First I'd heard of it?
So, I used to study IT back in the 90's, back when Pascal was the language to learn, and so it was at this time I was introduced to the acronym HCI, The 'Human Comuter Interface'. Fast forward to today and it's Quantum computing with virtual reality, blockchain and so on.
Now, I was pursuing the tube(You) and I came across this video with what looks like a very shiny metallic object that had smashed into the concrete floor. There are commenters claiming it to be an art project, which would be an elaborate one at that, but one commenter said that it could be a piece of Symbiotic technology.
In my opinion, which is I that don't have one, as I know nothing about art and Symbiotic tech, but having never heard of the term 'Symbiotic' evoked a desire to demystify this newly found term.
Take me to the Don
I found out that the Godfather of Symbiotic computing is a man called J.C.R Licklider (link below), whom had published a book in 1960 called "Man-Computer Symbiosis". This genius thought of the Internet before the person who thought of the Internet, thought of the Internet, if that makes sense? ;-D
The book is about this man's vision for human and machine to become one, and the machine becoming so advanced, that the need for human interaction is no longer necessary, allowing full autonomy. We'll that sounds a little bit like advanced AI I think? Starting at Mr Licklider's vision in the 60's through to the HCI in the 90's, up to where we are today with Sophia and so on, this vision could well become a reality, like from the Terminator series.
According to Bardini, Licklider envisioned a future time when machine cognition (cerebration) would surpass and become independent of human direction, as a basic stage of development within human evolution.
There has to be a 60/40 Human/Machine influence ratio, but then I read that AI's are potentially becoming citizens, so equal rights would level that out to 50/50, right? Who knows, but life feels like a computer game anyway at times, so the merging of the two worlds, real and virtual seems inevitable and fills me with trepidation.
When I was younger I wanted to embrace technology and the thought of man and machine becoming one was a dream for me as a boy. Growing up watching films like Robocop, Cyborg, Universal Soldier and even one of my all time favourite's 'The Flight of the Navigator' just made my imagination go into overdrive, and I loved it.
(Screenshots taken from the film Flight of the Navigator)
Now, I am not as enthusiastic as I once was all those years ago, and rightly so, as a lot of big plans are yet to be played out, so who knows what the future holds for us all. I like the sound of Man/Woman & Machine, just not against each other, just have a feeling that it's unavoidable in a world like ours. Maybe Humans could trade off with Machines in the future, and exchange our emotions/dna/blood/eyes for ro/symbotic services, only time will tell whether the film 'Blade Runner' becomes a scenario in our future, probably not, or maybe? The HCI is on a whole new level from when I was first introduced to it.
Thanks for taking the time to view this post and have a lovely weekend.
