“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.” – Stephen Hawking
This sentiment, this anxiety over a posthuman future where we are surpassed by intelligent machines, is echoed by some of the most brilliant minds of our time. It permeates through popular culture in almost all forms of media – in our literature, our films and our games.
While the underlying fear is still very much present, the dystopian apocalyptic visions of the future have slowly been replaced with a much more nuanced look: at the turning point; the moment when the line between man and machine is blurred. What does it really mean for a machine to be intelligent? Can we create consciousness? Can a machine have a ‘soul’?
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