CYBER PUNK'D

Image courtesy of Videohive.net

CYBER PUNK'D

Shannon or 
Wiener? One gets the credit while the other faded away.

While Claude Shannon is often credited as the daddy of “Information Theory,” when you look at the bigger picture one might instead consider that Mr. Norbert Wiener saw a future no one else could have envisioned, whereas Shannon provided the antecedent means for technology’s inevitable reach toward cybernetics. Man becomes one with the machine, a radical idea even now, is getting ever closer to reality and as Doug Hill purported in an article from several years ago, is evidence that Wiener had been right all along and should soon be getting his dues.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Having long been a trope of the Sci-Fi genre, in another decade’s time, science-fiction is going to seem a lot more familiar as all of Wiener’s harrowing predictions for humanity come true. This is the case, in part, because we’re too far gone already. We've lost control over our technology, relinquishing the ‘humility’ he warned us to covet, insofar as becoming unhealthily dependent upon it and all the while, foolishly believing we aren't slaves to it.

Anyone else get duped into seeing Blade Runner 2049? Hopefully not, but if so, then perhaps you can see the transhumanist hole we’re rapidly digging for ourselves. 

What began with pacemakers and hearing aids ends with "Neurofeeds" and all the fun which comes from jacking Snapchat right into our brains and recording videos with our eyes. Point and click become look and blink. 

--Blink Twice to Confirm the Upload of Your Feed--

Such radical developments are still far off, but every step closer we take with AI, cloning, and genetic modification is just another ethical mile we must be prepared to run come the time.

And while it’s true that humans can’t help but play god when given the opportunity, if history is any indication such hubris always end quite expectedly. So is time to raise a flag? It may all unfold as Wiener predicted, or it may be that we've been getting CyberPUNK’D all along and there’s nothing to worry about, the machines will play nice. 

The only problem is, humans have always had the propensity to overindulge, and let's face it, we won't put the shovel down until making ourselves obsolete...

Siri with a Shotgun: Military Implications of our Advancement in AI

We’ve all seen hit flicks such as Terminator and wondered how we’d measure up

against rogue, omnipotent demi-robots resulting from an overly ambitious

programming team with a desire for military superiority. But should we start our

search to protect modern-day John Connor? With the revelation of several key

developments in the area, signs point to us potentially duking it out with

the intelligence behind our beloved devices more than we’d hope.

The dynamics of war have changed drastically since our first global conflict.

At the time of Austria Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia in 1914,

many soldiers found themselves solely involved in hand to hand combat,

as military technology was relatively limited and numerous battles were won

simply by sheer force. Since these times, our capabilities have advanced so

swiftly that we now have the potential to eliminate a target thousands of miles

away with only a single photograph of their appearance. Of course,

these missions, often reserved for drones worth millions of dollars, are

not without fault; George Bush’s drone campaign to eliminate terrorism in

the Middle East has led to the deaths of over 160 Pakistani children over
several years, all of whom which were obviously not the target of these strikes1.
Clearly, we have a lot to learn about the area before rolling out the proverbial red carpet.

However, in an ironic twist, these mishaps have even furthered calls for

adoption and advancements in the sector of autonomous combat.

Nearly every global actor has dabbled in intelligent warfare, with even ISIS

developing and using drones to fend off and disrupt attacks from larger, more

sophisticated opponents. With relatively isolated groups having their own mini

drone army powerful enough to stop coordinated air campaigns, the valuability

of non-human combat is indisputable. In fact, the US views the area as so

strategically vital to the future of warfare that several high-ranking

members of the Department of Defense testified to prevent Google from producing

a facial-recognition technology for the Chinese government, even though the request

had no apparent military implications2. Russia has taken this notion a step further,

developing land robots armed with turrets for arms and impeccable aim,

controlled by soldiers but also with an autonomous “search-and-destroy” mode3.

And these are the inventions we know, all using technology that has been around for years. What's the behind cryptic doors of the Pentagon, we may never see.

With the rise of warfare, it’s important to understand that we currently are in the most

peaceful time in history, with wars being sporadic and less involved than any other
period in our species' time on this planet. But is this a result of global collaboration,

or a bi-product of mutually assured destruction fears, now more than ever?
Luciano Floridi has repeatedly asserted that we are in a new age, shaped with
unforeseen ethical dilemmas to boot. Should one view developing competitive tech
with the ability to kill as a complete disregard for morals, or simply as keeping up with
the other forces in the world? Regardless of your opinion on the matter, we can all agree
on one thing: it's officially time to say "hasta la vista, baby" to traditional warfare.

Our future, if we’re not careful. One day, she’ll know the answer.