Survival of the Smartest



People around the world have been encountering ideas that machine intelligence is going to
outsmart humans. The reason why machine intelligence has taken a huge role in human’s lives is
because of the dependency we all have individually given them. The place where we are living is
surrounded by people who use these on a daily basis such that machines have taken a large
percentage on making man’s lives easier. Now a days there’s programs that have an answer to
almost everything, there’s phones that keep coming out in the market every day with many more
advanced features, and even cars that park themselves. Technology is becoming the next
evolution of life on earth and that’s making people question themselves, are intelligent machines
becoming smarter than humans? If you analyze two intelligent systems (humans and machines)
 by the speed under which they can work, then computers would be smarter than humans. It is a
question of defining the term "smart".

            The association of computer-human is very much alike to telescope-human. A telescope
sees nothing without a human behind it. A computer thinks nothing without a human behind it.
Given a machine a field of specifically quantified tasks, they perform better, but in any liberal-
minded context, man are more intelligent than computers. Men are the ones that create and take
control of a machine; the huge difference between computers and men is that one can reason and
differentiate, while the other can only process the data that’s been given. As humans, we are
exceptional at examining situations by experience, and finding a solution to any problem. We
study different methods to find the reason of why and how things work, while computers need to
be told what to do. Humans are capable of qualitative analysis and emotional intelligence,
something that can’t be duplicated in artificial organisms. These have been made to help humans
work more efficiently and that’s the only purpose they have in this world. As much as anyone
would try to mimic a living organism, it just won’t be the same. There are billions of people in
this world and they all think differently, while one can construct a billion machines, but they
would all be programmed to think the same.

There are people who on the other hand think differently, and feel that in the near future
machines will outsmart humans. As the technology keeps rapidly growing within our society
it won’t be long until our civilization turns into a world like “The Jetsons”. The Jetsons is an
American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera originally aired from 1962-1963; where
they lived in the year 2064 in a futuristic utopia and had a robot as a maid, drove flying cars,
had whimsical inventions, and placed pills in the microwave that turned into food in a matter of
minutes. For many years science fiction movies have portrayed robots as very smart machines
built by humans to perform intricate operations, to elaborate with humans in captious
assignments, in belligerent environments, or more often to pilot space crafts in galactic travels.
At the same time, however, intelligent robots have also been portrayed as humans worse
enemies, dangerous machines that are capable of working against man through atrocious plans.
The film Terminator makes any human be aghast of the future after watching it. The view of the
future is cataclysmal; the cards are reversed and robots become so intelligent that they take over
the  human race. Films like Terminator, Robocop, and Matrix are often recognized to science
fiction; they represent the clear look of ambition and fear that man has towards his technology.
In the film “Matrix” one sees the takeover by computers and their machines. Agent Smith thinks
that he is the cure to a virus (humans) and he says:
I'd like to share a revelation I've had during my time here. It came to me when I
tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every
mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their
surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you
multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only
way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on
this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human
beings are a disease, a cancer to this planet. You are a plague, and we are the
cure.
Before comparing there must be stated some comparing criteria. Unlike other machineries,
intelligent systems can perform any task they can describe. For instance, if you can describe how
to solve an equation you can solve it too. The way machines begin functioning is because of their
program, not because they’re intelligent systems; they are only results of intelligent
systems(humans). This is why to be smarter than a human, we cannot take in consideration
machines that need to be programmed, but value ones learning from its own
knowledge.

As we all know, the incomparable properties of the human brain cannot be imitated by
any other method but by life itself. Any living organism with the capability to adjust to an
environment and respond to it is the basic top block of all organisms, everything else in this
world derives from it. Our human body is something extraordinary; we have different cells that
perform different functions. Some cells build the body; some process information in real time;
some store memories, and some facilitate metabolism. Cognitive functions such as emotion, self-
awareness, and consciousness could never be duplicated; these laws are essential not only to life,
but also to the existence of intelligence. If an intelligent machine would ever reach a point in
where it could be compared to a human they would have to be functionally structured to work as
the brain does. In reality, machines only emulate the overall participation humans have in life,
but lack the most important connection that mainly distinguishes us. Machines were made to
make humans life easier, not to outsmart us. The only thing that is behind a phone, laptop, IPod,
or any other electronics is simply human intelligence that’s taking money out of your pockets.

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