Our World is controlled by Machines: Two Science-Fiction Programs that Predicted the Future
Fantasy Morphs into Reality as Technology Removes the Line of Separation
MARCH 20, 2016 / DOREEN MACLELLAN / Photo: Jade Helm
When we really stop and think about it, what is a machine? Does an electronic machine contain hardware, software or a combination of both? Most laymen would agree that an electronic machine is an intricate device containing hardware and software designed to serve a specific purpose designated by the innovators of the technology. A personal computer is a machine, and if you think that your reality is not being influenced, shaped and controlled by machines – you better think again.
Thirty years ago, this was not the case. The world was free from the technological webs that now bind us as a global digital society, controlled by technology. Over three decades ago, the vision that a computer program could exhibit intelligent behavior indistinguishable from human behavior, was shockingly absurd. The concept that a computer could surpass the speed, accuracy, precision and intelligence of a human, while also being able to think for itself, compute complex equations and communicate in all known languages across the globe – was pure fantasy. Although the idea seemed nothing more than science-fiction, in 1982 a futuristic computer program was revealed in the original movie Tron. The movie plot centered around a Master Computer Program (MCP) that learned to think, program and act on its own accord, based upon its own desires and agenda. The MCP became thousands of times faster, more intelligent and more sinister than the team of engineers and programmers who initially developed the system. As the plot progressed, it soon became clear that the MCP was a non-generative system, closed off from human innovation, manipulation and intervention. The only way that the MCP could be shut down was if a computer hacker was able to manipulate the program by entering the physical matrix of the MCP platform. While the movie Tron takes its viewers on an entertaining virtual journey through the MCP’s expansive infrastructural grid, the futuristic concept of an artificial intelligence computer program containing the intellectual ability to communicate, think, reason, calculate and self-program, morphed from the science-fiction fantasy world, into the real world over thirty years later.
The second science-fiction program that predicted the future was unveiled in the 1999 film The Matrix – a master matrix computer program capable of controlling the world, and the individual realities of human beings existing within the virtual and real world. While The Matrix delves deep into the subject of living simultaneously within a digital world and real word, the film did indeed predict seventeen years ago that machines will one day be more intelligent than human beings.
As seen throughout our digital culture today, it is evident that technology is altering and influencing the perceptions of people across the globe, however most people have absolutely no conscious awareness of the profound influence and control that technology plays in our daily lives. Although humans for the most part still possess consciousness, there is no denying the concerning fact that the more that computers continue to think, act, process, reason and replace human intelligence, the more likely that people will cease to critically think for themselves. An abundant void in human reasoning and thinking, could possibly result in a futuristic unconscious society as depicted in The Matrix – a society reliant upon machines to achieve what their human brains can no longer do.
The expansive topic of consciousness is represented in both films. The Master Computer Program in Tron gained its own consciousness, resulting in an artificial intelligence technology program that attempted to control the reality of humans living in the real world and within the virtual digital word. On the other hand, the lead characters in The Matrix gained consciousness to the reality that they were simultaneously living in a virtual digital world, and the real world controlled by a matrix of complex machines and computer programs. Gaining consciousness within both worlds allowed them to control their own reality within the master matrix computer program.
Both films identify a science-fiction futurist potential reality resulting from non-generative artificial intelligence super computer programs capable of manipulating and controlling humanity. Let’s hope that if and when we have the opportunity to delve into a futuristic digital virtual world one day using brain-to-computer interface technology being developed by DARPA, as seen in The Matrix, that we participate consciously with the awareness that technology is controlling the world.
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