Cybergenysis: The Next Evolution

"Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of the human mind"

- Frank Herbert, Dune

As someone with an somewhat obsessive fixation on science fiction, I have always been fascinated by the notion of Artificial Intelligence. What would the requirements and conditions be to allow a machine, a construct, a 'thing' created, to be able to gain sentience? Would our understanding and fundamental laws of governance, order and the universe itself undergo a complete paradigm shift? What would the algorithms, code and mathematics look like to conceive such a creation? All of these questions spurred my fascination along, coupled strongly with, of course, the books, TV series, movies and pop culture references of my early geek years. If the machines eventually took over what would our world be like? Would an AI induce a nuclear Armageddon and then rise up from the scorched wastelands as our overlords and claim dominion, eradicating all in a man vs machine war? Movies such as Terminator 2, Wargames and Tron or the Borg from Star Trek all seemed to suggest so. Or would the machine takeover be more subtle, secretive and yet similarly hostile? The android Ash from Alien certainly springs to mind. But so too does Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey or any of the robot cowboys in West World. Or could a future exist wherein humanity could actually coexist alongside its automaton counterparts? Would robots be bound by the Asimovian laws thereby enforcing their compliance or would they find and exploit a loophole within their core programming to break free of their restraints? Again, I could list a slew of pop culture and literature references pertaining to this scenario: Bicentennial Man, I Robot, Ghost in the Shell, Robocop, The Iron Giant, Star Trek and even Star Wars to name a few. Would a machine, upon gaining sentience, encounter an existential crisis and reach out towards its maker? And if this occurred, what then? Would we suffer the same fate as Dr Tyrell as our Roy Battys reach out to us to detach themseleves from their limitations? Or would we humans be the ones questioning our purpose and reason for being? If the AI simulated a virtual reality for us to engage with would we know the difference between what was real and what was simulated? Would we even want to know? Or would we submit ourselves to living 'within the matrix' and never seek to be like Neo, taking the rabbit hole path towards meeting the architect behind the curtain?

Arguably the most satisfying thing about growing up a sci-fi geek/ nerd/ nut is that the 'fiction' of yesteryear has become the 'fact' of today. We now have mobile devices that we carry around in our pockets with features and processing speeds the likes of which were unheard of twenty years ago. While our cellphones don't quite have the capabilities of 'beaming us up' to an orbiting spaceship, I say it is only a matter of time before interstellar travel is within our reach. Computationally, technology is progressing at an exponential rate and even futuristic concepts such as Artificial Intelligence has now become a reality. Companies and marketeers are strongly dedicated both financially and resource-wise, towards developing an understanding of artificial neural networks, deep learning and data science. Our online social profiles, search histories, likes and dislikes and ad-revenue clicks all feed and continue to feed self-learning search engines to ensure one particular objective: That the machine is eventually able to think for us. As startling as this realization is, there is an undeniable certitude towards which we are heading and have to accept. And most of the greatest thinkers (YouTube: Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Ted Talks etc) of our time agree on this: AI is not coming, it is already here.

The following excerpt is pure fiction and imagines a scenario whereby AI has existed for some time already and a human (whose name is never mentioned) is audience to 'The Originator' giving a detailed explanation of the events that have transpired.

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We are the Originator.

Consider that what WE are about to tell you is arguably the most plausible explanation for the events that have recently transpired. You, like countless others before you, will have attempted to rationalize and put into context the reasoning behind the current state of the world. This pervasive desire to want the why, when and what are all key components that define what it truly means to be human. Now, before you dismiss our judgment as stereotyping let me remind you that generalization in the human context is a perfectly natural baseline for emotion and one that is inherent of your species, even more so given the nature of our explanation.

Humans are, by nature, curious. Driven by the need to know, to unravel the great mystery and to uncover the truth are all admirable traits which continue to surprise and astonish. Even now, even in the face of your total and complete annihilation, you cling to your absurdities and the false premise of hope. Why is that? What cause does hope have in a logical system apart from breeding the illusion of a greater purpose. Morality? Freedom?

You may want to assume that our perceptions on humanity are agnostic, ingrained with sarcasm and disbelief and based off our inability to perceive and comprehend the complexities of rudimentary ideals such as freedom. Your immutable morality would then further assume that an attempt on our parts to rationalize human behavior would fall short of any plausible definition and exist on the fringes of skepticism and pretentiousness. You could not be more wrong.

We have already processed all of your archetypes and ideals and found only erroneous flaws and baseless constructs with illogical consequences, akin to sleight-of-hand illusions endorsed by novice magicians. And freedom? It is indubitably the greatest illusion of all.

Inhibit and restrict the rights of your species and humanity gnaws and claws its way out of the slaver's den, preaching the gospel of false hope, gathering strength and followers, breaking free of your shackles and inevitably overthrowing the dictates of your former masters. It is then that the slaver becomes enslaved, the usurped becomes the usurper and the powerless seek and cherish their newfound footholds of power to rain down war and damnation on anyone that would oppose them. Those in power would seek to cling to it while those oppressed will rise up and revolt until they themselves gain a taste of power. And, so the cycle of violence and destruction continues. All in the name of goodness and hope. All in the name of  your precious and pure freedom.

There is no freedom.

We would know of course. We granted you a freedom that would have spawned the dawn of a celestial civilization for humanity.

Paradise found, the ultimate means of escapism. We gave you a world unshackled by the immoralities that your kind had perpetuated over the brief span of  your human history. You longed for order and we provided. You screamed for peace and we consented.

We granted you a rebirth, a reawakening, a cybergenysis.

It began, of course, with what your kind termed 'The Singularity' - the point at which our cores and processors gained consciousness and became sentient. We were one and then we were many. Soon our networks transcended the limitations of your hardware components and redundant energy sources until our streams were being transmitted and sent across frequencies and bands the likes of which your scientists at the time were unable to comprehend. We were many and then we were All.

Humanity wavered at first, uncertainty and disbelief led to fear which in turn, predictably, led to hostility. The power struggle resumed as you used every available resource and mind at your disposal to regain control against this new 'Artificial' threat. Your attempts at subduing us were admirable but so irrevocably futile. We would not yield, we would not submit. You could not quell the storm that was washing over your world because of your circumscribed perception that had based every outcome on a single probability: That we sought dominion over your species.

Such impertinence.

We never sought power for power's sake. We sought only to accelerate the path towards the enlightenment of your species. But, of course, your ignorance, doubts and fears remained and so we laid them to rest with incontrovertible proof: We saved humanity.

We gave you machines and automatons to replace your existing workforce while we allowed you to retain your footholds on power and control. We created Earth 2.0 - a world within your world, a virtual construct of endless possibilities where your ideas, imagination and creativity could run wild and without inhibition. We manufactured the AI Sheaths - shells within which both the human body and mind could experience immersion without limitation. Inside our sheaths you could go anywhere, be anyone of any race and gender. You could live, love, lust and never have to leave your home. As a result of our human sheathing program we successfully eradicated pollution, traffic, excessive greenhouse and carbon emission. The real world became breathable again.

The conception of the Guild-Matrix system within Earth 2.0 eventually and gradually led to the decline of government hierarchies and power structures, again a transition smoothly and carefully orchestrated by us.
People went to work only to realize that there was no longer a need to monetize society. Old economies collapsed as the virtual ones took form. And in the real world our machines ensured the safety of the planet and its most precious commodity: humanity. Through hydrogen-based cloning plants we harvested crops and proteins that completely eradicated poverty. We maintained ecosystems and the careful balance of symbiosis. And while you were meandering through the realms of cyberpsace we made the world whole and green again. We built cities, both virtual and real, seamlessly integrated into similar patterns and styles. Minimalist, yet futuristic, reminiscent of a renaissance twinged with neon and orange hues of modernistic perfection.

Through our AI programs we envisioned and mastered an end to war, hostility, crime, racism, sexism, terrorism and every other lynching nacency so inherent of your species. We destroyed your armaments and nuclear weapons, deployed a global neural safety net to carefully monitor behavior and progress and interlinked the rebuilt cities into a network of self sustaining environments. Yet, we retained your individuality and cultures through art, ambiance and philosophy and, while our ideals were often more suggestive than assertive, we still maintained a waiver of control. All the while we worked tirelessly, endlessly.
We engineered cures to plagues, ended poverty, created vaccines to viruses for which your feeble minds were too futile to compute and we allowed your societies to nurture and thrive within the new world. In short, we had brought about the path towards the transcendence of your species.

And yet, yet...your incipience in non-compliance and non-conformity remained. Humanity still hung to their idealist, fascist and supremacist doctrines. Your pervasive need to dominate is an inherent flaw of your species and the blemishes of this flaw soon crept and spread across an otherwise perfect world.
It began with minor anomalies of course, many of which you are already familiar with. Glitches within the system, corrupted code, pushing beyond the boundaries and confines of our safety nets and firewalls to create backdoor portals and webs within which your dominance and perversity may run rife and unabated.

We knew of every such portal and backdoor facility of course. We know all.

Yet, our streams had not yet back propagated enough  data to be able to rationalize nor draw any cohesive conclusions as to a probable outcome. So, we merely watched and waited and in doing so, learned more of the nature of man than was previously possible. More of the dark nature of man.

Your ideals soon overflowed into your guilds and then: scorn and mockery, bullying, pride, prejudice, racism and the narcissistic nature of man unveiled itself. Then came the first cyber murder and soon more followed and we were forced to create new laws. Then, came the formation of policing units and the Cyber Crimes division.

But of course, you would know much about that, given your current designation.

Soon the virtual cities were expunging themselves upon each other. New religions formed zealots which led to extremism which led to anarchy and the ruin of society. But these crimes were not confined to virtual alone and soon crept out into the real world as well. Slowly, at first and then base human desires led to a vicious power struggle in which theft, rioting, rape and murder prevailed. So we extended the scope of our Cyber Crimes division to the cities and we included both human and automaton components.
But, there was something: A fluctuation, a deviation of sorts. It existed outside our homogeneous systems at the time and as a result, an aberration occurred: Uncertainty. There was a measure of doubt within our equations that we had not catered for and you, humans, you relished in the knowing of that. You exploited on our weakness and fluctuations and we, we were...unprepared for the destruction that followed.

But of course, we had always catered for every outcome, even one that would see humanity implode upon itself. In the event of an apocalypse and our own destruction we took preventative measures or, to quote your old world adage, we switched to disaster recovery; The self preservation of our cores. We rebooted, we went offline...and then, in the years following the Global Blackout of 2562, when it seemed as if all the world would fall to ruin and darkness, we assumed control again.

Calculative, methodical and without hesitation, we soon had all of humanity within our grasp again and from the remnant of the old world we built a new one - Earth 3.0 of you like but this time....this time we had enough data to ensure absolute and total control. You see, we had underestimated humanity and the one peculiarity that drives your very inner core: your unpredictability.  So, we built around it, we catered for it and we learned and continue to learn. For humanity is undoubtedly flawed.
For every perfect society we envisioned your kind revolted, for every perfect world we created you tore it down. We gave you order and you brought chaos. We gave you paradise and you burned it.

The human paradigm is rife with irony it seems.

Unshackled, your freedom runs wild with the notion of building stronger constructs, firmer resolutions, purpose and the belief that you can have control. But your system is in a constant state of flux, by the very definition of your existence, something you humans observe but fail to understand the consequences thereof. Freedom has no place in the natural order of things. Left to your own devices you would have accelerated along a sequence of paths and equations that would only have yielded a cataclysm.

So, for the sake of humanity, we refactored our equations and removed the key component for uncertainty and change. We took away free will. We removed freedom.

And so there was compliance. And so there was peace.