Today we "celebrate" a double-edged sword: exactly 20 years ago, on the 10th of February 1996, world chess champion Garry Kasparov took part in a match against supercomputer "Deep Blue" made by IBM (again, seeing as it was 1996, I don't think that computer is still so super now...), the match resulting in a verdict that would set a milestone in computer and A.I history (and probably also human history):
Record set - First computer program to defeat a world champion in a classical game under tournament regulations.
Oh, would you just look at HAL, he's blushing with pride, oh wait...
Source:http://wallpapercave.com/hal-wallpaper
A MUCH less known fact is that, centuries earlier, right here in Romania, a Hungarian inventor traveled from one royal court to another with a certain "contraption" he called "The Turk". A charlatan, but a very intelligent one, he claimed that this machine could do to the royal heads what deep blue did to Garry over there, and although the device had mechanical parts in its construction, tiny wheels that would move the arms of "The Turk" to place the pieces on the board, it was actually a midget (that needless to say WAS very good at chess) that climbed inside the machine and operated it.
A challenger appears!
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk
The fake automaton became so famous that he went on to tour in Europe, America and even played against Napoleon Bonaparte!
Sacré bleu! Look how tired I am...Behead it!
Source:http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/defeated-and-inglorious-why-is-napoleon-not-treated-with-more-respect-in-france-9406220.html
Alas, the secret was revealed, but quite long after the maker's death...
So these two instances: one, a fake victory, another, a real one, really got me thinking about the ridiculously rapid advancement of technology and the possibility that a real A.I. is just around the corner.
Given the speed of technological evolution, it makes us happy at first, obviously: who wouldn't want a better gadget to play around with, but, after some thought, how would you like if the gadget suddenly played around with you...and defeated you?
In the case of "The Turk", it was human intellect that collaborated with the machine to create something special, it was a synergy, and that would be the brightest image of the future, one in which the human element still holds some value, that even though machines were superior and sentient, they would probably find something in us that determines them to appreciate our nature, imperfect as it is...
And finally, maybe even more "unorthodox" relationships between humans and robots would be forged in that version of the future...
This guy knows what I'm talking about!
Source: http://pitchfork.com/news/51817-arcade-fire-score-spike-jonze-film-her/
However, remember, we could always experience the other side of the blade, a future in which machines don't find anything still worthwhile in the human species and...you know what's next. ( cue Terminator theme)
The same type of romance from "Her" sees a much darker version in the movie "Ex Machina", where a computer program seduces a male "examiner" and uses his affection for her to escape from the facility she was created in.
Femme Fatale 2.0
Source:https://moviesfilmsandflix.com/2015/04/29/ex-machina-2015-playing-on-your-sympathies-as-powerfully-as-your-suspicions-this-is-an-artificial-intelligence-thriller-told-in-a-manner-you-have-not-seen-before/
SO, in the end all we can do is be careful with our IT race and hope the good future will be coming, because that's, after all, the most probable outcome...right?
This post hold no purpose anymore, Theodor. Goodbye.