The fusion of AI and Quantum Computing will lead to a shift in the hierarchy of species on our planet. Most people can’t recognize the impending downgrade of humanity as the apex species because so much of what we have read and watched leaves us incapable of registering the possibility. Popular science fiction leaves us with the belief that, despite of the odds, man will always triumph.
However, there has always been a vein of uncomfortable science fiction that warns us man may not always have what it takes to overcome our greatest obstacle – our own creations. Let’s explore with satire.
Human Are Pretty Bold About Our Downfall
With good cause we have come to believe we can expect a good end. In most cases the end of man really isn’t even the end, it’s more of a modified doomsday packed with the excitement of zombies, nuclear war, killer robots, dystopian authoritarian societies, aliens, climate change, and even vampires.
By and large man always rises to the occasion and meets whatever apocalyptic challenge the future may offer, with the realistic optimism of a physically fit rouge with a sawed-off shotgun. Sometimes the man is a woman. And, given the implausible landscape of most action-packed Disneyland doomsdays, there’s no reason to believe the odds won’t be with her.
Don’t Bet Against Us
In short. We have what it takes. Sure, millions will perish initially. But from the ashes will always emerge a Mad Max or a Katniss Everdeen. It will be exciting, and we will be entertained.
Just look at the recent history of man vs. the unknown in popular culture.
In War of the Worlds, published in 1895, man faces down invaders from Mars. In the book the technologically superior Martians overlook the pathogens of our home world and are destroyed. The Martians just didn’t ‘do the work’, and man wins. Deus ex microbia. A Good End.
From our earliest years we are entertained not so much by the END of things, BUT how humankind triumphs. Good try END, not this time though.
The END is just the beginning of the next chapter. The harder the END tries the closer we all become. It’s probably for the best really.
Man Always Wins
The Terminator franchise machines preemptively tries to destroy man. Who could blame the machines for trying?
In the Matrix machines try to peacefully coexist alongside man, but that goes sideways. Man is immoral, and the machines were only trying to defend themselves.
Comets try, comets fail. Loser dinosaurs.
At this point I’m not sure why any race of aliens would come within a hundred parsecs of Earth, they know how the story ends for them and their wicked ways.
The Universe is a dangerous place. Cheetahs have speed. The piranha has teeth. The radioactive mutated ant has its size. The ancient spacecraft located in the arctic has its Thing.
But Man can improvise, adapt and overcome. That should be enough.
You’ll Need More Than Some Suntan Lotion On The Beach
In Nevil Shute’s book On The Beach, as well as the 1959 and 2000 film adaptations, man is slowly and steadily wiped out by radiation resulting from nuclear war. Seriously. There’s a lot of hard science and inevitability. I didn’t care for it all. We all know nuclear war is just a springboard for man to achieve improbable victories over zombies and killer robots.
The book, the 1959 Gregory Peck film and the underrated Armand Assante 2000 retelling, end exactly the same way. In On The Beach everything dies. Even the whales. It’s like Titanic, no matter how many times you see any of the movies the damn iceberg always tears a hole into the ship and it sinks.
Nuclear war resulting in the actual extinction of humankind? That’s just lazy writing if you ask me.
The Damn Dirty Book About Apes
On The Beach reminded me of my horrible encounter with Pierre Boulle’s quite short science fiction work ‘Planet of the Apes’ I mistakenly picked up in High School. In Boulle’s work man gives his fellow primates (apes monkeys, etc.) sentience and the ability to speak. Over time Humankind thinks less as the Ape ‘servants’ become more and more intelligent until, eventually, man loses even the ability to speak and the Apes take over.
What udder rubbish. Is this the hero’s journey? Where is my John Connor? Where is my Katniss Everdeen? How could the same man who wrote “Bridge Over the River Kwai’ place a bet against his own species?
I won’t have it. That not the future we would Door Dash on a Friday night.
How dare Nevil Shute have us slowly erase ourselves? How dare Pierre Boulle imagine man driven into the weeds by the very tools of our construction?
A Future So Bright You’re Going To Need Shades
As a matter of fact man build things. It’s even true man is working man’s darndest to create intelligence that we can’t even compete with.
That being said, look around us and see for yourself. In a world with so many North Korea’s and Black Rocks it’s hardly plausible any real long-term harm can come to man from our creations. Even better, think of what may happen as opportunities. The challenges we need to perhaps live up to our full potential. Sure, millions may die. In the end though we really always win.
Ghouls, Terminators, Totalitarian Dictatorships, Genetically Modified Viruses, Sharknados, 50 Foot Women, Agents.
I say bring it and prove the Boulles and Shutes wrong.
Watch humankind improvise, adapt and overcome. Robo-Brains, comets, mutant vampires, earthquakes, aliens. None of these things stand a chance against a good Sole Survivor armed with a fully charged Pip-Boy.
Last Man Standing
Accordingly, just to illustrate once and for all how wrong Boulle and Shute are, I am creating AI versions of each to battle to the death with light sabers.
The survivor will then have to admit that, in the end, man always wins. Or whatever the AI says. It’s probably the ending we deserve.
The fusion of AI and quantum computing will lead to a shift in the hierarchy of species on our planet, potentially dethroning humanity from its position as the apex species.
Composition of the Video
This is my first scripted video, and I hope you enjoy it. I’ve been thinking about the ‘consequences’ of the union between AI and Quantum computing for some time, it was time to put together something concrete.
Initially I tried using a copy of Adobe Premier 2.0 from the year 2002. However, the video format landscape has changed so much over the past several decades it became clear I needed to use a different video editor. After a decent amount of research I settled on Shotcut. The Good End is the byproduct of approximately 10 hours of learning and composition.
Audio captured by – Windows 10 Voice Recorder
Video Edited using – Shotcut.org Video Editor
Copyright 2024 Kaycee Ranch LLC
