Transcendence Archives - Singularity Weblog

Last Sunday I participated in a fun panel discussion organized by David Wood from the London Futurists. The topic was “Terminator or Transcendence?” and we kicked off the conversation by critiquing the film Transcendence. Then we moved on to other topics such as the timeline to achieving AI in general and ASI in particular, the Turing Test and our hopes and fears for the future. You can see the full 90min recording below:

Synopsis: Hollywood has provided some vivid images of what might happen when AI gains superhuman powers. This includes the various disasters depicted in Terminator and Transcendence. These films are science fiction, but appear to have some of their plot lines rooted in potential near-future real-world developments. Should we be worried about real-world near-equivalents of Dr Will Caster? If so, what sort of evasive action should we be taking?

This London Futurists Hangout On Air assembles an international panel of analysts who have thought long and hard about the potential of superhuman AI: Calum Chace, Stuart Armstong and Nikola Danaylov.

The panellists will be debating a number of far-reaching questions raised by recent Hollywood AI extravaganzas:
• Which elements of Transcendence are the least credible? Which elements are the most credible?
• How soon will we see the first human-level AI? Haven’t computer scientists been wrong about their predictions of timing many times before? Why should we take their latest predictions any more seriously than previous ones?
• Aren’t human minds just too complex and mysterious to be replicated?
• If human society can’t even take effective action to address climate change, what chance do we have to take effective action against malignant AI development?
• If we had Hollywood-level budgets at our disposal, what kind of film about AI would we most like to make?

Transcendence is Johnny Depp’s new singularity film that comes out today.

I saw the film last night during its first available time-slot and, in order to avoid big spoilers, I want to write no more than a couple of vague sentences:

Let me admit that, after seeing the teasers and trailers below, I was very negatively predisposed and did not expect anything good. But I was pleasantly surprised because it was rather refreshing to see a mainstream Hollywood movie that was not made by sensationalist Luddites trying to make an easy buck by going for the lowest common denominator.

And so while the movie is by no means outstanding [or anything close to Her], overall it was pretty decent.

As my friend with whom I saw the movie observed: “The main idea was carried through rather well.”

And while the idea, that advanced technologies though often scary are not necessarily bad, is by no means unique or Earth-shattering in any way, it is one worth sending out into the mainstream of public consciousness. And this simple exercise is a considerable step up from the simplistic Terminator/hubris/end-of-the-world scenarios that have dominated science fiction since Frankenstein…

Synopsis: Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is the foremost researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence, working to create a sentient machine that combines the collective intelligence of everything ever known with the full range of human emotions. His highly controversial experiments have made him famous, but they have also made him the prime target of anti-technology extremists who will do whatever it takes to stop him.

However, in their attempt to destroy Will, they inadvertently become the catalyst for him to succeed – to be a participant in his own transcendence. For his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany), both fellow researchers, the question is not if they can… but if they should.

Their worst fears are realized as Will’s thirst for knowledge evolves into a seemingly omnipresent quest for power, to what end is unknown. The only thing that is becoming terrifyingly clear is there may be no way to stop him.

Transcendence co-stars Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Kate Mara and Paul Bettany.

I call it Transcendence: