Artificial Intelligence and ‘I want to be a Cyborg!’
Imagine a world of well into the future where you never (okay rarely) make stupid mistakes and procrastination and failure to commit to the right decision is a thing of past “So, tell me of the time when people took a long time to commit to any decision, stumbled through life procrastinating and wasting the majority of their 86,400 seconds a day, the 2.5 Billion seconds in the average 80 year life.”
A world in which ‘choice anxiety’ is a thing of the past. The right product, service or complex decision is made in a micro-millisecond, while you sleep, ahead of time, without you even knowing. Innovation not only to make products better, but more so to improve selection and assisting the right choice.
No need to ever worry about — “is my bank giving me the best deal will be a question of the past?” Your ‘Automated Lifestyle Individual Consumer Engine’ bot (ALICE or ‘bot’ – patent pending) is keeping the bastards honest, and will work constantly, the full 31.5 Million seconds each year, searching for the best deals based on your key needs and drivers. Talking with the 8 Billion other bots world-wide. Good products and services are rewarded, ever improved and, poor providers fade away (based on turbo charged word-of-mouth and other hidden metrics).
Advertising is long redundant. The existence of substandard TV shows, newspapers and radio stations solely produced as a platform for advertisers and public relations paid press releases have gone. New more sustainable entertainment models have been created, with ever improving content, something for everyone, on demand, any time and anywhere.
Holidays will be scheduled automatically, based on your psychological and other needs, and those of your family and friends, as well as your bank balance and available funds. Your bot will also ensure that your employer or investments are performing optimally, and swap either with your approval or automatically (whichever you set as the default).
Life is about experiences, and given your increased intellect from your cyborg attachments you are healthier (e.g. a ‘Fitbit’ replacement has evolved to hidden below the skin, monitoring vital heath statistics and optimising and rewarding your fitness) and happier (e.g. mood drops are met with the necessary positive social and cognitive intervention) and you only need to work enough to keep you intellectually, creatively, financially and socially satisfied (which depends on the person).
Your bot is ever seeking and booking exiting new experiencers – the Arts, sports and tourism sectors have never been stronger. Finding and booking great places, arts, sport, travel and other experiences. The experience economy has never been stronger.
Now back in 2017, discussion of Artificial Intelligence has two basic options — the high road or the low road. Sadly, too often corporate and government leaders take the low road — “AI will mean we can employ fewer people, as staff are so distracting, and there will be loads of opportunities to profit from the vulnerable and ignorant consumer.” When the high road is just as easy — “Let’s make it easier for people to select the best products and services and live more positive and fulfilled lives.”
Think the likes of Uber — “We are all about creating income and flexible working opportunities for average people, until we can get driverless cars and do away with pesky people.” Or, Coles or Woolworths offering self-serve as a way of reducing the need for hardworking staff, and the customer goes “F#@$% you!” and steals stuff.
We are at the point in discussion about AI, that it is just as easy to go down the positive route, as the evil route. It is critical we make the right choice. To make it better for real people. Rather than following our typical lemming ways.
One of the biggest fears in discussions around Artificial Intelligence, is that the technology will learn, grow and build to super intelligence, beyond any human intelligence, and the robots will turn against us … OH NO!
However, my biggest fear is the ‘bastards’ — those egotistical leaders from government and corporate who are able to fund, influence and guide a positive or negative AI future. Profit and short term ignorance may encourage profiteering and self interest. Ethical considerations such as jobs creation and positive products and services may be viewed as a lower priority to appeasing shareholders.
There is a great deal of evidence that the genius of the future will not come from AI and computers in isolotion taking over the WORLD. But, humans and technology working together to make better decisions, choices and actions. Minimising cognitive sluggishness, procrastination and non-commitment while embracing social, emotional and uniquely human intellect.
Welcome the rise of the Cyborg! Think Siri on steroids. Remember Google Glasses? Yes, that but more intelligent. Or, Excel graphs in supersonic hyperdrive. Or, ingenious usage of geo-mapping systems. We are already cyborgs, especially compared with what has come before. Making better and quicker decisions leveraging technology. This will not be driven by leaders nor technologists, but by people, users and customers.
The time to make the right choice on Artificial Intelligence is NOW. The high road vs. the low road. If our corporate and government leaders opt for the low road —abusing the remaining trust of customers, consumers, citizens — they are likely to face the biggest rebellion the world as ever seen.
As the corrupted robots and ridiculed consumers turn on those leaders and ignorant technologists who fucked up an amazing opportunity. Please, please … take the high road with AI to ensure it it is not ‘Bull Shit’ or boring, but makes the world ever better!
To be continued …
(you may also find these on squareholes.com interesting …
Are the robots becoming human, or the humans becoming robots?
