Technology and machines have become more advanced we .
have grown accustomed to having machines such as computers and cars in our everyday .
lives. Our own machines will soon surpass our own intelligence. This leaves us with one .
lingering question, when our creations become smarter than we are, who will be in .
control?.
Machines have played a vital role in our lives. This started off with the Industrial .
Revolution back in the nineteenth century. It would take an average worker three days to .
weave a single blanket, while a machine could do twenty blankets in one day. As time .
moved on, our machines have done more and more for us, and we have become reliant on .
them. Computers are machines that will one day be smarter than humans. They have .
become much more efficient as time has progressed. When they were first created a .
computer that had the power of one of today's simple five dollar calculators required so .
much space to hold all of their necessary equipment it could take up a whole room, but .
the simple machine known today can be made so small it can not even be handled by a .
human due to its size. According to an article by Raymond Kurzweil titled "Live .
Forever,"" "By the year 2020, your $1000 personal computer will have the processing .
power of the human brain "20 million billion calculations per second."" If that statement .
2.
is true, in less than two decades, computers will have just as much intelligence as their .
users, and possibly even be able to apply it to real life. (Cray XMP, one .
of today's supercomputers and an example of cutting edge technology) Kurzweil also .
states that the "human brain is necessary but not sufficient for creating human-level .
intelligence in a machine."" This will happen ten years later at the rate our technology is .
progressing now. The fact that by the end of my own lifetime that computers could be .
running the world, by themselves, seems rather absurd, but the thought of it still lingers in .