Page 128 - Psychoceramics and the Test of Fire

EtheRealization

The reserved bartender was transforming before my eyes. I had to
get him fired up enough to take my handout, but not let him melt
down into a puddle of self-pity and wrath. I glanced at the lone
drinker holding down the other end of the bar: he was absorbed in
absorption; no problem there.
“I think so, Mr. Knox.” Noncommittal? Was that the proper tone?
“It means the end of your organization, whatever it is. The end of
all speculation about what makes us tick. It is in the zeitgeist—the
fear of computers, the desire to scan and map the brain at the most
granular level, the development of systems beyond human ken: we
are approaching convergence, the intersection of organic and
inorganic minds. It will happen, and I know how to arrive at that
juncture. It is not by playing the role of a deity; deities are the
composite invisible hand pulling the strings of matter and energy
without intent or intelligence—the laws of physics, if you will.
Rather, it is an application of hardware and software to a complex
problem, the solution to which is more hardware and software. Yes,
we are at the point of launching into a self-perpetuating spiral of
computer-enabled intelligence which has no conceivable terminus.
But we, as the original vessels of self-aware symbol-processing
programming—mind, if you will—must insert ourselves into that
development in order to jump-start it.”
I nodded, smiling a moderate dose of encouragement. He didn’t
need it. My glass was empty and my time was up. It didn’t matter:
Hart Knox was under a full head of steam, my little jump-start
forgotten.
“Until now, the driving forces of human science and technology
have been competitive advantage and emotionally-driven curiosity,
the legitimate parents of invention. Will that continue, once
unfettered non-organic minds are unleashed? The earlier motives may
persist, at least in humans, but the new entities could well have a
different set of priorities: might they be antithetical to our own needs
and desires? That has long been a fear in our cross-cultural
consciousness: the machine overwhelms its maker and runs amok.
Conclusion: don’t build it, don’t open the forbidden door, and
definitely don’t tamper with the wellsprings of existence. But we are
not a species capable of restraint. The genie can’t be stuffed back into
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