Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Human anxiety about the potential threat of robotic intelligence is nothing new. As far back as Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Jonathan Swift was already parodying the idea of machine intelligence. In the 20th century, as humanity entered an age of rapid technological advancement, there was an explosion of science fiction reflecting an upsurge in human unease about our shared future with androids, cyborgs, and AIs. For instance, in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Hal, a spacecraft supercomputer, shows a total disregard for the inherent value of human life by taking control of the mission to the detriment of the astronauts onboard. In the same year, sci-fi author Phillip K. Dick published Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (a book that would be transformed into Ridley Scott’s 1982 blockbuster film, Bladerunner), which problematizes machine consciousness and the nature of humanity. In the 80s and 90s, The Terminator franchise exemplified dystopian worries of a mythological robot future in which humans are subject to genocidal eradication.

With characters like Data (an android), Star Trek: The Next Generation portrayed a more optimistic, yet still problematized, vision of the integration of artificial life in human society.