Perception

A pattern that both Lanier and Christian recognize in the human-machine relationship is the odd reversal of difficulty in various tasks.  The unconscious acts that essentially make sense of our world as we understand it are exceedingly difficult for computers to replicate; a computer might be able to be programmed enough to be the greatest chess player or Jeopardy! contestant in the world, but programming a computer to hold a convincingly human conversation has yet to happen despite decades of attempts.  Ironically enough, some of our most mundane, taken-for-granted abilities are proving the most difficult for computers to replicate.

            I believe that much of this complication of our perception is a result of senses ability to interpret our reality.  It’s an offshoot of the idea that our experience defines us; perhaps the constant immersion and interaction with our surroundings, combined with billions of years of evolution, have given us our uniquely human abilities.  Kurzweil sees the advancement of technology as an extension and improvement of biological evolution in a concept he terms the “six epochs.”  The premise is that there have been/will be six major steps in evolution of life.  As with all of Kurzweil’s findings, the six epochs evolve in exponential growth, decreasing the amount of time at each successive stage (15).  In order, they are: physics and chemistry, biology, brains, technology, the merger of technology and human intelligence, and the universe wakes up.  Right now we are supposedly on the tail end of the fourth epoch, technology (20).

            The premise that technological advancement is just continuing biological evolution most disturbs me in that it presumes man is machine and machine is man; it is precisely because of this assumption that Lanier and Christian see our humanity slipping away from us.  We do not yet fully understand the mind-body connection, but it will certainly be a factor when we begin to see our physical selves being colonized by machines under the guise of mental enhancement.