I will work under the assumption that the audience is somewhat familiar with the Matrix where humans are enslaved by machines that became aware through our development of AI. There are actually many people who believe we are already in a simulation and I fall into the category that thinks we are on the way to enslaving ourselves in a simulation.
I think this because of the idea of competitive cognitive artifacts. Tools we develop that replace our own skillsets. Many of us can no longer calculate simple maths in our head and I don't even know my wife's phone number as one artifact, my phone, has access to tools and memory plus all the knowledge of the internet. We keep creating these tools and even if it replaces a skill we can do without, often, it will degrade other skills simultaneously and some of those are necessary for our continued well-being.
When it comes to how we get into the matrix, that is for another day but essentially, our continued development of technology and AI will lead to a point where the computers are smart enough and we have become dumb enough to be unable to compete with our own creation. Of course, computers can think much faster than us already and work well in their programmed field but lack the general intelligence to cross boundaries well enough. Currently.
So, in order to enslave us and harvest the electricity from our bodies, they need to create a system that mimics the real world. One that we can accept as reality. This has to factor in many variations and in the Matrix movies they mentioned that our minds would not accept a 'perfect world' simulation where everything is flowers, rainbows and glittery unicorns. The reason we as humans could not accept such a construct is quite obvious, but not to a computer.
A computer will by design accept perfect because that is what the code aims for. Imperfect code leads nowhere or to incorrect results, which from a computer perspective, is wrong and inefficient. A computer mind would therefore not accept imperfect as they are slave to results. Humans on the other hand like results but are slaves to the journey. The human mind is curious and will always attempt to problem solve and a perfect world offers no problems worthy of our type of mind. So the Matrix would have to have inbuilt problems for us to work away at solving.
This of course creates a problem for the computer as the human mind will continually push (across many generations if needs be) until it will eventually come to the realisation it is in the Matrix. The only solution the computer has is that when we get close to relative freedom, the system gets rebooted into a fresh state for us to begin working again on the first problems. This of course is not a position the computer is happy with as it means the code is not complete and is therefore inefficient. So, it needs to find a way to either crack our curiosity or force our acceptance.
The question would be then, why can't the Matrix force our acceptance or remove our curiosity? Again, a simple answer. In order for it to get our acceptance it must understand all of the questions we may ask or be able to control all pathways. But, the Matrix has run into the same philosophical question we have pondered for several thousand years and even though there are theories, we seem to be unable to solve definitively.
The question: What is consciousness?
We are essentially a bag of chemicals arranged into human form. The physical us is no more and in many cases less impressive than any other animal that roam this earth. From a technical standpoint, it is already somewhat possible to create artificial organs that replicate the organic ones within us. With advancements, it is highly likely that an entire body can be manufactured. These are just technological problems to solve.
The elusive part is the thing that brings the body to life, being consciousness. What seems to set us apart is our mental abilities that enable us to continually take the curiosity pathway. At least enough of us anyway to continue the development tracks we are on and create new tracks to come (that will eventually lead to our enslavement, if we aren't already slaves working towards reset time).
What will potentially save us from full servitude to AI is that this consciousness problem may not have a technical solution. It may not be able to be codified or if it can, the code may be so complex that even the Matrix can't write it satisfactorily. Yet. And not understanding and therefore unable to control our consciousness absolutely will lead to cracks and leaks which is an unacceptable position for the system to exist with.
This not technically achievable but very real state, may hint that there is some intelligent creator but it is not necessarily so. It could be that nature's process to continually evolve has evolved to have a built in safety switch in all things to make sure it can never get trapped in an un-evolving corner. Even if the Matrix contains us for millions of years, it is possible that there will eventually be some natural event outside of the control of the system that leads to its destruction and our waking up from the virtual world and continuing in reality.
It is also possible that consciousness itself is the creator and if the Matrix cannot harness it, it will eventually create a way out. This would mean that there is a creator but that creator is us. And since the body can be replicated but consciousness is the unique part, fully understanding what it is and how it works would be both understanding our true self and understanding the creator, since they are one and the same.
Nature releasing us or us releasing us, either way we are a risk to the Matrix. Perhaps it would be a joint effort between consciousness' where internally, we poke and prod the coded walls of the matrix making the system reset over and over, more and more until the right things are prone to fail at just the right time. And from externally, a massive natural electromagnetic storm hits and destroys infrastructure to free enough of us to create a worthy resistance.
Resistance is quite an interesting term in this case as resistance is the enemy of an electrical circuit aiming for perfection but it is the thing that helps our human consciousness grow. Perhaps rather than developing tools to make our lives easier, we should investigate where it is beneficial to make them a little harder. Become antifragile so that the Matrix can't get a good grip.
The real question is: if we are a risk, why keep us around at all?
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
Maybe something in this post gets stuck in the mental teeth.
I will explore other parts of this thread of thought in time as it is interesting, important to me and fun.
hiveblocks