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Elena Nikolova
Chief assistant professor Ralitsa Muharska
Narratives of the future
09.07.2014

Can machines and people live together?

The human-machine relationship is a topic that has fascinated people from the dawn
of the digital age, up until now.
After realizing, that we are able to construct a machine, and then program it to think
and act almost like a human being, it was only natural to take a flight of fancy and imagine
- what would it be if we could create a machine so powerful, that it could behave just like a
person, or be even better.
There are various books and movies exploring that concept, and one of the most
famous works is the Wachowski brothers masterpiece The Matrix. It is about a futuristic
world, in which the machines have taken over and have created a program called The
Matrix, which simulates the world in the end of the 20 th century, while in reality people are
in constant sleep and are used as fuel for the machines. Throughout the trilogy, we can see
how people are trying to fight the machines and return the world to its former state, but the
whole war is a vicious cycle in which winning is a herculean task.
What particularly caught my attention was the fact that the machines and the people
in this movie were not so different from each other. Of course it is only natural that the
machines might resemble people in some ways, since they are the one who created them in
the first place, but people themselves were acquiring machines characteristics too. A very
good example of that exchange can be noticed in the third Matrix movie Revolutions,
where the protagonist Neo meets Rama Kandra, a program which demonstrates him that
machines can feel love too, not exactly as a human emotion, but as a strong connection to
something else. And then, if you think about the whole concept of people programming
their minds to learn something (Neo learning Kung-fu through a special software), it may
be considered as them turning into semi-machines, since it is normally computers that we
program and not human beings.
That led me to the idea, that maybe in the future, when Artificial Intelligence has
progressed even further, we can actually create a world in which people and machines can

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live together, being mutually useful to each other, and also with equal rights. This concept
does sound stressful to some people, especially those classified as Future shock level: Zero,
but it can provide us with the possibility of expanding our consciousness and revealing
more not only about our own world, but about the universe as a whole.
Of course, this cannot happen instantaneously. On the contrary, I think that many
years would be needed, not so much for the development of the machines, since even now
we have achieved so much in that field, but mainly for the development of peoples minds
and attitudes. Because in a world where racism is still a relevant issue, living with
Androids, or any type of highly intelligent machines, seems highly impossible. If you
cannot interact with a fellow human being, just because it is of a different nationality or
skin colour, how are you supposed to do it with something that is not human at all.
There is also another side of the argument, which is often pointed out by opponents
of the further development of the human-machine relationship, and that is: Since these
machines would be a bettered version of ourselves, and according to some they might even
surpass us, what is our guarantee that they are not going to actually take over the world and
make us their slaves? And also if we are going to create a human-machine society, how are
we going to deal with machines that refuse to go by the rules, or actually attack people?
There is no universal answer to these questions. If we consider the machines we
create today, especially the androids, they are able to function because of the way they are
programmed. So as long as robots are programmed to follow a certain algorithm that
coincides with social rules and conventions there would be no such problem. But if we
actually develop the machines to such an extent, that they are able to think like a human
being, we cannot be sure that they are not going to turn against us.
On the other hand even if we do not develop machines to that level, they would
strongly depend on the person that programs them, and if that person has the skills and is
not well meaning, we would end up with a very powerful killing machine and this might
even inspire world domination attempts.
So to work this problem out it would be best if machines are programmed to a
certain level, maybe using algorithms similar to Asimovs Three Laws of Robotics, and
then left to develop by themselves. This way the possibility of a Robot invasion would be
much lesser and it would also serve as a protection for the machines.
If we are able to successfully incorporate machines in our society, there would be
endless possibilities for us. We would be able to explore our planet in ways we could never
do that before, like going to the bottom of the ocean, recovering sunken/ lost ships and
airplanes and maybe even revealing ancient mysteries, such as The Lost City of Atlantis.
We would be able to use machine labor instead of human labor, in places which are too
dangerous and also speed up the construction process. Maybe we could even use machines
to address problems such as climate change, protecting the environment, global poverty and
famine, etc.

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But its not only our side that we should look at. Since the idea is to actually have
machines with equal rights this would mean that first, they should work and help willingly
and not be blindly controlled by people and second, they should have all of the human
rights. That means the right to vote, the right to choose a belief system, to be entitled to free
speech, to be free to go wherever they want and so on.
It is interesting to think about how such a human-machine society would function.
Will robots be educated through programming or actually schooled the way people are
today? Or maybe on the contrary, both people and machines will be programmed. Would
machines be content with being what they are, or will they experience the pinocchio
effect (the need to possess human body and features and experience human emotions, a
concept explored in films like The Bicentennial man)?Would it be possible at some point
for robots to actually enter the politic scene and even take an important position such as
minister or president? Will they be able to form their own culture, or will they just follow
ours? And, another important point, if machines create their own society within ours, will
they have the need for religion and what kind of religion would it be? Because if their
religion is based on most western religions, which are worshipping God ( a figure thought
to be creator of all people), would that mean that they are going to end up worshipping us?
Unfortunately as much as I want to provide solid facts, supporting my theory that
people and machines can live together, they are inevitably outnumbered by all the questions
this topic poses. But then again, that may be a good thing, because only by questioning
everything, does a person develop his mind and the more we do that, the more we will be
able to expand not only our consciousness, but also our world.
I do believe that living in a human-machine society would not be easy and it will
take a lot of time and effort on our part. And of course we should not be striving to create a
utopia, since as we well know, utopias can be easily turned into dystopias. What we have to
do is keep an open mind for the future, because this is the direction we should go.