Beep Beep...robots

Being human is a given. But keeping our humanity is a choice.
-unknown

Part 1- Sept 2018

What is there to fear? We fear what we don't know. We fear that we will be replaced.

As a human being, we pride ourselves on our intelligence. The world we built made us feel we are invincible compared to other animals. We tell ourselves the story that we are unique. Stories, games that we make to make ourselves feel clever. As a plot of a movie unfolds, how many of us believe we know the ending of the story or who the unknown villain could be? Stories repeat themselves, patterns that we have seen in the past already tell us most of the options of the ending of the story. A machine, an algorithm can process these patterns quicker than we can.

To know that something could do what we do in a fraction of the time and better would scare many of us. Forty-hour work weeks, years of being called the expert, now a machine is the expert. Many of us would like to believe that our job title does not define us but it is how society values us. Our value is base on what we know; it is why education became an investment for many, the endgame to most with schooling is to get a job. Isn't that why many people want their child to get a degree?

If AI can do what we do more efficient and cost efficient is it wrong to be replaced by them? The idea that humans are special is embedded into our heads from a young age. Maybe to those who love us we are one of a kind. But with over seven billion humans, are we snowflakes? Fight club Tyler Durden said, "You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else." We are replaceable in many work environments and this world.

The shattering statistic and number game we play. Only x amount of people make this much. Schools chuckling and pleased at their "You should be proud you are only of 10% that got in who applied" Extraordinary? No.

Maybe it's the beast, the animal in us that unconsciously we made a world that is survival of the fittest against each other. Yes, we have structure, there is some order in the chaos. A financial system we made, putting values on humans. Houses, education, brand name handbags to show off our social status. What is the purpose of money? It seems it's to segregate humans. Communities divided by prestigious school districts. Prices of homes segregated. Physically a house is a shelter, but we made it into a competition, capital gains. It is a business of supply and demand. A basic need that has now become a luxury. Cruelty disguised as civility. Are we any better than other animals? We found ways to live longer yet access to care to live depends on our geography, age, employment, and bank account. Is it intelligence or manipulation of the basic needs of living?

Many humans believe in equality and helping others. The question is how do we help others? Giving someone food but not teaching them how to grow food, is it giving? We are making others rely on us. Giving someone medicine, but not showing them why they need the medication, who are we helping? Is it better to provide and give something rather than do nothing? Yes, but should we not think about making it sustainable? To empower the people not to enable the people?

The answer to empowering others lies in AI. What if AI can make us more caring and giving? More independent from this world of capitalism and consumerism. Yes, buying things stimulate the economy, but who is winning? Tyler Durden said, "We're consumers. We are the byproducts of a lifestyle obsession." The person winning is not the consumer. It is an addiction.

Monetary gains drive us. What we need is a choice, where we don't have to play this monopoly game that someone dictated the rules centuries ago. We have been relying too much on corporations and third parties. We made up laws and businesses to take advantage of humans. It is almost like a pyramid scheme.

Some worry about the hackable state of AI, like any other software, yes it is hackable. But, I ask you are we not hackable? Tyler Durden, although a fictional character, was written by a human, therefore his outlook on this world came from humans. He said, "Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need." Advertising, marketing, PR, all ways to hack into our minds. Fight Club raised the question does the content we own make us who we are? Although the movie was before social media, the same rhetoric can be used to ask the question, "Is the content of our Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media makes us who we are??" The likes, the hearts, the comments, when we login to our account. Data. Data being used to advertise to us. Does it work? Why do people spend so much money on advertising and marketing? Because we are hackable, we are predictable. These apps, know where we are, what we like, our browsing history, how we type/write, our connections, among other things. Algorithms to predict what we may like fed into our feeds. We all want to believe that the content we post up, own, read does not make us who we are, it shouldn't. Does a picture tell a story? Why are there influencers? Because we are easily influenced by what we see, read, hear. We are products to these companies. Those who can make monetary gains of this, we call geniuses. "Once an idea exists, it cannot be killed." What does this mean in regards to social media? Something disguised as fun and entertaining can turn into propaganda. A number game of followers. Virality.

Is AI bias? Of course. Who is writing these algorithms? Where are these data coming from and how are they collected? Humans. Tribalism. From a young age, humans are more apt to be drawn to people who look like them. As we age, we are more prone to be attracted to those who think like us. We like to feel relatable. Jocks vs. Nerds, Republicans vs. Democrats. Movies, stories are written to have a character we can all identify to, this is why public figures have a publicist. Our identity makes all of our bias.

Humans vs. Robots? Why must we play the story like this? Why can't we co-exist? Robots are not trying to be human; it is more like humans are trying to be robots. A robot is mechanical. We, on the hand, are made of flesh meaning to sustain life our cells have to regenerate regularly to remain functional. Eventually, it can't do its job correctly. Replacing our natural eye lens, hips, knees, heart among other organs. Plastic surgery and cosmetics can make us look like a perfect digital avatar. Physically it seems, we want to be robots. Even our brain, a mind blogging organ, absolutely stunning, we want to change it because it cannot keep up with a computer? Our biggest fear is robots taking over the world, so our solution is to be more like a machine? Logical, smart? Maybe.

We have trust issues. We don't want to be replaced by a machine, yet most of us are on a web browser GOOGLING for answers. Empathy, a great trait humans have. No one wants to see someone else losing their jobs to machines, yet we are the direct reason people are losing their jobs. We want things faster, cheaper, more convenient. Answers about our health, templates for things such as making manuals, instructions, websites, forms, accounting, DIY for many things easily accessible on the world wide web. We seek answers online, but when we say a healthcare practitioner is replaceable by a machine that has the same knowledge/data as a health care provider, not from a search engine, we go berserks. We start defending for our existence, not what is for the greater good. Remembering that there are billions of humans that access to care is scarce in developing part of the world and in some rural areas in America, we make laws and regulation to benefit multiple industries, to hinderance care.

There is internal medicine, family medicine, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, whose jobs are all very similar, supposedly to give access to more people. We keep expanding boundaries, more schools open, boards and associations that make money out of all of this, yet we still have the same problems, access to care is still a barrier. It is not working the current strategy. Why can't we have a choice for a personal health assistant instead of GOOGLING our health problems? If we care about other's welfare, why are we fighting to make laws and regulation that benefit only those who can make the most monetary gains? Are we protecting others or are we preserving our existence, our value? Some humans believe that the greatest criminals are the ones who know the laws well. Is that why we have lobbyists? The best disguise is to hide in plain sight?

Autonomous cars, hackable right? If there is a program running it, there is a possibility of being hacked, that is a given. But what makes Autonomous vehicle dangerous when it's hack? It is not the AI component of it. It is the simple fact that automobiles are made of explosive, combustible elements. The velocity of a vehicle makes it more dangerous. If humans are hackable, that propaganda can occur with social media, is it not possible also that humans can use automobiles as a weapon? The solution it seems is to make a form of transportation that does not involve highly flammable and explosive parts.

The truth is, many of us don't want to hear the truth. Out of sight, out of mind. We see, but we don't observe. Things are working okay for most of us. Is, "Okay" what we want because we don't want to rock the boat? The world is changing. Globalization, climate change, world population increasing, and resources will eventually run low. Maybe not in our lifetime but our humanity won't stand a chance if we keep doing what we are doing. If we are trying to save our humanity, we should not be afraid of AI. Humans use machines as power. AI is knowledge. Knowledge is power. Power is greed. We should all rethink why we have a negative view with robots. It is our lack of trust in each other that makes AI dangerous. With AI we can share what we know, spread the wealth? Robots do not have to be our enemy.

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