I saw an article when I was cruising around cnn.com called "Your desk, chair are watching you." Needless to say, this instills a bit of paranoia in me.Are they really?
Lucky for me the nice folks at CNN are just talking about future advances in technology.
I wouldn't mind the walls changing color to suit my mood. It might become frustrating to decorate, but I think it would be soothing to have the walls lure you into a no-stress-mood. However I already have enough computer issues. I only feel smarter than the average computer about half the time.
Frankly, I don't want a computer that can explain exactly why it won't do what I'm asking of it. It's bad enough to see "System Error" or "Not enough memory." If the computer starts telling me that it refuses to open the file because it's tired, or having an "off" day I may just go nuts and shoot it. (Would that be "compucide?")
Call me paranoid if you wish and maybe I do watch too much "Battlestar Galactica" but I think it's an overall bad idea to create an artificial intelligence that happens to outsmart us. While you're busy referring to me as a technophobe may I point out I'm not the only one with this worry crossing my thoughts?
The Terminator series showed a frightening perspective of Armageddon, brought about by a self-aware defense program. The Matrix films are all about computers that managed to outsmart the human race. The movie based on Assimov's "I, Robot" shows how an AI programmed with the directives to protect human-kind can also go awry.
The paranoia exists widespread.
Maybe that's just because of who we are as humankind that creates the paranoia in me.
I mean, if we, as a human race, can't get along among ourselves why should we throw another intelligence into the mix? We'd essentially only create something else that requires negotiation that would require endless hours of effort to pacify.
I like the fact, and I'm happy this way, that I can turn my computer off at the end of the day and it stays off. It doesn't plot while I'm at home reading an old-fashioned paperback novel it doesn't connive about how it's going to attempt to screw up my day.
At least I dont think it does.
