A.I.

Artificial Intelligence or Abolition of

Identity

Name: Le Nguyen Ngan Chau Tran Quynh Nhu

11/15/2014

Intro
Technology undoubtedly has had its fair share of influence on human ethics and morals since its

birth to date; it has generated social movements, reshaping mankinds very perception of life.
Since the dawn of mankind, some key components responsible for evolution are labor and
curious, inquisitive minds. During that process, machines, in particular, artificial intelligence
have been created to assist us in those processes. These machines have had billions of dollars
poured in for their research and development. Hence, they are evolving much faster than it has
ever been. Although, things dont always go as plan for us human. Some proposed A.I. through
time have become the Adam of our labors, or the Ultron to our Hank Pym. . Thus, a question
on its impact is raised: Does A.I pose a threat to human ethics and morals? As advocates of the
argument, here is an elaboration on why and how Artificial Intelligence means the abolition of
human identity.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

As explained above, artificial intelligence or expert system is the intelligence
exhibited by machines or software, programed by human and is under their
creators authority. Artificial intelligence comes in many shapes and sizes,
assisting humans in many areas including military, automation, medicine or
even a maid in ones household.

Progression of Artificial Intelligence

The system not only follows orders but also learns and reason on its own. Its
distinctive features are the ability to learn, reason, solve problems, perceive
surrounding concepts and understand language. These abilities that robots
exhibit are similar to those of humans, making it a promising replacement for
servants and helpers in the said fields. This means it can evolve and adapt
just like humans. Given that, since the birth of sentinel technology in 1956,
A.I. has evolved drastically, going from large blocks of machine to human-like
structure and designs. Within less than a century, the expert systems have
gone from mere ideas, fragments of humans imagination into tangible,
cognitive machines.
A fitting example would be the evolution of the map. When it first came

about, the map was a big folded piece of paper, diagrammatically

representing an area of land or sea with physical features, cities, roads, etc.
Through time, it has gradually been replaced by web mapping services such
as Google Map, Apple map Most recently and perhaps the most popular
one is the interactive GPS.

Retrogression in humans
As depicted in science fiction or even non-fiction, the expansion of AI
corresponds with the inversion of human evolution as well as the downfall of
us all. Stephen Hawking expressed his worries in a follow up article to Louis
A. Del Montes book: "Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who
controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at
all. Because it can learn and adapt on its own and do our tasks for us, we
are no longer required to use our own minds to solve problem; hence later
generations will gradually lose the ability to critically think and reason, while
also lose their creativity. Therefore, human kind would return to its original
state of dim minds

Milgram's experiment

Scientific experiments have shown that human are "less human" towards
robots and the Milgram's experiment on robots is one of them. In the original
experiments on human, the participant was asked to teach a student to

remember words and whenever the student made a mistake, the participant
would gave him an electric shock with the voltage increased after every
shock. The student was actually received no shocks but pretended to be so,
showing pain based on the intensity of the shocks. Only when the voltage
reached its maximum value or the participant completely refused to continue
after being urged by the experimenter could the experiment ended and the
voltage of the last shock would be recorded. Similarly, in the experiment on
robots, the robot was equipped with a loudspeaker and had verbal utterances
with body movements set up. The final results showed that the intensity of
the last shock in the experiment on robots was more extreme than on
human, with the difference of 135 Volts.

Degradation in altruism
The initial aim of the original experiment was to measure human's
sinisterness and it had shown that only a few of the participants stopped
before reaching the death-defying Voltage. Not until this recent one was
conducted did we realize that human beings were cold-blooded to such an
extent. Although it was merely human's misdeed towards robots, it could be
observed as a prognosis about human-to-human relationship, which could be
exemplified by the augmentation of death rate since AI involved in military.
Many years from now, soldiers fought directly, attending on the battlefield.
They pulled the trigger when seeing their opponents and stopped seeing
innocent people or their comrade-in-arms. In this day and age, soldiers fight

mostly virtually, facing nothing but the mere button; therefore, they would
press it whenever something come into view, not realizing they have claimed
an innocent person life. Thus, the death rate increases.

A step backward
Some may argue that AI is "a giant step for mankind". It is, indeed, but only
in the field of science. In other words, it is such a retro-gradation in the
development of human ethics, fading the intrinsically characteristic traits of a
human being. First, it is the reliance on our "servants" that makes us idle,
refusing to work while labour mainly involves in the process of our evolution.
This illustrates not a standstill but a huge step backward in human
development. Second, the robots are so intelligent that they can provide you
with any information you need. In the long run, you would probably lose the
sense of curiosity. Moreover, when the answers emerge before you could
think of any questions, it would be unlikely for you to challenge any belief or
have analyzing skills.

In military, there are myriad modern weapons with destructive power. Unlike
their forebears, they can destroy everything on their ways and set the whole
place on fire; therefore, strategies are merely the icing on the cake. Critical
thinking would be no longer needed, bluring the line between humans and
other animals. Furthermore, when there are no proper thoughts behind the
weapons, there would be no deliberation before starting a fight. This world

would turn into an unscrupulous battlefield and sooner or later, burn to

ashes.

In daily life, it comes as no surprise when we catch a glimpse of a child

sticking his eyes into the iPad, wiping ceaselessly on the screen because we
are living in a technology era. The technology devices are so enthralling that
they prevent children from going outside; therefore, they would not be able
to observe new things, having no questions to ask, as a result. At the end of
the day, those children would end up impassive people and having no critical
thinking at all.

Conclusion
For humans to create equivalent creatures is for them to architect their own
undoing. Throughout history, humans values and standards have altered
colossally compared to its original state. However, with Artificial intelligence,
those morals would be turned upside down and we would lose our identity as
humans. Thus, A.I. should not be encouraged for mass production instead is
kept strictly for research purposes.