The Final Revolution?

Hegel theorised the progression of history simply as the struggle of one group to assert control over another. Masters increasingly rely on slaves to perform their tasks and through this dependency, loose their power.

Of course this ‘master-slave dialectic’ naturally lends itself to the apparent rising dependency of 21st Century society on technology. Encouraged by Hollywood, there is a fear that there will come a time when technology becomes so smart, that our brains will become obsolete.

Indeed Martin Reese, a respected Astronomer Royal claims, “A super intelligent machine could be the last invention humans ever make.” He makes the ominous prediction that “Once can observe and interpret their environment as adeptly as we do through our eyes and other sense organs, their [eventual] far faster thinking and responses could give them an advantage over us” (Reese, 2003, p. 16).

Unfortunately, Reese can’t be dismissed as just another eccentric prophet. There are many other respected individuals who share his views, for instance, robotics pioneer Hans Moravec and Californian futurologist Vernor Vinge.

So will the survival of the human race really come to rely on the mysterious arrival of a ripped T-800 from the distant future?

While we should be aware of this very real possibility, I think our own intelligence deserves a little more credit.

The theory presumes that we humans will begin our own demise by creating the first super intelligent machine. Creating such sophisticated technology will likely require a huge collaborative effort and resources. I find it hard to grasp why we would ever go to such lengths to build something that would so easily spell the end of human supremacy.

Furthermore, because of the magnitude of the project, it will inevitably garner public attention. It is difficult to understand why the public would ethically and monetarily support their own termination.

But then, history has repeatedly shown the stupidity of humanity…………..


For a selection of exciting ways humankind could meet their doom, see Martin Reese, ‘Technology Shock’, Our Final Century (Random House/Arrow Books, 2003), pp 9-24.