* After watching the match between Lee Se-dol and AlphaGo
What a shock: Lee Se-dol resigns the match! This incident deserves an exclamation point like this. Has the world where machines overwhelm the human race dawned? Yet looking at this event from the perspective of "human vs. machine" and "the crisis of civilization" is superficial. To be precise, for a long time, mankind has repeatedly created such apocalyptic situations and stories and has overcome such crises.
The Divine Comedy written by the Italian Dante in the 13th century imagined a hell that did not exist and portrayed the Middle Ages through a man on a pilgrimage down below. What about Paradise Lost by the British Milton in the 17th century? It describes God's punishment, a fallen angel, and Satan building a citadel of revenge in hell. Through this apocalypse that does not exist in real life but only in imagination, Milton described the bleak situation of his time.
Films like Terminator 2 and The Matrix also portray a dark situation in a near future dominated by machines on the surface, but they reflect the practical problems and situations we humans experience in real life nowadays.
The advent of artificial intelligence will have an enormous impact on our lives. But we shouldn't see this as an apocalyptic victory of technology, such as the "rule of the machine." In most cases, such technology will provide us with convenience and enjoyment. Google is investing in various future technologies including AlphaGo, and among them, a robot dog by Boston Dynamics runs just like a real dog. We can see a video of the robot dog, shivering for some reason in response to a real puppy that barked at the robot dog.
Such technology will contribute to a more convenient daily life and to better processing and relating of information in the near future. Many of the readers reading this column will soon talk with and walk robot dogs. That dog will not pee anywhere it pleases, won't get sick, and will pick up the delivery for you.
The problem is when such robot dogs are dispatched in wars or sent to suppress rallies or even to work in man’s workplaces. Jeong Jae-seung, a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) said that we should worry about not machines ruling humans, but the human with control over that machine enjoying a stronger rule over the rest of the humans. That is the point. Humans are animals full of mistakes and subtle emotions. Man himself does not know why he loves one person and hates another. This is the limitation of man, but at the same time it is also his strength.
Pity and sorrow, grief and love. Two distinct forces are born here and have brought humanity to where we are now: a noble emotional state, in other words humanism and a method to practice this socially, democracy. Allowing this humanism and democracy to work in the future as well that is the power to overcome such apocalyptic situations.
Lee Se-dol may lose or he may win. I hope that he wins the rest of the games. But even if he loses, this will not be a preview of the victory and rule of the machine. In the near future, just as it is now, the power that actually controls these machines will be important. If humanism and democracy disappear and strong power and capital controls the machines, then that will be the beginning of a tragedy.
We shiver at the victory of AlphaGo, but at the same time, we cheer Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, who refuses to succumb to the strong request of the FBI. Here lies the key. The problem is not technology, but the rule of the state and capital that dominate such technology.
The future apocalyptic situation is brought on not by AlphaGo or a robot dog, but by the power that actually controls these machines. We need to be aware of this and guard humanism and democracy in the present situation. That will stop or at least delay a future tragedy.
If we can overcome or delay the rule of power through control over machines, our future generation will also follow suit. Then, just as we remember Dante and Milton while smiling bitterly at the consecutive defeats to AlphaGo version 7.0, our descendants will remember us, who tried to guard humanism and democracy.
What a shock: Lee Se-dol resigns the match! This incident deserves an exclamation point like this. Has the world where machines overwhelm the human race dawned? Yet looking at this event from the perspective of "human vs. machine" and "the crisis of civilization" is superficial. To be precise, for a long time, mankind has repeatedly created such apocalyptic situations and stories and has overcome such crises.
The Divine Comedy written by the Italian Dante in the 13th century imagined a hell that did not exist and portrayed the Middle Ages through a man on a pilgrimage down below. What about Paradise Lost by the British Milton in the 17th century? It describes God's punishment, a fallen angel, and Satan building a citadel of revenge in hell. Through this apocalypse that does not exist in real life but only in imagination, Milton described the bleak situation of his time.
Films like Terminator 2 and The Matrix also portray a dark situation in a near future dominated by machines on the surface, but they reflect the practical problems and situations we humans experience in real life nowadays.
The advent of artificial intelligence will have an enormous impact on our lives. But we shouldn't see this as an apocalyptic victory of technology, such as the "rule of the machine." In most cases, such technology will provide us with convenience and enjoyment. Google is investing in various future technologies including AlphaGo, and among them, a robot dog by Boston Dynamics runs just like a real dog. We can see a video of the robot dog, shivering for some reason in response to a real puppy that barked at the robot dog.
Such technology will contribute to a more convenient daily life and to better processing and relating of information in the near future. Many of the readers reading this column will soon talk with and walk robot dogs. That dog will not pee anywhere it pleases, won't get sick, and will pick up the delivery for you.
The problem is when such robot dogs are dispatched in wars or sent to suppress rallies or even to work in man’s workplaces. Jeong Jae-seung, a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) said that we should worry about not machines ruling humans, but the human with control over that machine enjoying a stronger rule over the rest of the humans. That is the point. Humans are animals full of mistakes and subtle emotions. Man himself does not know why he loves one person and hates another. This is the limitation of man, but at the same time it is also his strength.
Pity and sorrow, grief and love. Two distinct forces are born here and have brought humanity to where we are now: a noble emotional state, in other words humanism and a method to practice this socially, democracy. Allowing this humanism and democracy to work in the future as well that is the power to overcome such apocalyptic situations.
Lee Se-dol may lose or he may win. I hope that he wins the rest of the games. But even if he loses, this will not be a preview of the victory and rule of the machine. In the near future, just as it is now, the power that actually controls these machines will be important. If humanism and democracy disappear and strong power and capital controls the machines, then that will be the beginning of a tragedy.
We shiver at the victory of AlphaGo, but at the same time, we cheer Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, who refuses to succumb to the strong request of the FBI. Here lies the key. The problem is not technology, but the rule of the state and capital that dominate such technology.
The future apocalyptic situation is brought on not by AlphaGo or a robot dog, but by the power that actually controls these machines. We need to be aware of this and guard humanism and democracy in the present situation. That will stop or at least delay a future tragedy.
If we can overcome or delay the rule of power through control over machines, our future generation will also follow suit. Then, just as we remember Dante and Milton while smiling bitterly at the consecutive defeats to AlphaGo version 7.0, our descendants will remember us, who tried to guard humanism and democracy.
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