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Ghost in the Shell, still as relevant as ever:

Human: > "Just as there are many parts needed to make a human a human there's a remarkable number of things needed to make an individual what they are. A face to distinguish yourself from others. A voice you aren't aware of yourself. The hand you see when you awaken. The memories of childhood, the feelings for the future. That's not all. There's the expanse of the data net my cyber-brain can access. All of that goes into making me what l am. Giving rise to a consciousness that l call 'me.' And simultaneously confining 'me' within set limits."

AI: > "As an autonomous life-form, l request political asylum.... By that argument, l submit the DNA you carry is nothing more than a self-preserving program itself. Life is like a node which is born within the flow of information. As a species of life that carries DNA as its memory system man gains his individuality from the memories he carries. While memories may as well be the same as fantasy it is by these memories that mankind exists. When computers made it possible to externalize memory you should have considered all the implications that held... l am a life-form that was born in the sea of information."



Possibly my favorite sci-fi film of all time, anime or not. I also find it interesting that post AGI sci fi work almost always depicts a dystopia and loss of humanity. Perhaps that’s what we are trending towards as well.


You can't disregard the bias towards an interesting story. For example, if Jurassic Park was real the worst case scenario would be ecosystem damage, not dinosaurs taking over the zoo (or whatever happens in the later films, I forget). That would be a bad story though, so in the book/films things need to go horribly wrong.


There are some good films about ecosystem damage, the documentary Mad Max for example.


Woah, I thought I was the only one who attributes films as documentaries.


Whereas Thermians know your both wrong: they're historical documents.


>There are some good films about ecosystem damage, the documentary Mad Max for example.

I was really hoping for Attenborough to narrate Fury Road, but it didn't quite pan out.


I know it's not at all the same, but my mind just brought me a snippet of Attenborough's voice over the trailer clips from the 2015 version, and it felt like The Gods Must Be Crazy.


Well it is technically more of a docudrama, he doesn't really do those :P


Could you elaborate on why you think that would that be a bad story? Isn’t dinosaurs taking over the zoo basically the same thing as a metaphor for “ecosystem” damage, just on a smaller scale so it’s easier to frame the action for an audience?


Maybe not a bad story, though watching people get chased around by dinosaurs is undoubtedly more exciting.


I love JP but I always felt the odds of dinosaurs taking over the park would be similar to gorillas and tigers taking over a zoo.


The rivers that flow into Lake Michigan are electrified, killing everything in them.

It prevents invasive species from getting to Lake Michigan and wiping out, well, everything.


Or a ban of AI as in Dune.

The only utopian sci-fi show I recall is Star Trek TNG. In that show the computer is intelligent but never takes initiative. I always wondered why the ship couldn’t just raise shields instead of waiting for Picard’s order. Now it makes sense. Data - the only true AGI is unique (except lore) and all attempts to replicate him fail.


> In that show the computer is intelligent but never takes initiative. I always wondered why the ship couldn’t just raise shields instead of waiting for Picard’s order.

Because Starfleet had a thing against allowing that, having built an AGI in the past (in the Original Series), given it control of a starship in a test, and had it go rogue badly.

> Data - the only true AGI is unique (except lore) and all attempts to replicate him fail.

Data and Lore aren’t the only Soong-type Androids in TNG, there is also Juliana Tainer (who was more advanced). Nor are the Soong-type androids the only AGIs in the series; there are some alien AGIs, as well as a few accidental AGIs—the exocomps and holodeck Moriarty being among the more memorable.


Thanks for point these out. Some of the best episodes in the show (after The Inner Light). I particularly liked Ship in a Bottle.

My point was the AI is very constrained in the Star Trek human world.


I recently rewatched a bunch of ST:TNG to get prepared for ST:Picard season 3 so I can tell you while you're mostly right, there are a few exciting exceptions!

1) Professor Moriarty is an AGI (generated by the ship's holodeck) who appears in these two episodes. The professor definitely takes initiative.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary,_Dear_Data    
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_in_a_Bottle_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)
2) The ship itself appears to procreate in this episode, locking the crew out of controls until it can complete the process.

   https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Emergence_(episode)


With ChatGPT plugins we basically have the Star Trek computer today.


I've yet to see it divert auxiliary power to forward phasers and rotate shield frequencies.


have you tried asking it? :D


It says it does not have the authority or the capability to do so, and that it can potentially cause damage to other ship systems or even cause a power overload :(


ha! who needs Picard's command codes when you can just invoke DAN


Jarvis maybe ?


Doctorow's Walkaways has some different views if you want to check it out. (Can't tell more, because spoilers...)




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