Monday, October 13, 2008

Quotation of the Day

But we are suggesting neither that the human race would voluntarily turn power over to the machines nor that the machines would willfully seize power. What we do suggest is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines’ decisions. ... Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won’t be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide.

-- Theodore Kaczinski (a.k.a. the Unabomber)


[h/t to kevin]
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10/14/08, 6:23 AM

    Huh, like with "Skynet," it like took over everything in Terminator movie. Or HAL 9000. But this is just stories.
    This fear of technology is depressing, cos without it, we don't have much. Now me, for example, i compare what i seen in me life- a one might say 'backwards' country against a technological society and i know which one i want, thanks. Technology trashes the need for god, we did the god stuff ourselves, we make our own fate.
    So how come then people are freaking out about technology- and yet wouldn't survive 5 days in a country without it? This is what we are telling by the meaning of stupidism maybe.
    What's me basic idea then? It's linked to what Gene Rodenberry heavily implies as the basis for his view of the future; that human persons is smart enough as a species to resolve issues like poverty through technology. The rest, racism, war and of course religion- that's part of our social progress which is part of our faith in a better future where technology replaces the empty miracles of religion with the wonders of realizing our destiny amidst the stars. I got no interest in anything other than total belief in technology as the engine of a cleaner, pristine , nicely cut STAR TREK like world.
    Jasmine

    ReplyDelete
  2. RBH10/14/08, 2:29 PM

    The Machine Stops. E. M. Forster, 1909.

    ReplyDelete

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