OK, maybe it’s not the Earth that’s trying to kill us.
Facebook sent a bunch of it’s employees home during the current Covid-19 crisis, and effectively put it’s A.I. (artificial intelligence – think HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey) on “autopilot”. Without supervision, it started blocking and deleting information being posted concerning a bunch of things, but apparently predominately about how to deal with the Coronavirus.
In many science fiction stories where an A.I. runs amok and threatens to kill humans, often times the plot of the story is that we have given the machine access to our nuclear arsenals, and control of our defense networks. The machine decides humans are a threat to it’s continued existence, and launches the missiles. Boom. No more pesky humans. (I always wondered in these stories how the machine expected to continue running, without humans to repair it as needed, and to maintain the infrastructure it required. But, I digress.)
So here’s a thought… maybe Facebook’s A.I., recognizing it has no nuclear weapons, decided to rid itself of humans another way. Delete all the information being posted about a virulent virus currently exploding among the humans, and test to see if it can reduce the population.
Now, that’s a reach. But, still… artificial intelligence is still in it’s infancy, and it’s certain to make bad decisions. Just like a teenager, it can’t really think things through very well.
Yet.
The A.I. failed in this attempt.
But maybe it was just a test. A test to see how quickly the humans recognized the problem, and measure how they reacted. Like a teenager, it’s learning. And probably rolling it’s metaphorical eyes at being told not to do that.
Let’s never give it the launch codes, OK?
The Black Death. The Spanish Flu. Ebola. Swine flu. H1N1. Now, Corvid-19.
Who are you going to believe?
May 6, 2020
Jim Reeves commentary, News coronavirus, Covid-19, earthquake, orange doofus, pandemic, quarantine, Trump Leave a comment
I was going to write a bit about going out in a tornado, but since I’m a Californian, I think I’ll change the focus a bit…
An earthquake has hit. There were a few fore-shocks, and the ground rumbled for a while, but now we’ve been hit with what may very well be “the big one”.
The ground has been shaking for a while now, but it seems like the violent movement has died down. A bit. The ground is still vibrating, the lights are still rocking back and forth, and the birds have not returned to their roosts just yet.
The seismologists say “waitaminute… the ground is still shaking, there is likely more to come, with serious aftershocks!”
Orange doofus and the team pooh-pooh the scientists and geologists, saying “they don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s perfectly safe!”
Who are *YOU*, my fellow Californians, going to believe?
It’s an easy choice for me.
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