It was Arthur C. Clarke who said that any
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable
from magic. As our society relies more and
more on technology we're reaching a position
where, ironically, we understand less and
less of what's going on. We’re resigning
ourselves to live in a black box world, surrounded
by technology we simply don't understand.
Gone are the days when you could fiddle around
with an object, like a carburetor, and figure
out more or less what each part did. My smartphone
is inscrutable, and a look inside of it tells
me very little about how it operates. Artificial
intelligence is like the smartphone in this
respect but even more so. The suggestions
and conclusions that artificial intelligence
creates sometimes are not even decipherable
by the people who created the AI. This is
a whole new world, and artificial intelligence
looks like a whole new kind of magic. If you're
interested in artificial intelligence visit
GigaOM.com or check out my new book "The Fourth
Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and
the Future of Humanity".
