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"You have chosen to take the Red Pill" - Matrix Just think about evolution, it's still happening. Does this mean that we will become bug-eyed small bodied beings with gangly limbs as dipicted in many a Spielberg movie - probably not! The real work of evolution is taking place in our society, lives, companies, laws and of course technology. The Machine FAQWhat is the Machine? Is the Machine a computer? Why do you mention only one machine? Are there any examples of these Organs? Who are the most powerful organs today? Will the Machine be benevolent? What will become of humans? Would we preserve our freedoms? Would Humans live in utopian luxury? Will Humans still have any control? How will this effect me? Will the machine be invincible? Is this a bad thing? How to fight against the Machine? Will the machine be sentient? How far away is a sentient machine? Will it resemble Star Trek's Borg? Would it be like the Matrix? What is the Machine?The machine is the embodiment of all the forces that bind together today's modern and future societies. Today it consists of Corporate power, financial services and the control of information Is the Machine a computer?The machine is not a computer, but its functions are more and more given over to computer control. Modern networks I.e. the Internet are the basic wiring of the Machine allowing efficient implementation of many of its functions. Computer networks for example are used to trade in shares and currency and thus play a vital role in the world economy. Why do you mention only one machine?It is apparent even today that the various organs that will make up the one Machine are already taking shape. Just like the organs in our own bodies the machine is busy at work building itself piece by piece. When all these organs are in place the collective whole will behave as if the entire planet was a single machine. Are there any examples of these Organs?Where a Human body needs blood, heart and nervous systems the Machine is building a financial bloodstream and an information network. The financial bloodstream gives the sustenance for construction, and well-being and the information network allows for self monitoring. Many large corporations and organisations are beginning to be sole suppliers (organs) for the machine's needs. For example the McDonnalds organ allows for effective conversion of livestock into food for our digestion. The Microsoft organ controls the use of the information network, business processing, and will effect further control on computer services via its Passport .NET and XP programs. Hollywood is the organ for our dreams. Pharmaceutical companies provide the maintenance of members of the machine. The above examples are GLOBAL organs that can only but grow in importance by acquisition of smaller companies and intellectual property until they are the sole organs of the machine. Every day further basic services are been supplied by single conglomerates who themselves are seeking dominance. The end result is a handful of companies that control most of the world functions. The organs of the machine. Who are the most powerful organs today?The most powerful controlling organs of the Machine are: WIPO - The world Intellectual property Organisation WTO - World Trade Organisation These organisations are lobbied by corporations to introduce rules and regulations across the world to the benefit of those corporations. If countries do not accept the rules suggested by them they are penalised by trade etc. these organisations are aspiring to GLOBAL control a power status far greater and any individual nation's government. For an idea of how powerful these bodies are take a look at the list of member states of the WIPO There are 177 of them 90% of the worlds nations. The full list is here: List of WIPO member states - http://www.wipo.int/members/members/index.html Will the Machine be benevolent?The machine will look after its constituent parts and organs and hopefully the Human corpuscles that allow those parts to function. However we can not be assured of a completely benevolent machine rather one that will provide while you are a useful component, but discard you when you become redundant. If the need for Humans becomes redundant then we will expect little benevolence from the Machine. What will become of humans?At first Humans will be as they are today integral components of the machine and it may be that way if we retain a vital function. However we can expect our bodies to be augmented by the machine to adapt to new functions. The machine will have the tools of genetics and cybernetics to do this. It may happen that we are replaced altogether by a cybernetic tool etc. Would we preserve our freedoms?It is unlikely that individual Human freedoms will be preserved by the machine, rather a dumbing down of our intelligence is likely to result as we blindly do our tasks for the machine. The machine will do the thinking we would be tools in its repair, function and day to day processes. The value of human life will be likened to the value of a single cell in the body. If it fails another is produced to fill its place. Would Humans live in utopian luxury?Contrary to many Sci-fi stories that depict an utopian life under machine rule it is evident that in any evolutionary system no creature is given that privedge except a few lucky ones. As the Machine becomes more powerful we will see some people living utopian lives but this will be at the expense of the majority. Will Humans still have any control?Heads of corporations will have the most control but already it is evident that the machine is even bigger then them today. Governments will be just small regulatory bodies completely subject to the Machine in the same way that they are subject to business and economies today. How will this effect me?We will see further Globalisation and control passed to the hands of few corporations. Once those corporations have global control they will suppress any competition. Individual humans will see just a few brands on the high street and watch censored TV and will be ostracised for believing in anything that is not "Socially acceptable" by their fellows. Concepts like "Political Correctness" are just examples of the Machine controlling our individual beliefs. In other words we will have to be prepared to loose our individuality and freedom of expression. Will the machine be invincible?The Machine will be very powerful but like all things it won't be invincible, even a planet sized entity will have problems. I.e. meteors falling and other universal catastrophes. It will also be subject to its own form of cancer. If there is any serious failure of a subsystem within the Machine it will have to repair it before it can fatally damage the machine. For example terrorism could strike at vital machine functions so the machine will have to protect itself against any uprising quickly. Is this a bad thing?To call the Machine a bad thing is as nonsensical as calling ourselves bad. The machine is simply an extrapolation of evolution, and it was evolution that created us in the first place. It would be like an amoeba calling a human a bad thing. The human body allows millions of cells to live as a structured entity and take life to a new level. If the next level for life is silicon and augmented biology then so be it! How to fight against the Machine?If you don’t have a let it be attitude then what can you do about it? The Machine has two main forces, one of economy and the other of information. To fight against economy all people need to do is avoid products supplied by Multinational Brands. Support local and lesser known brands. This will aviod brand co-hesion where the well known brands become more powerful to the detrement of the lesser known ones. Quality reliability means little these days as it’s the logo that is the most valuable asset. All the brick and mortar in all the McDonnalds outlets can be replaced but that yellow 'M' will be eternal. So reject the yellow 'M' and you threaten that corporations most valuable asset. Many companies can make quality footwear but only Nike can stick their logo on it. Thus to reject the logo you are taking away Nike's power. Find out which corporations own others and what brands are held by each corporation. Sounds like a lot of work but its interesting to see how few companies represent all the branded products on a store shelf. To fight against information restrictions look out for and collect as much GNU source code as you can because when the Machine becomes more powerful Open source may even become illegal contraband and removed from the Internet, just like the burning of books in the middle ages. Do not appreciate anyone's art unless it is given unconditionally. If art is not unconditional then it is not art, it is power gathering. The machine will purchase and use all the rights to art icons. If art is not restricted by rights and royalties then it can never belong to the Machine. The most effective way to fight the control of the Machine is to declare that your ideas are free of Copyright and restrictions and are available for the good of humankind. Any restriction placed on a piece of Intellectual property is another link in the chain that will bind. The GNU software license is a good example of this and if it is ever threatened then we will have lost to the Machine already. Will the machine be sentient?Today the Machine can be seem as the combined minds of billions of people whose combined reaction to global events could be seen as sentient in a way. However I believe that one day the Machine itself will be sentient and may evolve its own brain independent of the billions of people and computers that make it work. The planet will have woken! How far away is a sentient machine?I believe this will happen much sooner than I had previously thought. I created a site last year called Building HAL where I speculated on what would be needed to create a conscious machine. Two pre-requisites I supposed would be "A truly parallel computer" and secondly "An evolutionary algorithm" (Cooker) that will evolve the mind within the machine. I thought that any progress in this area was miles away in terms of hardware and software but on surfing the net I found a company that have been doing just that! Their first project will be to create a robot cat (using hardware parallel GA Technology which is in contrast to SONY's Abio robotic dog which uses conventional serial microprocessors) and thereafter one can only speculate. So the first real steps towards AI have finally arrived. No longer the dumb terminal program that gives witty answers to pre-determined questions but a dynamic "living" evolving learning mind! This company, I believe is at the forefront of AI right now their name is: Genobyte
Genobyte CBM - could this machine be HAL's predecessor? Will it resemble Star Trek's Borg?The Borg in Star Trek are a good example of a machine based life form. However as depicted it is far too regular. It would too much overhead to have each member of the machine being a multi-purpose entity. The Machine would evolve many varied members all specialised for the tasks they are to perform. Each organ of the Machine would have inhabitants adapted to best carry out that organs function. As we can see in Globalisation today some countries are optimised for the financial, legal and information services. Other nations are the producers of raw and processed materials. This creates the present unfair practice of slave labour in the poorer countries and rich controllers in the more wealthy nations. However when the wealthy nations have given up all their infrastructure, labour and manufacture to the poorer countries they will intimately dependant on those nations. The end result is a variation of function across the planet as opposed to the all are equal concept of Star Trek's Borg. Star Trek's Borg is an example of a possible evolution based on a communistic ideal. We seem to be going headlong into a Capitalistic outcome, whether this is for the better or worse remains to be seen. Any ideology has its problems. Would it be like the Matrix?As the machine becomes more sophisticated it could well simulate a virtual reality for some of its inhabitants who could perceive any fantastic world completely abstracted form reality. Or it could even completely support virtual inhabitants. Its mind may comprise the society of virtual inhabitants and their societies. Would the Machine rely on Humans for power? Probably not as there are many potent forms of power it could use instead, we would be more than just Duracells! ContactClick on the first LED below to email me, or click on the second LED to visit my home page.  <------------ send me an email<------------ visit my homepage at www.cyberscribe.org
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