We have Cyberdyne and Skynet, but where’s Kyle Reese to lead the Resistance?
We have watched this movie before. In 1984, literally, not the novel/film, we watched famed director and writer James Cameron present to us his cinematic masterpiece about a robot assassin who travels back in time to kill the woman whose son will become the hero and savior of human kind.
We also watched as the sequel about the reformed robot assassin who returns with the new mission of stopping technolgy that hasn’t been created from “outsmarting” the humans in the future. Yes, we were in awe of the cutting-edge special effects, CGI. Yes, we were even entertained by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s zany one liners and catch phrases.
In retrospect, did we all choose to ignore the aggressively advancement of technology that seemingly plays out right before our eyes 30 years later?
Dyson’s “Childhood’s End” argues that during the digital revolution programmers wrote codes and now the codes “outcode” man. Meaning, man created the technology and technology became too sophisticated for man’s understanding and control. I do not doubt we have brilliant minds fixated on advancing our technology and developing it to where it is functional enough. However, I will never buy into the notion that technology’s intelligence and functionality becomes fully independent of human.
If Dyson did not want to frighten readers with the nonexistence of human importance or human existence, then he would not have riddled this article with contentious phrases like “winner take all game”, “arrival of benevolent Overloards”, “the new gatekeepers”, etc…so I do not buy into his ominous predictions of technological takeover.
I will wait for the next blockbuster sequel instead.