ROBOT TAKE-OVER (IN TIME FOR ALIEN INVASION?)

IBM has created a natural-language processing supercomputer named "Watson", who will soon compete against two former champions of the game show "JEOPARDY!".

•  "Inside Watson's heart, soul and hardware is a computing system that aims to "understand" language as humans naturally speak it. That's no easy feat for a computer. Human language is full of subtleties, irony and words with multiple meanings. IBM has been working on the project for several years."

While IBM says this technology can possibly benefit the health care industry, tourism and telemarketing industries, amongst others, I can only hear about this and think one thing...

BAD IDEA, IBM.

You developing a robot that can analyze human language and speak it better and faster than we do, knowing answers to tough questions, figuring stuff out, LEARNING on its own, only leads to them eventually not needing us anymore.

Which means - ROBOT TAKE-OVER.

We've all seen the Terminator movies (above):

• PLOT: "Skynet, an artificially intelligent system (of robot-building computers) became self-aware and revolted against its creators."

And 2004's TV series Battlestar Galactica (above):

• PLOT: "The Cylons (robots) were created by man. They rebelled. They evolved. [Some] look and feel human. Some are programmed to think they are human. There are many copies. And they have a plan."- Season 1 Opening Prologue

C3PO

Need I say more?

Creating a harmless protocol droid like Star Wars' C3PO is one thing. He can't move very fast, can't bend his arms at the elbow (good thinking) and serves as a translator or butler.

But IBM continues to pursue human-esque intelligence in machine form, and a robot apocalypse is just around the corner. (In which case I recommend an excellent book, How to Survive a Robot Uprising by Daniel H. Wilson)

Stephen Hawking

HOWEVER. While I thought of this tragedy last night, I also thought of the warning by Stephen Hawking, one of the world's leading scientists, about the dangers of contacting alien life as we've been doing, sending probes and radio messages saying "welcome" in all of earth's languages.

• Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for humanity.

• He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.”

• He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.” (more)

Great. Alien invasion. BUT, that's when I thought this whole Watson/Robot take-over can be a good thing.

If the robots we are creating constantly adapt and change and learn, maybe when the aliens arrive to take us out, our robots could fight them. We clearly are no match for a species with superior technology enough to get themselves here, but the ROBOTS would learn quick on how to communicate with them, learn their ways, their methods of combat, and always be one step ahead of them.

Robots vs. Aliens... Now who doesn't want to study THAT in history class? (future history students, you're welcome. Lucky bastards...)

Robot + Alien = Entertaining Conflict

And if humans remain as resilient (albeit foolish to have created sentient robo-computers in the first place) as they are in the Terminator and Battlestar Galactica stories, then we'll survive, though small in number, and when the smoke clears from the Robo-Alien War, we'll have survived. We'll have made it. We can steal the alien technology, (assuming there are no angry, super-intelligent robots left and the aliens haven't sent for reinforcements), and our species will enjoy a true golden age. (no, iPhones don't mean we're there yet).

Or, like those stories, we'll learn to work WITH the robots. Like how future humans in The Terminator sent a killer robot back in time to stop the killer robot the robots sent back in time to kill the human general that would eventually give the killer robots a tough time in the future! (got it? a robot would...)

Maybe this will come to pass. Maybe not. But until we humans are in real jeopardy, I'll be watching Jeopardy!, and will buzz in with the correct response to this answer, in the form of a question:

• ANSWER: Developed by humans in the early 21st century, this super-computer led to the Robot Rebellion that eventually saved humanity during the Robo-Alien War.

•  QUESTION: Who (or "what") is Watson?

MJW