|
Langkawi |
We are all work
in progress and everyone has his or her own demons to go through. One of the
popular essay topics at school was:
What
do you want to be when you grow up?I could not visualize how my life would turn out to be
although I knew that I would like to see the world and be in possession of some
knowledge about the world. So I read and try to absorb
as much information as I can. Sometimes
there are so much to know that I find myself having information overloads. Very
often there were stuff I used to know and since forgotten. It was as if I had
to toss them out to make room for new sets of information.
I therefore tell
myself that I cannot possibly learn about everything that has happened around
the world and it is quite impossible to keep up with all the news around the
globe. We were taught the virtues and values about how to be good and
honest
people but as we grow
older, we have to try to prevent ourselves from becoming cynics and bores. We
have to find out for ourselves who we are and who we
shall be .
The world is
evolving at such a great speed that it is exciting and yet it can be daunting.
I feel that as we become more techno savvy, we become more and more dependent on our electronic devices.
Perhaps competence and efficiency are our priorities so much so that all we
care about is being functional and in working
order. However we must know how frustrating it is to speak to an automated
answering machine that makes you work through the menu before you finally get
to speak to a real person who may or may not be able to answer your queries.
When my
colleague at work showed me how Siri in iPhone worked, I joked and asked if the
name Siri could be changed. My colleague typed, “ Can I change your name Siri?”
Siri replied , “ No … I am Siri, Siri I shall remain.” My colleague typed, “ I
want to change your name.” Again Siri replied, “ No. But really. I can’t
imagine why you’d want to.” Siri is indeed an intelligent personal assistant.
|
Nice |
|
Tate Modern |
When I first
read about the new movie “
Her”,
I thought of Siri and the movie “
Robot
and Frank” that I saw several months ago. Both “
Her” and “
Robot and Frank” are
set in the near future. In
Robot
and Frank, Frank Weld lives alone and his children worry about his
failing memory. His son buys him a walking and talking humanoid robot
programmed to improve his physical and mental health. Frank was
a jewel thief and though he resents the
robot initially, he warms up
to it
when he can train the robot
to
restart his cat burglary
career. It is a heart warming story with strong casts who deliver great
performance
. Theodore
Twombly in “
Her” writes beautiful letters for people who have difficulties
expressing their feelings. He is going through a divorce and decides to
purchase a new operating system that is designed to have the ability to learn
and evolve like a human. Theodore soon begins a quirky romantic relationship
with the artificial intelligence system that names itself ‘Samantha’.
|
Langkawi |
Have we carried
too far the concept of
being
autonomous? “
Her”
has won the Golden Globe award for best screenplay, motion picture. It tells a
tale about how
humans could resort
to having a robot as a confidante
if the robot could adapt to your needs and available at any hour of the
day. Are humans such emotionally challenged people that we prefer to
communicate with artificial intelligence that can be switched on and off at our
disposal? Perhaps I would welcome a robot that provides cleaning services and
even a butler service. However the idea of communicating with a robot seems to
suggest that we are only interested in conducting monologues because the robot
is only a device where we channel our thoughts when they are said out aloud. As
I write, the song ‘Lonely People'
by America comes to mind.
|
Covent Garden |
“This is for all
the lonely people
Thinking that
life has passed them by
Don't give up
until you drink from the silver cup
And ride that
highway in the sky………” (lyrics from the song' Lonely People')
Interesting enough, I just read in the newspaper about how research has shown
that texting could affect your posture and send you off track as you walk. When
people are wrapped up in texting
on their mobile devices, their eyes are fixated on the phone and their heads in
turn lock in with the rest of the body as it moves, they apparently walk a "robot walk". Perhaps soon humanoids will
become more like humans as humans become more and more robotic. That is a scary
thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment