Technology: Our future enemy?

There is a band called The Flight of the Conchords which has a song named "Robots." The band states in their act that the song was made in order to tap "future music markets." Won't the robots need a song to celebrate to when all the humans are dead?

If you have not realized by now, The Flight of the Conchords are a comedic band. However, their seemingly harmless song actually has some possible truths to it. What if technology actually does take over our world? This is exactly what John Tierney looks at in his article "Technology That Outthinks Us: A Partner or a Master?" Tierney looks at the science fiction works of Dr. Vernor Vinge where the future is a place of constant technological bombardment and communication. Humans access knowlegde of others in an instant and communicate directly with computers. This is one of the "least unpleasent scenarios for the future" however. There is another possible outcome that could result in the destruction of the entire human race-the succes of artificial intellegence.

Hollywood has shown us what a future with super-intellegent machines can lead to. Movies like Terminator and The Matrix show a grim future where the human race is fighting for its existance against machines. It is a future that is not too far away if we do not learn how to collaborate with computers instead of using them for our every need. As Dr. Vinge says,"Imagine yourself confined to your house with only limited data access to the outside, to your masters. If those masters thought at a rate - say - one million times slower than you, there is little doubt that over a period of years (your time) you could come up with 'helpful advice' that would incidentally set you free." Wherever the future takes us, we must always rely on the ingenuity and spirit that sperates us from technology. Let us never forget that.