Are humans hoping to build a war against the machines

Hygro

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As you may have noticed, we are living in the cyberpunk dystopia of the 80s. These are the early years, but the 2020s are going to look awfully similar to the role playing game (except we'll have way more computing and probably fewer chrome flame thrower arms).

The terrifying question is: did we really just predict it, or did we move toward it because it was a compelling aesthetic? My money is on the latter.

Humans, having more existential frustrations than ever, would love some thrill that forces us to stay focused on a meaningful goal, like a combination of personal survival and the fate of humanity. But we definitely don't really want the fight to be something slow and depressing like global climate crisis. Aliens are almost a gauranteed loss in the long term unless they went Egypt on us and used all of their economic might to build a super colony-warship right when they have the tech for it (so imagine a bunch of 1970s aliens going for broke), so aliens are out. Plus, aliens are out of our hands.

We definitely don't want to fight each other because we're evolving past that point. It's inherently horrible to kill people.

That leaves us with a war against the robots. We're archetecting it in cinema and books. We like the aesthetic. It gives us what we're looking for.
 
Not sure if serious?

Wars between humans still exist and are dreadful, and it doesn't seem to be ending. In fact we may even be moving towards a massive war.

There is no tech to create sentient machines. It doesn't look likely to exist by 2020 either, and maybe it cannot (if we aren't talking some blind experiment with dna fused with machine).

Furthermore, even if there were such techs, it would take other new techs too to have a state where machines were a notable antagonist. I mean if they have no nukes they likely will be killed off via nuclear strikes if it came to that. So planet-spanning SDI-defense or analogous-outcome tech is needed too for such a war.
 
I'd guess Hollywood went with it because violence against machines goes over a lot better than violence against people. So they can deliver oodles of violence without the blow back.

Not the sort of thing I'd call a prediction, rather an excuse.
 
I'd guess Hollywood went with it because violence against machines goes over a lot better than violence against people. So they can deliver oodles of violence without the blow back.

Not the sort of thing I'd call a prediction, rather an excuse.

That's why it's such a good excuse for real life.
 
We're going to incorporate more and more machines into humankind and more and more humankind into machines. By the time it's possible, it won't be possible for man to war against the machines.

Maybe human minds vs artificial minds, but that's different.
 
cyborgs vs androids
 
"Sarah Conner v0.144a, come with me if you want to live!"

and Kyriakos, I'm deadly serious. Also, I didn't give a 2020s timeframe for fighting the machines. Fighting the machines is not a cyberpunk era war.
 
That's why it's such a good excuse for real life.

I doubt we as a society would blow away so much hard work for entertainment purposes, or that robots will some day decide they don't like taking out the garbage and decide instead to take out mankind. However on the other hand I can see robot wars getting a lot more involved. Right now its kids trying to build a little bot to turn over or cut up or burn another bot. Eventually walking robots will become a reality and someone will stick a machine gun on it and instruct it to go shoot another bot.
 
Right now its kids trying to build a little bot to turn over or cut up or burn another bot. Eventually walking robots will become a reality and someone will stick a machine gun on it and instruct it to go shoot another bot.

Behold the future...today!


Link to video.

Maybe this is how it starts. Gladiators Robots forced to fight each other to the death for the entertainment of the masses eventually get fed up and rise up to overthrow the emperor human overlords.
 
Behold the future...today!


Link to video.

Maybe this is how it starts. Gladiators Robots forced to fight each other to the death for the entertainment of the masses eventually get fed up and rise up to overthrow the emperor human overlords.

"The uploader has not made this video available in your country" but yes, I've seen these things, unless you're telling me they now are adding machine guns to the things?
 
I think there's some truth to "life imitating art" in this way. I don't think it can be argued, for example, that the matrix as presented in Neuromancer had some influence on the direction Internet technology ended up going (and I don't just mean the obvious nomenclatural influence).

But this future sucks until I can get a robotic flamethrower arm. I'm still 100% flesh and bone, that's BS, bring on the implants and the robo cyber parts.
 
Obama already did.
I don't know reference.

I think there's some truth to "life imitating art" in this way. I don't think it can be argued, for example, that the matrix as presented in Neuromancer had some influence on the direction Internet technology ended up going (and I don't just mean the obvious nomenclatural influence).

But this future sucks until I can get a robotic flamethrower arm. I'm still 100% flesh and bone, that's BS, bring on the implants and the robo cyber parts.

Yeah man count me in. I want my freeway worthy unisegway and tinder-swipe glasses with a robot arm that can hack locks, shoot lightning, and deflect bullets.
 
I don't know reference.


MQ-9_Reaper_CBP.jpg
 
Why aren't there Hellfire missiles and 500 lb bombs on the hard points? Could Obama really be this soft on border protection?
 
Yeah man count me in. I want my freeway worthy unisegway and tinder-swipe glasses with a robot arm that can hack locks, shoot lightning, and deflect bullets.

I'll settle for being able to punch through walls or lift cars or something.
 
"Sarah Conner v0.144a, come with me if you want to live!"

and Kyriakos, I'm deadly serious. Also, I didn't give a 2020s timeframe for fighting the machines. Fighting the machines is not a cyberpunk era war.
We're on the edge, drone vs drone. Now we've got operators giving orders, in time I'd expect there will be fewer and fewer orders, less chance of error, even in combat.

Will they get to the ultimate self controlled AI, doubt it. At least, not in my life time.:lol:
 
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