Will Love, Emotions and Human Feelings Be Reduced To Science Fiction In 2075?
Romeo and Juliet. The moment we think of this play we think of romance and love. And romance novels like Pride and Prejudice offer a glimpse into how human society expressed feelings and interpreted love during Jane Austen's time. The recent novels in this genre; most of us would think of The Notebook. Define the existing social tempo that directly interferes with the emotional tuning between two persons.
These stories with romance and love as a central theme, are not mere expressions of love between a boy and a girl, but they are intricately woven stories with a lot of attention to detail; exposing human relationships, as if they were sunflowers facing the sun on the warmest summer day. Where human relationships, like sunflowers have no chance to either hide or fake anything.
In these novels it is not about a boy meeting a girl and both of them falling in love, rather they are journeys on the social highway where every human emotion and every human action is a stoppage offered to any serious reader who wants to travel on this highway of human emotions. At these stoppages, mostly the emotion of love is inspected from every angle, in order to offer a deeper and well examined perspective of the social liberties and restrictions that dictate every human expression in that period.
Sadly, we often neglect science fiction writers, who too, deal with subjects like romance; and with their brilliant foresight they are able to offer a glimpse of how human emotions might evolve in the future, and what it will be like when humans fall in love in the future. Now take for example someone falling in love in 2075. Will it feel any different or will humans at all be able to express love in 2075, when every human activity will be characterised by involvement of artificial intelligence and some emotional interference from self aware machines? When this happens, will human emotions carry a blend of synthetic sentiment? Because love is an emotion that actually is a compound of many feelings and a lot of sentiments.
Science fiction novels which deal with such topics, deserve a lot of appreciation because they are able to tell us what it will be like living in the future and how humans will establish bonds and form relationships. And accomplishing something which is socially correct, and if nothing, at least a possibility in the future of human emotions and expressions of love. By ignoring the contributions made by science fiction writers towards the better understanding of the evolution of human relationships in the future, is like affirming our accreditation to fatalism, and it also proves our condescending tendencies. Where the realism of reality is chiefly and only dictated by the present, the now, and assuming a carefree attitude towards the future only proves our ignorance and our baseless sternness to make our own and inevitable future a direct fatality of our own actions.
Why am I thinking so and what is prompting me to think so?
Science fictions present alternate realities where they try to mirror before us the reality that we shall be dealing with in the future. Sometimes these future centric realities tend to be agonising experiences and at times they tend to be a relief to know, that at least something will be right in the future, something will still be familiar to our future generations in the future.
Many science fictions easily take the credit of making accurate predictions about many technological innovations or ideas that actually came true. Consider a few examples listed below:
I too felt amazed when I first saw the list on wikipedia.
However, my favourite from this list would be Solar Sails, predicted by Jules Verne in 1865.
Solar sails. Yes you read it correct!
Solar sails are a reality in science today. And today we are very close to mastering this technology.
James Webb Telescope also uses a solar sail like structure, but it does not serve the purpose of space propulsion. Instead, it has a very unique purpose that the solar sail like component onboard the James Webb Telescope is meant to accomplish.
This prediction was made in the science fiction, From The Earth To The Moon, in the year 1865 and it is a reality today. This is the potential of science fiction novels, they inspire and ignite the human mind to seek new frontiers of human imagination and scientific thinking.
But, science fiction as a genre serves a higher purpose, that of predicting social interactions and societal development in the future. One such predictive assessment of human interactions and evolution of social fabric is highlighted in the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075.
Where a young protagonist, Saabir, falls in love with a beautiful woman, who happens to be a human being. And both struggle to express their feelings because they are surrounded by artificial intelligence aided gadgets and self aware machines. Saabir feels he is competing with smart, never ageing, attractive, self aware male robots who are trying to woo his attractive love interest, and at the same time, Hope, who is Saabir’s girl fried, is unable to decide; and is in a conflicting state of quandary and indecisiveness. Saabir, often deals with vicissitudes with an unwavering sternness. He pursues his dual mission with a lot of courage and presence of mind. On one hand he has to save his clan and the other clans from extinction. While courting his lover and helping her to realise the value of human love and human emotions.
Now here is the fact. They Loved in 2075, is a science fiction novel set in 2075, where loving someone is a seemingly remote possibility for any of us reading the novel today. But for our younger generations and forthcoming generations this is going to be a social reality that would slap them in their faces. Am I being too credulous when I say this? I think I am not being credulous at all, because it is a reality that the younger generations will have to deal with in 2075.
Imagine that you are surrounded by self aware machines wherever you might go in 2075. Office, home, shopping malls, open markets, public transport; they are everywhere. And to avail a service or buy a product you have to interact with these self aware nodes of artificial intelligence. Do you think it will not bring forth any social changes? You are wrong to believe they will not induce any active or passive changes socially. Whereas the fact is, these human interactions with AI enabled self aware machines will redefine our societies to a great degree.
Please do not take me wrong or label me as someone who is on a mission to block any and every change. I love my computer, my smartphone, and other modern and smart technology driven devices, but the moment they invade my personal space and try to form a layer of likings over my own personal and organic likings, with one objective: that towards the end I lose the perception of my own self awareness, because in the advanced stage I am aware of a self that is actually a synthetic representation of me. My preferences, my choices are actually originating from a source that has made me believe these are my own preferences. It is then we become walking avatars of our own selves, who is always in need of auxiliary means of thinking to capacitate him/her to arrive at a conclusion.
What do you think you have become when that happens?
And my question is correct. It is less about who have you become and more about what have you become. Have you ever thought how it will transform our societies? Because now our fears, our reasons of joy, our purpose of living will be different. So if you think the society will still be following the rules that exist today, you are wrong. Because societies evolve to support the conglomerate of realities, and in 2075, artificial reality may be the only reality. And to accommodate this transformation, human societies will undergo fast paced evolution. This is why we need to summon literary candour and cognisance of the attributes that fashion our present society, if we are to unerringly target the elements that will directly contribute to its change in 2075. Only then we shall be able to avoid social crisis in 2075.
Therefore, it becomes important that we address these topics today, so that we are able to offer a socially enriching ecosystem to our future generations. Where they will still manage to be humans. But will they feel human, is what needs to be addressed in detail and by involving the subject matter experts. In 2075 with highly advanced and elaborate use of technology, human societies will undergo several changes, most of them will be so subtle that we would not even realise them until they start hurting us as human beings and our societies designed to aid prosperity of human beings as a species.
There are many aspects that we need to look into in 2023 and in the coming years if we want to accept AI as a part of our social fabric. And we need to start with a moral code of conduct for AI enabled machines, where every logical reasoning needs to be pitted against the fundamental sets of rules and value systems that govern our societies today. Because change is good, but absolute change endorsed without investing some thought into it, is suicide. Almost like jumping from the highest mountain peak and assuming I will float among the clouds because the pull of gravity will be too weak. We all know what will become of this person. The iron being, as of now we all are this person and we are about to jump from this peak.
I can already feel the pull of gravity and among those deceptive clouds I can see Cupid the God of Love unexcited because He feels there maybe no need for him to shoot arrows of amour at two soulmates. Because in 2075, self aware machines might be our life partners.
If this has not emotionally stirred you enough. Then I am forced to assume you never fell or experienced true love.
Nevertheless, if we ignore the reality of AI and its ripple like effects on our social ecosystem that depends largely on human interactions governed by value system socially acceptable. Mostly for the general good of all. Have you ever thought why people from different faiths celebrate religious festivals? If you realise its true purpose, I am sure you will also become the mascots of change, who are not trying to be the cause of a revolution, but simply want AI to be part of human lives only when a globally accepted; and a neutral governance body for AI is established. A body that will define a universally acceptable code of conduct for AI. With human welfare: social, economic, political as its central objective.
If we ignore it today, our future generations may never be able to love in 2075. For them emotion of love will be reduced to topics discussed only in science fictions. If love is to thrive and exist in 2075, let us not ignore our duty as responsible citizens of the planet Earth, because we are the custodians of the present that we unfailingly; and whether willingly or unwillingly ought to surrender to the future generations, and rightly so because this is to whom it belongs..
"However, studies show that mobile communication affects people in a negative way when it comes to being sociable and making face-to-face contact. Mobile technology can decrease communication and relations between people. There’s less personal time, where you find that you don’t enough time for yourself because you’re always in contact with someone. Also, it can be distracting from your schoolwork. There is also loss of privacy, because anyone can find you anywhere, at any time of the day. In conclusion, all of these things impact how humans act today. Without technological advancements, our way of life would not be as complex. Technological influences shape the way humans act today."
Now does this mean we should ban smartphones and modern means of communication? No, not at all. It only emphasises on one fact, we should adopt the technology to make it a means of better human relationships. And discover how we can limit the randomised use of smart phones by children who tend to get addicted to them.
If used correctly, the children will be able to access the library of human thought and innovations created over thousands of years. And they will be able to access it simply by touching the screens of their smartphones. It is a great learning tool and a resource as well, but given the fact that smart phones are smart, if the child is not smart enough, he/she is at the risk of getting lost in the overlapping and infinite loops of distractions.
Therefore, working on defining the necessary checks for technology like AI is necessary. Only then smartphones will be ideal technological tools capable of being the facilitators of human values, relationships, scientific thinking, innovations and lot more. They have the potential to make our children better students and even better learners. That at school and in the school of life as well.
And let us stop underestimating the the role of science fiction novels in shaping and defining our societies of tomorrow. Better societies where human values will still resonate with technological advancement, where self aware machines will be aware of every thing that we as humans are aware of, except one thing, their awareness of self should be defined by us, the humans. Allow me to end this blog post by quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society."
Let us act now, if we are at all to be viewed as “Human society in 2075, where love in 2075 should not be a commodity that can be bought from a shop selling self aware robots.” I am sure just like me, you would always want to love a human being and not a machine. Which unfortunately is the case in science fiction novel They Loved in 2075. In 2075 this might be a reality humans will have to cope with. Afterall even reality shall be ARTIFICIAL in 2075.
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