Science Fiction And Human Emotions

Emotional Composition of Humans in 2075.

She continuously gazes at the sky and very infrequently winks her eyes, then as if she were visited by a thought in her mind, she feels the essence of a fond memory from the past, flood her brain. That leaves her awash with a strange feeling only known to her. A feeling that in 2075 is not experienced by most of the citizens, but by only few and last remaining men and women from the older generation. 

The new generation of men and women , interprets human emotions and feelings quite differently, to the extent that they have lost the humane side of their feelings. Because in 2075, love, empathy and sympathy have evolved into human expressions which translate differently, compared to older times, when human sentiments complimented the emotional need of a  person, but today, it has been reduced to a human expression with no more than a customary value attached to it.

So, if inadvertently you have done something wrong and you apologise, the other person reacts by saying “It is alright!” It is very likely he/she said it out of customary social practice, with no feelings attached to it. A very superficial expression, that at a human level translates into nothing. Because the person who said it did not feel anything while saying it. It feels almost like a robot programmed to say it. Just for the sake of saying it.

Why is it so in 2075 and will it get worse?

Prior to proceeding further with this blog post, I must bring your focus to something that human beings in 2075 tend to ignore as an important fact of life, which will remain true even in 3075.

“One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men/women. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man/woman!”

As the climate change touched its crescendo and humans reached a precarious stage of human development. With the rising water levels in the seas and rising temperatures, it had become impossible to live on Earth and food production had dwindled considerably, leading to iniquitous distribution of life supporting resources on this planet. Humankind was predisposed to self destruction because they had not paid the slightest heed to Mary Howitt’s lines of wisdom:

“Will you walk into my parlour?” Said a spider to a fly.

And, the humankind for some abtruse reason had walked into the parlour of self destruction, and the first seeds of it were sown and further nurtured by humankind's absolute disregard towards several calls made by scientists and a few responsible citizens of the planet Earth, to invest seriously in taking the corrective measures to stop Climate Change and reverse Global Warming. By the time humans realised the need to act, and act with political and social commitment, the fly had walked too far into the spider’s web. Where struggling further, would have entangled the fly in its complex and sticky strings, becoming the ground of its own burial. 

But the fly was a little wise, because Gods still believed in humans and in the goodness that They had embedded in them. They believed so, because they were still impressed by the selfless act of Christ when he died for the good of humanity. To me it was one of the greatest sacrifices offered by anyone to elevate the status of fellow humans before the Heavens. So, the Gods still believed in the fly that lay trapped in the spider’s web.

It lay still and motionless, infact very still. So still, the spider could not feel any movement on the web it had cast to trap the fly. And this offered the fly a longer lease of life. Thereby, offering humans the chance to invest in reversing the effects of climate change and global warming.

Alas, the fly cannot lie in this state forever and hope it will survive. That is impossible, unless there is some Divine involvement. 

By the time humans realised that climate change needed to be addressed at Global level, with serious pledges made by world leaders to actively participate in this renaissance. The humans had trapped themselves into another web of complexities. They had unknowingly cast another web over the already trapped fly. And this time the web comprised human feelings that had evolved to feel less human and far less humane as well.

Humans had started investing recklessly in Artificial Intelligence at an enormous scale, in doing so they had allowed machines to decide their fate, when it came to few important aspects of human transactions . It was like the story of a king, who had offered his sword to the monkey, to protect him. And one night, when the loyal monkey saw a fly sitting in the face of the king. To make it fly away, the monkey hit the king’s face with the sword. Killing the king instantly!

By allowing AI enabled machines to make decisions on behalf of humans, humankind had unknowingly made the monkey to own a laser sword, leave alone a metallic primitive sword. And it had started hitting us with this laser sword, completely out of loyalty, unfortunately every hit was plunging the fly deeper and deeper into the spider’s web. 

The fly was now so deeply caught in the spider’s web that in presence of self aware machines humans were unable to tell the difference between human love and love expressed by machines, the thin line separating the synthetic feelings from real human feelings had been breached and the new generation of human beings was unable to feel love, express love, and the worst of all, man no longer kissed a woman or woman no longer kissed a man. It was an emotional space completely invaded by the self aware machines. This actually happened when humans began interacting with intelligent machines, and gradually the practical and business motivated conversational or interaction patterns had re-engineered human ability to express love or feelings. To the extent that they had entered into a state of latency.

Now, in 2075, human civilisation is facing a crisis that has compounded in the form of Global Emotional Deficiency. Due to this emotional deficit, wars have become frequent occurrences and economic dominance has taken the center stage. And the poor are suffering.

The fly now lies almost paralysed, though the spider has not spotted it yet, but there is every possibility that death will spot it anyway. Right now, in 2075, it literally feels as if life is just one damned thing after another. At least that is how it is for 85% of the world population today.

But then something amazing happens. Something quite wondrous, as if God interfered because God wanted to offer humanity another chance. It was as if the old Muslim belief had come true. “Before God inflicts pestilence on humans, there will always be signs and ways that shall appear as means of guidance to avert catastrophes!” No wonder, Muslims regard Christ as a messenger of God!

The almost exhausted and underground water reserves that were pumped out by human civilisation for many decades, have caused a tilt in the Earth. And then acted upon by Global warming, many regions in the world are experiencing climate change as a blessing, rather than a boon. Though the sun is hotter, they are experiencing more frequent rainfall, this allows healthy and dense growth of forests in these areas. The air in these areas is experiencing a higher concentration of oxygen too.

But, when examined at Global scale, Climate change is making many nations poorer and with rising temperatures, many humans are being forced to live in squalid conditions. There are many regions in equatorial zones that are experiencing complete drought with unforgiving heat waves, leaving the Earth's crust in these regions completely scalded.

 But this tilt in the Earth's orientation on its axis has had some good impact on certain regions, and that is a fact no one can deny. But this is not sufficient. And in 2075, few sensible humans had realise this fact, and they form a society that works on restoring the Earth's healthy ecosystem.

They first focus on studying the emotional and social impact of excessive interaction of humans with self aware machines and how it isolates them, and how it evolves their psychological makeup. Wherein the practical value system, always overrides sentiment or emotion based decisions.

Whereas, if the original human makeup of emotions and sentiments is examined there was a perfect balance between being pragmatic and being emotional at times.

Take for example, the human need to seek pleasure from their act of procreation. Which in the animal kingdom just serves a single purpose, to procreate, there is no recreational aspect tied to it. But in the case of humans, there has always been a strong element of pleasure and recreational element tied to the act of procreation, and it is a perfect evolutionary adaptation achieved by humans. Because it helps a couple to bond together and feel connected at an emotional and sentimental level. And it leads to an intense emotional interaction between a man and woman, because in an emotional exchange of feelings or thoughts, it is important to have two individuals whose physiological scales are different. One is a little soft and patient, and the other partner is a little tough and would go to any extent to protect the interests and passions of the partner. while being little pragmatic and patient at the same time.

But in 2075, human procreation has been replaced by artificially bred human race, and pleasure seeking is no more an act of emotion sharing or exchange of feelings. It is only about reaching a climax, almost like drug addiction. And we all know, drug addiction is detrimental for stable and complete growth of the human mind and body. 

Here I am not referring to soul or spirit. Because in 2075, you are mocked and classified as primitive if you refer to something like soul or spirit. 

Marriages have been replaced by pleasure seeking pods, and few humans have no value or no cause in life, other than being sources of pleasure, to the extent that eventually they feel like machines themselves. Until one day, they crumble under its weight. Because only a machine can bear the weight of emotional monotony, a human being is not meant to experience emotional singularity or monotony. It shall eventually obliterate the stable psychological makeup of that person.  

In 2075, humans achieve climax only in these pleasure pods, where one of the subjects is always expected to offer pleasure. And in the advanced stages this person reaches a point, where she feels no more pleasure herself. And she eventually buries this person, her original identity. Only to be resurrected in this pod of pleasure, as a half human and half machine, expected to offer only one thing, pleasure, pleasure, pleasure. At this point, she begins to believe she is good for nothing, and she cannot be better than these self aware machines, which perform complex mathematical calculations, pilot super fast airplanes, perform complex surgeries and what not. But this young girl in the pod of pleasure, now resigns completely and believes she has no more value than a pleasure pod. And when this happens, the self aware machine makes an advanced move into infiltrating human emotion. 

And it is in these pods of pleasure and many other sectors that self aware machines have made the majority of the human population to believe they are nothing more than pleasure seeking parasites. Whereas that is not true, because it is men and women who made these so-called intelligent machines. But they ignored the fact that the web of human emotions is so complex that if it is interfered with at any level without paying attention to its extremely intricate dependencies, both social and personal, it will always result in beauty transforming into the beast; rather than beast transforming into beauty.

In 2075, many AI specialists, and psychologists have been able to understand this slow and purposefully induced evolution in human population. And they are working on redefining AI protocols to limit its interference with humans at emotional and other levels that have the potential to reengineer human psyche. Moreover, they are working on some formula to define how much exposure to these self aware and virtual machines is good enough time that shall not alter the emotional tenderness and sensitivity of feelings in human beings. 

Actually it is the only way to differentiate a super intelligent machine from  a human being. An ordinary human being, who is capable of being that extraordinary human being that even million self aware machines cannot match. The true power of the human mind, that becomes the most powerful processing machine only because, prior to arriving at a conclusion, it runs that thought through an infinite loop of emotional “Ifs and Buts,” to eventually arrive at a conclusion.

I wonder what a robotic dog would do if its master did not return from the office. 

We all know what the Dog named Hachiko in Japan did. Don't we!

And if a robotic dog would have acted like Hachiko , would it mean anything? 

I think it would not mean much, because it is not doing it out of love or emotional attachment that it has developed with its master. It is doing so, because of the algorithm that makes it do what it is doing. So, it loses that value, or that feeling.

Hachiko. The dog who waited for his deceased owner. Almost forever!

But please, let the computer engineers, especially the computer Nerds or AI geniuses, not take me wrong. A person who needs hospice care, would be very grateful to a robot who is able to express empathy and show caring gestures. That will be the right kind of AI. But, flooding human life with so much AI that they start feeling like a computer code, will be devastating.

Because at the end of the day, AI is as good or as evil as the mind of the programmer who codes it. Once human emotions evolve and take an excessively practical course, when it comes to decision making. All due to their excessive exposure to self aware machines. Then I would not be surprised, that this generation of humans: less emotional, less sensitive, less empathetic, but excessively practical, will redefine the code in this hospice care giving robot. 

And do you know what the instruction in the code will be?

It will be as follows:

>>

Condition 1

If the subject is walking, eating and less dependent on social welfare. Be caring.

Condition 2

If the subject is unable to walk, and you have to feed the subject and offer every assistance. Consider it a burden on social health care.

In this case:

Terminate the subject.

<<

“Shame, shame, shame!” That will be my only reaction, if that ever happens.

And I do see such worrisome emotional evolution around me, in 2023. Considering my childhood, we were extremely sensitive and caring. And I wonder, in 2075, with excessive exposure to virtual portals and self aware machines. What will become of the human emotion and what will become of the innocence being murdered and raped every day in the name of Pleasure Pods. Maybe some lunatic scientists, too obsessed with self aware machines, would term it as an experiment on how human emotions evolve in pleasure pods. That will be a shame and it will be a grotesque event in human history.

Then Gods too shall forsake us, and the fly would get violent and desperately flutter its wings and spread its legs. 

Do you know why?

Because now, the fly really would want to die. 

And when that happens, humanity will lose every battle that it has won! And exactly at this stage nature will wage its war against us, and when nature takes affairs into her own hands. I think only the fury of Lord Shiva ( The God of destruction in Hindu Mythology ) can help you fathom its scale of destruction. And it is inescapable, no matter where one tries to hide. Because then you can run, but you can never hide. 

Do you know why?

For one simple reason. Nature’s AI is selfless and it has evolved based on extensive interactions and understanding of beings that think and feel. Afterall we are living in a multiverse. So, I have every reason to believe, that nature’s AI is a super powerful algorithm that trains its models based on experiences gained from every verse, and it acts only when it realizes, the thinking species in a certain verse, on a certain planet has let loose the demons of all forms, and if it does not act, the balance of every other verse will be demolished.

Now this may be interpreted by many well-read and highly educated readers of this blog, as an essay or a blog post that is mongering AI fear.

That is not true!

The blog post only aims to caution the community involved in the development of AI to tread with care and read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein once again. And if you can understand the cause of suffering and pain, experienced by Frankenstein’s Monster. I would say, you actually have understood life and the universe. Then please go ahead and write the AI code. I am sure it will be perfect!

https://www.gatesnotes.com/The-risks-of-AI-are-real-but-manageable

I myself love technology, I am obsessed with it. To be honest! 

But I will always love my woman more than a machine or technology. That is also true.

If I somehow fail to do so, I will take the trouble of reading Frankenstein once again. By the way, I have read it more than thrice, and everytime it introduces a new psychological side of Frankenstein’s Monster- His emotional cravings, his need for interacting with a feeling that originates from a being at his own wavelength. 

Are you getting my point?

Now come on! Do not accuse me of being too melodramatic. 

Accept the fact and let us invest in responsible AI, that will be our most trusted companion in our quest for Heavens and Eden as well. Without AI we cannot do it. But we can do it only with the right and well composed AI. 

Having said that, let us not rush and hasten when it comes to making AI the ubiquitous technological reality of humankind. Because the Russians say, “haste is only good, when it comes to catching flies.” And you know, the fly is already trapped in the web, so why hasten!

The fly in the web reminded me that we are talking about 2075, and how few selfless scientists are working to make this world a better place. And by studying the impact of AI on human emotions and relationships, they have managed to free one of the wings of the trapped and very patient fly.

Now they are working on crops that are resistant to high temperatures, require less water to grow, ripen in few months, and by using rotational methods of growing crops, they ensure that the soil does not lose its richness and it also helps in managing the uncontrolled growth of pests that harm the crops. And here too they are making use of AI.

AI in agriculture can be a great facilitator and it can reveal facts that we could never know without it. Thus making organic farming more viable and effective.

It is already happening in 2023. And in 2075 it may have scaled into a new AI revolution that supports Global growth, considering the genuine interests and good lifestyle, to be the right of every good citizen of this planet. And not the select few.

AI and technology in agriculture.

And it has not halted there. Humankind is hungry for more, and it is good to maintain hunger for scientific exploration, discoveries and inventions. This hunger should never feel satiated. Then the universe will be an uninteresting place, leave alone the Earth. It will turn into a drab.

With AI, Machine learning and advancements in precision based technologies, humankind has launched new probes into space and the data is very promising. Based on this data the scientists are sure, they have found a few planets ( yes a few and not just one planet ) that can support life. And they are working on compiling massive data that highlights to them the mistakes that humankind committed here on Earth and shall be avoided at all costs on these new planets. It is a herculean task, but they have made considerable advancements and their archives are in the form of digital memory chips that store many terabytes worth of data. And these chips, if stacked together, would in essence help anybody with the right scientific knowledge to create Earth Like ecosystem and biome on any other planet. 

But, this needs a lot of sorting and rearrangement in order to sequentiate every data set under the right data category, so that it is easy to refer to when the need arises. Nevertheless, scientific reasoning and steadfastness has once again presented itself as the harbinger of good hope and good times awaiting the human race. That in 2075, is dealing with Climate Change, Global Warming, Self Aware machines and their impact on human emotions and psychology. And as of today, they have no choice but to work collectively as a single race of kind hearted and courageous human beings, who want to make Earth a great place to live in for our children and our grandchildren.

Everyone is doing his/her bit. And I too thought of doing my bit in advance. Because now at 42, I would get less chance or no chance at all to do my bit in 2075.

I know you are thinking that I am indulging in some supernatural act, whereby I am transporting myself into 2075. 

Haa haaa!

Not actually. We all can contribute towards a great future of Earth, by doing our bit today, right now. That is why I love my Levis jeans, which are designed to be dirt and dust resistant, and need to be washed rarely.

Now you must be thinking, that by wearing these Levis Pants, how is he contributing to minimising the impact of Global warming?

I indeed am!

Because it needs to be washed less frequently. Less washing means less use of my washing machine, less consumption of electricity, less wastage of water and the chain of subset like events involved with washing just a pant can be endless. It is little acts that matter. We all do not have to be somebody, in order to make a change, you can be anybody and still contribute to good change.

Nevertheless, I took it a little further, by writing my first science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075, that deals with similar issues and topics that shall matter to our future generations. This novel is bold, it has a strong storyline, where the protagonist Saabir, is in love with a beautiful woman. And he has to maintain a balance between his passionate love affair and deal with the longings one inherits by virtue of being in true love. And Saabir also has to save his clan and his girlfriend’s clan from extinction.

The science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075, explores how humans will experience love in 2075. This science fiction novel navigates through the possibility of men and women falling in love with machines, without knowing they are robots imitating human emotions. Will you still dare to fall in love in 2075 or will you strive to tell the difference between a human lover and a robotic lover?

This Sci-fi novel tells the story of a man who falls in love with a real woman in 2075. And how he struggles to feel human and keep his emotional composition intact.

This Sci-fi story also aims at revealing why the man chose to love a real woman and not a never ageing and always beautiful woman with synthetic feelings. In 2075, this might be a choice we all will have to make. Especially our children!

Anyway, do you know the real wonder of these small acts that consider Global warming before taking an action?

The fly has managed to free its second wing as well. And I am sure, if we all keep trying, the fly will be free from the web, before the spider reaches the spot, where it lies trapped. Then, yes at this moment, we shall have developed AI that considers human values as a priority check point, prior to arriving at a decision and act based on it. I would call it AI that is developed based on human morals, feelings and emotions. I am optimistic that good change will take place, and the fly will be free. Just like Irma says, “sometimes freedom does not lie in seeking. Sometimes, it also lies in being sought!”

On that note, I conclude this blog post, but I once again submit to my compulsive urge, to add something excitingly worth pondering on, “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” And the AI scientists and Technology evangelists ought to realise this fact. As for the ordinary lot like me, we shall be wise enough to wear our humble Levis Pant that needs less washing. And we shall consider having lived well another day, and having contributed our bit. Indeed the much needed bit, even if it is just a little bit!

There is a famous saying in India, "To form an ocean every drop of water counts!"

PS. In order to maintain the reading pleasure of this blog post. It is on purpose I have used different forms of tenses to construct the sentences.