01/01/2018 / By JD Heyes
If you are a subscriber to the streaming service Netflix, you may be aware of a new futuristic series produced by the media company itself called “Black Mirror.”
A recent episode features a “terrifying vision of machines” — that is, robots — that were stalking humans. The episode, titled “Metalhead,” features robotic machines that are eerily similar to those currently in development by technology companies. Only a truly gullible individual would believe these robots are not being developed as weapons to use against human beings.
Here’s the trailer, though it doesn’t give much away:
Here’s a video of a “dog-like” robot that is being developed by Boston Dynamics and will soon be on the market:
Pretty neat, huh? Or is it?
Just imagine if one of those things was coming after you? Or maybe a “pack” of robotic dogs? Or other robots? How would you defend yourself if you left yourself defenseless?
How would humans survive — especially those who had no means of self-defense?
The answer is self-evident: They wouldn’t.
The fact is, if you’re someone who is simply gun-averse, that is, of course, your right, but in choosing the path of vulnerability to threats, you are literally putting your life on the line and betting that someone else with a gun — a cop, a soldier, a neighbor — will be around to protect you when these things come calling. (Related: Weapon-toting drones may soon be deployed across the battlefields of the world.)
And increasingly, more experts believe they will, eventually.
You can easily see the advances that researchers have already made in robotics. The “dog” in the video above is going to be considered primitive in just a few short years, mark my words, which means the capabilities of robots will only improve dramatically from here on out.
Now, pair these menacing machines with artificial intelligence that learns from human behavior and interaction, and the threat becomes much more real, doesn’t it?
For years Tesla founder Elon Musk has been warning anyone who will listen that the threat from AI is real and it’s growing. In fact, he believes AI is a threat that could become “more dangerous than nukes,” according to an interview he gave to the U.K.’s Daily Mail in January 2015.
“The potential benefits are huge, since everything that civilization has to offer is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools AI may provide, but the eradication of disease and poverty are not unfathomable,” Musk, along with scientist Stephen Hawkings and others, wrote in an open letter to the AI development community.
That said, “our AI systems must do what we want them to do,” the letter continued.
But how do you ensure that AI systems do what we want and not what they want?
Earlier, Hawkings warned, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”
He noted further that mature AI systems will “take off” on their own and “redesign” themselves “at an ever-increasing rate.”
“Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded,” he further warned.
Who’s to say Hawkings, Musk, and others are wrong? If you look at the maturation of technology just in the last decade alone, it’s mind-boggling.
Ten years ago we didn’t have the kind of functional computing power we could hold in our hands, but we do now in every smartphone made. A decade ago automobiles weren’t “wired,” but today they are. And AI was just in its infancy.
Without the ability to protect yourself from the rise of the machines, you’re just going to become another casualty. And humanity will fade into extinction.
It could just be that the Second Amendment, at least for Americans, winds up saving humanity. Think about it.
J.D. Heyes is editor of The National Sentinel and a senior writer for Natural News and News Target.
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Tagged Under: artificial intelligence, dangerous tech, firearms, future tech, guns, humans vs machines, killer robots, protection, Robot Ethics, robotic evolution, robotics, robots, Second Amendment, self-defense, self-preservation, weird science