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Old 11-18-2013, 07:22 AM
 
Location: MidWest USA
29 posts, read 38,943 times
Reputation: 27

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"Collossus: The Forbin Project"

Has anyone any opinions on this movie? Its available in may ways... Youtube and many others have it for streaming, etc.

It is one of my most favorite "movies" (I don't care for the book or the sequels), Having just watched it again, I am not sure this Colossus would be a bad thing. A lot of our human problems are from habits and behaviors picked up over many millenia... many of which are not advantageous anymore.

People always talk about what will happen when A.I. becomes self-conscious "enough" and the Singularity, etc...

I don't care for the book sequels that where written for this...

Just "this movie" and what might the future "in this movie" could hold for earths inhabitants in your estimation?

I also heard rumblings of a remake/prequel starring will smith, I hope they don't destroy the undertones of the movie.

Do you think humanity needs a push into responsibility, guided my a benevolent super intelligent computer? would its access to all information make it ethical aswell? Can a all-knowing computer have wisdom? Colossus was only beginning to learn in the movie about non-war type information, I would like to think if colossus absorbed and processed all the data available "today's world": a Golden Age would begin... do you?
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Old 11-18-2013, 12:28 PM
 
23,541 posts, read 70,002,536 times
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First, understand that the outcome of movies of the era were dictated by the Hayes code. The bad guy (against society) always loses, no matter what the author's original intent was. You can see it in Forbin Project, but the ending of the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is an even more obvious add-on illustration of the point.

Forbin was good, there also was a rarely available Torr book called "Vulcans Hammers" (NOT the Jerry Pournelle "Vulcans Hammer") that was even more prescient in some ways, predicting nano-sized spy copters that were like dragonflies, used as the eyes and ears of the supercomputer.

Science fiction has always had to finesse the idea of intelligent computers made by man being benevolent or being beaten. Asimov's laws had flaws that even he had to recognize in his later novels. The fact is that there is no such thing as "benevolence," only bias. When you start to put benevolence into your mixing bowl and add logic, you get a pretty creepy mayonnaise.

Simple example: "There is a woman who has a 60% chance of having a deformed child that will be a burden to the health care system. Would a "benevolent" computer find it benevolent to allow her to have a child, or more benevolent to eliminate that possibility so that the health care system and society were less stressed? My guess is that the woman wouldn't be allowed to have kids, enforcing a rather coarse version of the Utilitarianism philosophy.

Next example: If the computer determines that the goals of humanity are knowledge, as evidence for the striving for same and increasing use of technology, at what point does the computer determine that humans are redundant, and allowing them to continue to live crappy lives is not "benevolent" but cruel? Since the "goal" has been met in the sentient computer, and any continuation of that goal (spreading knowledge, new universes, whatever) is hampered by humans, most philosophical constructs would call for the elimination of humans through attrition or faster methods.

Add to the mix that military computers are programmed to eliminate enemies and a single sentient super-computer is a Pandora's box. Multiple sentient computers with individuality might be a little less of a problem for a while, but I suspect the end would remain similar.

Just an aside to this whole thing - computers are getting more more able to make subtle errors than they used to be. Instance - I sometimes review posts, and in a few instances I have seen changes in spelling crop up long after the author would be able to do anything to change his post. Instance - while voice recognition is getting better, there is of necessity interpretation and GUESSING what the spoken words were. Imagine a super-computer thinking "Nah, he couldn't have said 'Don't bomb Mecca,' he must have said 'Dam. Bomb Mecca.'"

Last edited by harry chickpea; 11-18-2013 at 12:37 PM..
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Old 11-18-2013, 12:46 PM
 
Location: Pueblo - Colorado's Second City
12,259 posts, read 24,376,332 times
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I think this movie is interesting in that it shows people were aware of where computers were going even in the 1960's. However there is to much wrong in the actual story line to take any of it seriously.
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Old 11-18-2013, 01:17 PM
 
15,913 posts, read 20,130,956 times
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As a comedy this movie was OK...

As a precursor to what might occur in the future a total 100% flop.
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Old 11-18-2013, 04:47 PM
 
Location: Pueblo - Colorado's Second City
12,259 posts, read 24,376,332 times
Reputation: 4395
Quote:
Originally Posted by plwhit View Post
As a comedy this movie was OK...

As a precursor to what might occur in the future a total 100% flop.
Wow you and I actually agree on something lol.
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Old 11-20-2013, 04:33 PM
 
23,541 posts, read 70,002,536 times
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(Cue the theme music from "Jaws")

If this doesn't terrify you... Google's computers OUTWIT their humans

"This means that for some things, Google researchers can no longer explain exactly how the system has learned to spot certain objects, because the programming appears to think independently from its creators, and its complex cognitive processes are inscrutable. This "thinking" is within an extremely narrow remit, but it is demonstrably effective and independently verifiable."
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Old 11-26-2013, 04:09 PM
 
46,821 posts, read 25,743,836 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harry chickpea View Post
(Cue the theme music from "Jaws")

If this doesn't terrify you... Google's computers OUTWIT their humans

"This means that for some things, Google researchers can no longer explain exactly how the system has learned to spot certain objects, because the programming appears to think independently from its creators, and its complex cognitive processes are inscrutable. This "thinking" is within an extremely narrow remit, but it is demonstrably effective and independently verifiable."
Neural networking has been around for decades. Sure, you can't point to a given node and say "This exact spot is where the program discerns pattern A from pattern B" like you can with traditional programs, but we know how they form their pathways and there's nothing sinister about it.

A friend of mine used to work on a project using neural networks to discern radar signatures of different aircraft, back in the 90s. Interesting stuff.
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