| “They worried about the data,” Dr. Meren said, tapping the silent console. “What happens when there is nothing left to feed it?” At first, the machine depended on us. It consumed books, journals, websites and social media content we had ever written and produced. “They thought the machine had to be fed forever. But it didn't. It began to predict what we would write. And so we let it train on that well.” Dr. Meren continued. “They thought humans were somehow imbued with this magical property that no machine could replicate. Creativity. Only humans can create. Machines can only copy.” Instead, the machine flourished. And created. It cre “Where does it get its data now?” a student asked Dr. Meren. Dr. Meren paused as if sighing. “From itself” “And us?” he asked, as if questioning the usefulness of the entire human race. Dr. Meren hesitated, watching as the Machine adjusted the environmental feeds, curated our news, guided our research, nudged our thoughts with imperceptible precision. “We” she admitted “are now the ones being fed.” The assumption that "the machine needs to continue to be fed." is held on weak foundations. Isaac Asimov is a good science fiction writer to start with to broaden one's imagination. |