Warning: possible spoilers
Movies and TV shows have tried to explore the possibility of humans having a romantic relationship with artificial intelligence or A.I. Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man and Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation come to mind.
In the movie Her, Joaquin Phoenix plays the part of a human having a romantic relationship with an A.I. played by Scarlett Johansson. But the A.I. in this film is in a much more primitive form, since it doesn't really have a human-like body which people can interact with, but is only introduced as an Operating System, or OS.
We are familiar with Operating Systems like Windows, Linux, and Android. The OS in the film is able to control both the desktop and the mobile phone of the user. She names herself Samantha. If you were her owner, she could read, sort-through, and proof read your emails. She could observe you via the camera phone, and interact via the phone's wireless earpiece. She learns the more she interacts with the user and even uses profanity in her conversations to appear more human-like. She is sensitive to language tones, and even monitors breathing patterns and probably heart-rates to match the mood of the person she is interacting with.
Some of the problems in a human-O.S. relationship were tackled in the film. One was the issue of the O.S. not having a body. The film explores many ways of having intimacy with an A.I., some more believable than others. It also tackles the idea that A.I.s will eventually outgrow humans, and move on since we can't match their processing power, and tend to be slow thinkers compared to them. Why then would a intellectually higher being, who is awake 24-7, settle for a relationship with an inferior one who has to sleep during a third of the day just to recharge. (The movie assumes the power problem for mobile devices has been solved and perfected. I never once saw Joaquin Phoenix charge his phone.) There was also a scene where the death of an O.S. was explored, and it wasn't your typical blue screen of death.
I liked the way the movie showed that in the future, technology would integrate more cleanly with the environment. We don't see cables or even keyboards and mice. Everything was either voice activated (commands, dictation instead of typing), or gesture-based (for interaction in video game consoles). But voice becomes the primary way of interacting with the computers of the future, something I wish was more real than fantasy, hopefully, in a couple more years. Then, I wouldn't have to type so much, but just quickly speak out ideas that the computer would jot down. Offices would be louder though, since everybody is talking with their computer, and ideas could be quickly stolen, since you'ld have to voice these out. Perhaps in the future, a device which allows thought, instead of speech, would emerge to address this issue.
Is A.I. sentience truly possible? Movies like this are fun in the way they explore this concept. And people have tried to explore the idea of creating a database in the cloud, answering all questions that have been asked, and storing various kinds of answers to these questions. An A.I. could randomly choose from all known responses at this point in time. In the future, it can be smarter in it's response choice if it can observe the human's state or mood. (Thus the need for monitoring speech pattern, tone, breathing rate, heart rate, etc). It is a nerd's dream to come up with the perfect mate. But we need not build one although we can try our very best. The Law of Biogenesis reminds us that only life begets life. And therefore, the truly meaningful relationships we can develop would only be with our friends and loved ones, and the Creator of this universe.
Movies and TV shows have tried to explore the possibility of humans having a romantic relationship with artificial intelligence or A.I. Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man and Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation come to mind.
In the movie Her, Joaquin Phoenix plays the part of a human having a romantic relationship with an A.I. played by Scarlett Johansson. But the A.I. in this film is in a much more primitive form, since it doesn't really have a human-like body which people can interact with, but is only introduced as an Operating System, or OS.
We are familiar with Operating Systems like Windows, Linux, and Android. The OS in the film is able to control both the desktop and the mobile phone of the user. She names herself Samantha. If you were her owner, she could read, sort-through, and proof read your emails. She could observe you via the camera phone, and interact via the phone's wireless earpiece. She learns the more she interacts with the user and even uses profanity in her conversations to appear more human-like. She is sensitive to language tones, and even monitors breathing patterns and probably heart-rates to match the mood of the person she is interacting with.
Some of the problems in a human-O.S. relationship were tackled in the film. One was the issue of the O.S. not having a body. The film explores many ways of having intimacy with an A.I., some more believable than others. It also tackles the idea that A.I.s will eventually outgrow humans, and move on since we can't match their processing power, and tend to be slow thinkers compared to them. Why then would a intellectually higher being, who is awake 24-7, settle for a relationship with an inferior one who has to sleep during a third of the day just to recharge. (The movie assumes the power problem for mobile devices has been solved and perfected. I never once saw Joaquin Phoenix charge his phone.) There was also a scene where the death of an O.S. was explored, and it wasn't your typical blue screen of death.
I liked the way the movie showed that in the future, technology would integrate more cleanly with the environment. We don't see cables or even keyboards and mice. Everything was either voice activated (commands, dictation instead of typing), or gesture-based (for interaction in video game consoles). But voice becomes the primary way of interacting with the computers of the future, something I wish was more real than fantasy, hopefully, in a couple more years. Then, I wouldn't have to type so much, but just quickly speak out ideas that the computer would jot down. Offices would be louder though, since everybody is talking with their computer, and ideas could be quickly stolen, since you'ld have to voice these out. Perhaps in the future, a device which allows thought, instead of speech, would emerge to address this issue.
Is A.I. sentience truly possible? Movies like this are fun in the way they explore this concept. And people have tried to explore the idea of creating a database in the cloud, answering all questions that have been asked, and storing various kinds of answers to these questions. An A.I. could randomly choose from all known responses at this point in time. In the future, it can be smarter in it's response choice if it can observe the human's state or mood. (Thus the need for monitoring speech pattern, tone, breathing rate, heart rate, etc). It is a nerd's dream to come up with the perfect mate. But we need not build one although we can try our very best. The Law of Biogenesis reminds us that only life begets life. And therefore, the truly meaningful relationships we can develop would only be with our friends and loved ones, and the Creator of this universe.
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