artificial intelligence
The future of artificial intelligence.
Review of Westworld 1.7
"I don't wanna be in a story," Dolores says to William, who later provides the best possible Westworld answer, telling Dolores the life he's been living outside is a lie, and the most truth he's ever known is in Westworld with her. (Note that in this sentence, the italics denote the series, and the name Westworld denotes the place in the series.)
By Paul Levinson9 years ago in Futurism
The Cyberscientist's Guide to Automation
Isaac Asimov, Master of the robotics science fiction genre, imagined a future set in the robotic age where humans coexist peacefully alongside master machines designed to comply with the three laws of robotics, ensuring humans have the "upper hand" in the new, new world.
By Thamarasee Jeewandara9 years ago in Futurism
Review of Westworld 1.6
An outstanding Westworld 1.6 -- the series gets better and better, Isaac Asimov (author of the three later four laws of robotics would've loved it) -- and in this episode jumps into some of the real paradoxes and ethical quandaries of artificial intelligence.
By Paul Levinson9 years ago in Futurism
Review of Westworld 1.4
"Vacation" — it was the name of a Connie Francis song in the early 1960s (Wikipedia says 1962, and that it was Connie's last big hit, and I remember hearing and singing it in high school), and it was probably the most important word spoken in Westworld 1.4.
By Paul Levinson9 years ago in Futurism
Review of Westworld 1.2
As the second Presidential debate played out across lots of television in October 2016, the second episode of Westworld proceeded on HBO. Actually, it had been available On Demand for about a week -- as our own world became ever more like Westworld in our ability to control our fiction, if not our reality.
By Paul Levinson9 years ago in Futurism
The Grand Difference Engine
I wanted to respond to an article that I read here on Vocal. The Consciousness Paradox, by Justin James Gignac, is a great article asking whether or not life is simply a chemical reaction, or something new to the universe altogether. More specifically, is intelligence simply an illusion created by the vast processing power of the brain? If you have read any of my philosophical meanderings, you probably picked up this theme. It has interested me ever since reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? My own philosophy is that life and intelligence are the result of necessity.
By Mickey Finn9 years ago in Futurism
Review of Westworld 1.1
If you're talking about AI science fiction—robots or androids programmed to convincingly think and act like humans, or almost like humans, or more than humans—you've got to start with Isaac Asimov and his three laws of robotics: (1) a robot can never harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow injury to befall a human, (2) a robot must follow all orders given to it by a human, except if such orders conflict with the first law, and (3) a robot should always act to preserve its own existence, except when following this third law would conflict with the first two. Thus, a robot ordered by a human to dismantle itself must follow that order, unless the robot knows that the human giving such as order was set to commit suicide, a suicide which the robot not dismantled could prevent. (This is not an exact quotation of Asimov's presentation of the three laws, but my own statement of them, with an explanatory example.)
By Paul Levinson9 years ago in Futurism
