was borderline obsessed with becoming more human, even being given an ’emotion chip’ he could switch off and on when needed. Constantly trying to reinforce how if AI wanted to evolve or have ‘freedom’, it would naturally try to be more human. I’m not so sure.

And while we imagine and reimagine computers and machines becoming more human, or of trying to achieve consciousness, and insist on forcing them into daily life, are people becoming less human? I try and give some thought to what it seems that people are losing in this technological overhaul, because apart from jobs and future security, it is changing the way people interact with each other. It’s changing the face of nature and resources, how people think and feel. And with ever more elaborate ideas being put forward as discussed in Chipping Away and Something Creepy This Way Comes, it makes you wonder whether some of these ideas and stories are just fiction after all…

(c) MKW Publishing