Robot Zombies

Approach

INTRODUCTION

The technological leaps made in the fields of programming, artificial intelligence, bioengineering and nanotechnology have thrust humans into a fantastical present day that far surpasses the visions of all the great sci-fi authors who dazzled our imaginations with fictional views of scientifically possible futures. That future is now—a world of zombies, robots and artificial intelligence is breaking into the mainstream. Most of the population is too busy playing Candy Crush to heed the publicized warnings from physicist Stephen Hawking and entrepreneur Elon Musk regarding the development of AI that will learn how to replicate itself and be more dangerous to humans than our own vast arsenal of nukes. We can assume these men, both futurist visionaries, have already calculated the inevitable moment in time when machines reach a point of complete self-awareness—a state that humans, in their great numbers, have failed to accomplish and surpass humans in intelligence. The moment Hawking and Musk are fearful of is called ‘the singularity.’Are they correct in predicting our end? According to Hawking, self-aware artificial intelligence would take off on its own and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate, and humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, wouldn’t compete and would be superseded. How close are we to singularity? In late 2012, the Japanese robot QBO, using stereoscopic vision, was able to recognize itself in a mirror.

Science and technology are ever pushing forward creating new modes of living and transforming life as we know it, perhaps even giving humans a shot at immortality. This Transhumanist future has been the goal of the global elite, who have knowingly steered mankind with social and bioengineering programs for the past 200 years in the process to bring it about. In man’s quest to become immortal, a new line has been drawn in the sand; one that threatens to replace the human spirit with artificial reactions. Our daily routines already involve automation of some form. From cars and cookies, to computers, our lives are replete with the work of robotic applications. The lightning speed advances in technology arise so quickly and in such great numbers that we can actually see the exponential growth in artificial intelligence happening in front of us. The human brain doesn’t operate at full capacity and we don’t know why; this is why we’re becoming obsolete. The traditional role of an accomplished, steady-handed surgeon in an operating room is destined to become one of a skilled computer operator performing the same procedure from his office via robotic camera and the actual surgical apparatus set up where the patient is. Where do robots come from? Where are they and where can we find them?

It was the visionary author Isaac Asimov who introduced robots to pop culture. Born in Russia and raised in America, Asimov coined the term ‘robotic’and authored over 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters, many of which brought fictional robots in touch with human interaction. Asimov is considered one of the most prolific scribes of all time, and he began writing about various forms of humanoid robots at the age of 19 leading up to his classic I, Robot, which brought the idea of robots living alongside humans into the mainstream. Before Asimov saw the ‘robot’with metals and wires the term had been used by Czech playwright Josef Capek, who associated ‘robota’with the lifeless, mindless servitude of the peasant. This ‘robot’ended up in Karel Capek’s (Josef’s brother) play Rossum’s Universal Robots that premiered in New York City in 1922 and was translated and published in English a year later. But the idea of the robot or mechanical automaton has existed since ancient times and we find, for example, Egyptian and Greek myths filled with stories of mechanical automation.

Our modern robotic world was shaped by the business foresight of Joseph Engelberger, the man who sold the first robot for industrial purposes to the General Motors Corporation in 1961. Fast forward 51 years to 2012 when Amazon purchased the robotic manufacturing company Kiva Systems for 775 million dollars, with the aim to eventually replace all human warehouse workers with robots. The world is not going back to sticks and stones, and at this point unless there’s a catastrophe of event horizon proportions we can pretty much be assured robotics is here to transform humans and human behavior. Other scientists, speared primarily by Stephen Hawking, have expressed concern about the dangers that could arise with overuse of decision-making robots that may be able to create goals and objectives and work towards achieving them. This is of special concern, particularly in the military, where automation and advanced weaponry is used in clandestine operations. Can militarized machines truly rise above their station and violate the first law of robotics? What is real, and what is hype?

This book will examine the history and the future of robotics, artificial intelligence and a Trans-humanist utopia/ dystopia, merging man with machine. How did it all begin, and what can we expect in the present, the near future and the distant future? Examining the fascinating role of robotics and artificial intelligence from a practical human perspective in our everyday world we discover the mind-altering process necessary to accept and integrate with the inevitable. Scientific developments and advancements in the field of technology appear to generally be exposed first in film. Motion pictures are personal experiences created to ‘put you there.’Consequently films have the deepest reach into individual consciousness. Make no mistake, those Hollywood blockbuster sci-fi and fantasy movies have several purposes. This type of expression is referred to in metaphysical circles as ‘the craft’and it is designed to speak to those within the masses who are aware. What has Hollywood been serving?

1.

To Live and AI in Hollywood

Before seeing life on the screen, science fiction was alive and well living in the radio, and in literature from all parts of the world, including the Bible. The onset of silent film in the 1920’s brought classic tales of fantasy and futurism to the screen, even while radio was the mass medium. Among the flood of sci-fi titles that emerged during this time, with themes of technology and robotics, was the classic 1927 German film Metropolis. With futuristic sets designed by famed Italian architect Antonio Sant’Elia and directed by Fritz Lang from a story written by his wife, Metropolis is considered the pioneering epic that launched the science fiction genre. The movie touches the theme of robotics, along with class separation, as the lead female role is abducted. A robot likeness replaces her and begins causing trouble for the male workers of the city, whom she instigates into revolt. In the end the robot is burned at the stake and its identity revealed when the skin peels away. The message in this movie clearly associates the robot clone in a leadership capacity over the working masses that end up ‘killing’technology. The special effects used in the movie were startling for the time, and to this day represent a stroke of quality and ingenuity. It is worthwhile mentioning that Fritz Lang had a personal interest in science fiction that included the friendship of Hermann Oberth, who worked as an advisor on Lang’s Woman in the Moon and attempted to build an actual working rocket to be used in the film. Wernher von Braun, considered the leading pioneer of rocket science, was a German aerospace engineer and space architect member of the Nazi party and the SS. He was a member of the Verein fur Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel), a German rocket science association that included members from other countries and was founded by world-renowned rocket scientists Johannes Winkler and Max Valier. It is around this time that we begin to see the interest of advanced technology at the highest of levels targeted to mass appeal through film, an integration that exists today. It is interesting to note Metropolis received the highest financing for a film of its day at more than five million Reichsmarks, making it the most expensive silent film ever produced. However, the film was a commercial flop and its historical significance wouldn’t be realized until decades later when several different versions surfaced. The closest to the original version is a copy found in Argentina with 25 additional minutes. It is not a German museum of art that holds these copies, but The Smithsonian.

Orson Welles’rendition of H.G. Wells’War of the Worlds is another classic example of the shifting mindset of the public, mostly younger generations, who were awakened by entertainment to take notice of technology and glimpses of a scientifically frightening future. The infamous 1938 radiobroadcast simulating an alien invasion frightened people—mostly those who hadn’t read the book. The result put Welles in front of the FCC, which in turn used the opportunity to gauge and duly note the power of mass communication. Media and government closely monitored this era of radio and film. The first sci-fi and fantasy Hollywood films were based on books and existing themes, such as the Flash Gordon series, but unlike its German competition, these films were not intended to deliver any particular message yet. It wasn’t until what it is now referred to as ‘The Golden Age of Sci-Fi,’ ushered by the explosion of the atomic bomb and the Roswell incident, that the themes of space and time travel, alien beings and interplanetary invasions, robots and machines, suddenly became popular. Hollywood films that explored these themes were Destination Moon, The Time Machine, War of the Worlds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Angry Red Planet, The Thing From Another World, and George Pal’s Conquest of Space. These titles are among the most memorable. Then the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still came around and the world faced its nuclear fears head on. More sci-fi movies were made during the 50’s than any other time, many of them campy, with unknown stars, corny dialogue and absurd special effects. The underlying messages in these films blossomed and it was evident that bigger budgets would mean bigger audiences. The messages remained more or less constant—man was heading to an unknown future where invasions from outer space and chemical mutations would destroy a huge portion of humanity before someone could figure out a simple way to stop them. In a nutshell: abstain from technological progress because it upsets the order of the classes. Then two movies were produced that again changed the scene and served the dual purpose of top-of-mind programming and technological playground.

Maria the Robot—Metropolis

The first was Forbidden Planet in 1956. The movie boasted technology and special effects not seen before in film. The plot, based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, involved space travel to an alien planet and the debut of Robby the Robot,a mechanical assistant programmed with superior knowledge and apparently a distinct dry-wit personality. The movie is the first to introduce an all-electronic musical score.

Forbidden Planet—MGM

Three years later On the Beach, based on the 1957 post-apocalyptic novel written by Nevil Shute featured a cast that would make anybody curious enough to go see it on the big screen. After On the Beach nobody has been able to look at a nuclear reactor without some form of trepidation. These movies are all a product of their time. High-end technology was in its infancy after WWII and filmmakers, particularly in Berlin and Hollywood, were only too eager to incorporate the remnants of advancing knowledge that made it out of the Nazi camp. The prevailing mentality was that of fear and defense. The climax of futuristic technology in film came at the end of the 1950’s when Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek and imaginations everywhere leaped light years ahead of their time. Unlike the frenzy of low budget sci-fi Bmovies that swamped the years immediately following WWII and well into the end of the decade, the 1960’s saw the genre go through a transforming change. The quality of sci-fi films became decidedly better and so did the efforts to maintain plausible open-ended outcomes, again reflecting the prevailing scientific mindset of the time.

The real race for space was going on and technological breakthroughs again saw their debut for the general public in film. Planet of the Apes, based on a novel by Pierre Boulle, pitted humans against a future reality where apes ruled over man as a result of misuse of technology. However, the most significant work from this period is 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick wrote it in collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke. ‘The Sentinel,’a short story that Clarke wrote in 1940 which topic transcended the ideas of the time, inspired it. The entanglement between Kubrick and the reportedly fake lunar landing of Apollo 11 is a complex subject and one that has been thoroughly exposed by qualified experts for anyone to review and analyze. It is not what we are concerned with here however. It is to be noted that 2001: A Space Odyssey is a landmark film with an evolving message hinting at the conflict of computers controlling humans.

The film featured a sentient computer, HAL 9000 that in the end becomes man’s adversary. In the satellite sequence of the film each satellite has an