Will a machine ever be able to replace man and his complex soul and creativity? That is what Vasily Grossman is asking in his novel, Life and Fate.
A human being is a complex tapestry of accumulated memories, emotions, contradictions, compassion, grief, intuition, embarrassment, and hope. Even if a machine attempts to recreate all of that, Grossman argues, it would have to become impossibly vast:
“…the surface of the whole earth will be too small to accommodate this machine…”
Grossman wrote this around 1960, yet it feels uncannily relevant today, when AI is doing mathematical reasoning, creating art, composing music, and even “writing” poetry.
In the end, the machine might become undeniably efficient at calculations, memory, and artistic endeavors — so convincing that its creations could easily be mistaken for human art.
But human agency, with all its peculiarities of mind and soul, is messy, contradictory, and beautifully illogical. A machine may imitate emotions, but it cannot truly recreate the ones (atleast for now) that are deeply and inherently human, like,
“the bitterness of parting”
“feelings of pity for a sick puppy”
“unreasoning joy”
“sudden embarrassment”
Then comes the chapter’s final sentence:
“Fascism annihilated tens of millions of people.”
Perhaps that’s Grossman’s real warning. Even if machines someday rival us in intelligence, they won’t be the reason humanity disappears. We might.
The survival of our species has never depended solely on intelligence or efficiency, but on our ability to see the infinite worth of another human being. Society can only endure if we preserve the very qualities Grossman lists so tenderly, empathy, compassion, pity, friendship, tenderness, and love for the weak.
Today we’re more worried about machines becoming more like us. But the real question is what Grossman had probably asked us long ago,
“Will we continue to be worthy of being human?”
Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate
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Featured image: Is me with my students in my virtual robotics and coding classroom in 2024
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The transformative potential of AI and robotics needs to be approached with a mix of optimism, caution, and philosophical reflection.
Does Humanity Have An Edge?
The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. It would take off on its own, and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.
~ Stephen Hawking
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