Science fiction : The accident

 

Science fiction : The accident

Have you watched an equestrian horse galloping gracefully, with highly dignified leaps over the hurdles? I am certain you must have, if not in reality but over the TV while browsing through the channels. But sometimes, the horse loses its balance and kicks the hurdle inadvertently, at that moment maybe the horse thinks, “I wish I could score a perfect 10 like Nadia!”

Equestrian Jumping

In a competition there are either failures or winners, there is nothing like accidents. 

And this is where human life and human societies are different. Because there are accidents, and life cannot be treated as a never ending game or a competition. However, there is an important aspect that we often neglect when it comes to understanding accidents in human societies i.e. the damage they cause and what implications they can have. Which according to me can be summed up as follows: 

1- There are accidents that cause physical damage

2- There are accidents that cause emotional and psychological damage

3- And there are accidents that cause social damage ( for the sake of maintaining the integrity of this blog post, I am not considering political, economical and other sides of the accidents )

Recently when I went out to meet someone in the market. I got down from the bus that I was in, and as I reached the pavement, I saw a couple caught in an intense altercation. And given below is the tempo and extract of their argumentative conversation:

“Husband: I could not help it. I tried to turn left and this person came speeding in from the opposite direction and hit me.

Wife: Yes I saw that! Now look at the damage. It is worth $ 1000 and this is a lot of money. 

Husband: I understand that darling, but I couldn't help it. I will make sure I get the car repaired as soon as I return from the office today.

Wife: What about the time we will lose and the extra money we have to pay? Who will compensate for the time we are wasting on this activity?

Husband: I am sure they can fix it in a week at the garage. We will have to manage for a few days without the car.

Wife: You are always careless and reckless. That is it!”

I am a great fan of candid conversations, but candidness without sensitivity, is like a relationship between a man and a woman, where both have taken a vow never to touch each other or help each other.

And in this conversation, where the car is the main victim, because it suffered damage physically. But, the husband who was driving the car, was a partaker in this accident, because he was managing the car that could not think or take decisions independently. So, his wife gives him a piece of her mind.

In this conversation, the wife too suffers, due to her thoughts about managing her daily routine without the car. Although the driver ( husband ) is still there and safe. But her worry is arising more from her fear about reaching her office late, or using public transport and not from the damage sustained by the car. So she is dealing with a lot of fears, which shape her insensitive conversation with her husband.

Due to this, the husband becomes the primary, yet, an uninsured victim in this accident, where he can claim insurance against the damages suffered by his car, but for his emotional suffering due to the accident, there is no insurance policy. Because, its sole issuing authority, rested with his wife. And by acting insensitively she has denied him this emotional insurance, when he needed it the most.

In her conversation, she refers to the damage done to the car, she blames her husband for the accident, but not even once does she ask him with the sensitivity of a human being, “ Are you fine? Have you been hurt? Do not worry, we can manage it together!”

So, in this accident, there are many casualties:

A- emotional 

B- personal

C- relationship centric

D- social

Suffered mainly by the husband. So, to most of us, it is just an accident, but to a social scientist it is a social accident, where this accident will define the future of the relationship between the husband and the wife. 

And if he is too sensitive and emotionally weak, this may provoke him to take drastic measures. Which may translate into following:

1- Thoughtlessly argue with his wife at home

2- Use it as a reason to justify his emotional provocations in the future

3- Contemplate divorce

4- Think of the reasons his wife acted so insensitively

But if he is someone who is emotionally strong and an even headed person, he will forget about this incident, and instead work on ways to make his wife love him more and help her groom her sensitivity lacking side of her personality, which too has hidden and undeniable causes- Maybe, lately she has been assigned a new project and it is excessively demanding. When the accident took place, her mind instantly thought about one thing: How will she complete her project if she reaches office late? And this may lead to her demotion. And when that happens, how will they pay for the house mortgage? So, she too expressed her love for her husband and family, because she instantly thought about the house owned by both of them, but only she pays the mortgage for their house, while her husband takes care of other expenses.

Doubtlessly, she loves her husband, but her way of expressing this love was not indifferent, but doubtlessly different, and as a result, it came across as too insensitive.

And there is a social and genetic reason for this. All of us cannot deal with a  lot of pressure and still deal with situations without losing one's mental composure. If someone is able to do so, that person certainly is an emotionally and mentally very strong person. And these individuals tend to develop strong and balanced relationships with no dearth of sensitivity and love. I call them genetic masterpieces!

And the wife certainly is not this person. But does that make her guilty or less human or less capable?

Not at all! Certainly not!

She needs to be understood better, and if the husband is a sensible and a sensitive man, he would not ponder on this incident and would instead dismiss it from his mind instantly. But when he reaches home after office, he would perhaps, prepare some nice dinner for his wife, and talk about good things e.g.

1- The car is in the garage and it will be repaired only in 2 days, and not 5 days like I had thought. ( Although he is exaggerating, but it is healthy exaggeration )

2- By the way I got some incentive today, so, I have booked you a cab that will drop you at the office and pick you up from the office as well.

3- You know, I met someone today outside your office and he said you were really working hard. I am proud of you. Followed by a kiss!

It should relieve her, because her mind believes in dealing with issues one at a time, and due to the accident, her mind got into issue fixing mode, instead of getting into sensitivity summoning mode for social and emotional appropriateness. And when her mind encountered several issues, it reacted the way she reacted at the accident site.

But the husband who has been living with her for, if not many years, but for a few years atleast, would know this and act accordingly. Though, at times it can be one sided emotional expression, and at times it can be too overwhelming to deal with, but with consistent effort, the wife would be able to train her mind and her personality will evolve as a partner who is equally sensitive, at least towards her husband. But, in this case, the husband will have to be the initiator, not the wife.

Anyway, this was about  the accident that took place on the highway. One accident with so many ramifications. This explains the complexity of human emotions and human mind as well.

Now let us take it a little further. Shall we!

Now it is 2075. The same husband and wife are traveling in an auto-piloted car. All of a sudden the software develops a bug and the car hits the wall. It happens so quickly that the husband loses balance and hits his wife’s forehead with his forehead.

It is tricky now. Actually, it's a lot more complicated at a social level.

What do you think the wife will do or what will be her reaction? Let me rephrase it, what will the husband do?

And in this case, the driverless cab is owned by a multinational company and it does not have or offer personalised feelings, but it offers an option to register the accident via the Black Box in the car and claim your insurance for the damages/losses. And also if you may like, that is if you are still alive after the accident, book a new cab by specifying your geo coordinates/location.

What do you think the conversation would look like in this case?

At this point, I do not wish to elaborate on this conversation, because we all know how it will develop. But what we cannot ignore is one fundamental fact.

How will human relationships change and evolve when they are surrounded by self aware and super intelligent machines? There are many aspects of human social behaviour and emotional development that we need to monitor and study, prior to certifying that the self aware and intelligent machines are ready to become a part of human society.

If a minor car accident could translate into so many emotional, social, personal complexities, I wonder what it would mean when humans live with intelligent machines, and as is proposed by few technology moguls, even marry intelligent and human-like machines.

I think we will wipe out the very layer of of our society that makes us human, makes us sensitive and makes us fall in love and feel.

There are many who would argue that if the woman’s husband were a male humanoid ( who looks, feels and behaves like a human being ) the wife would have been a lot happier and emotionally satisfied, because the humanoid was purpose built to satisfy the emotional needs of the designated female under all circumstances. 

But, that is where my argument lies. Although, I specified above that a caring husband would realise the wanting part of his wife’s personality and act accordingly when he returns from the office on the same day, or in the following days. But he will do it within human limits, both emotional and physical, because he too is a human being and emotional fulfilment is his desire and need as well.

However, the humanoid, who is purpose built to satisfy the emotional needs of the assigned female, will do it neither out of need nor desire. But out of one driving force i.e. the instruction embedded in his code. And when the assigned female receives these emotional bandages at required occasions, she will now begin to believe that it is the reality of human emotions and feelings. It is always one sided, and she should be the sole recipient of the emotional attention. 

This will be a tragedy for human society and it can have far reaching consequences in the future. Because when this female adopts a child or raises a child, she will also expect the same behaviour from the child. 

As a result, do you know how will this child evolve now? The mother will be the quintessential synonym of Frankenstein's Monster. Who suffered emotionally and was traumatised because his creator could not foresee the emotional depravity that was an inherent part of his creation. A sort of manufacturing defect.

Moreover, this child will be the equestrian horse that will be scared to jump over the hurdles. Because it will live all its life believing that nobody can beat Nadia. 

It will be another tragedy for human society.

In the worst case scenario, the child will himself/herself become like a humanoid, and never experience human-like feelings or emotions. And it is this race of humans, that the future generations of humans will know as Zombies, the walking dead. Because they will be emotionally dead, and morally ignorant.

Having said that, this puts a lot of responsibility on the developers and promoters of self aware machines. Because they will not be a part of a certain act in human life or society, they will be a part of the social fabric of the future, and how it will evolve with this synthetically emoting machines, will have to be inspected from every angle, prior to making these self aware machines a part of our societies, our families and our lives. 

And it is worrying, quite worrying actually. Because a man married to a beautiful female humanoid will seek physical satisfaction from this humanoid. Again this humanoid is purpose built to satisfy the physical and emotional needs of the owner. So it will never say no. But in real life marriage, a wife or husband can be dealing with a lot of emotional trauma or daily work fatigue and as partners either of them has the right to say no, and the other partner obliges and offers her some emotional comfort. 

But, this emotional equation will not exist in humanoids. This is when it will be an emotional riot that will eventually lead to the emotional death of the human race. This riot will begin in the bedrooms and in later stages it will be something that humans will have to deal with at social level when it becomes a global pandemic of emotional crisis. And when that happens, it will take humans many centuries to find the perfect balance at emotional level.

And trust me, dealing with Frankenstein’s monster is not easy, and when there are millions of them, one can only imagine the plight of humans in the years that shall follow 2075. It will be a different world, where only concrete shall rule: concrete like feelings, concrete like emotions, concrete like humans, and to humans who feel like concrete a smile and a flower shall mean nothing. Because our perceptions too would have changed then. It will be evolution of a different kind, and then the struggle will not be to perpetuate our kind, but to reclaim the original emotions and human-like feelings of our kind. And what took evolution millions of years to infuse in us, can then not be recreated even in a century.

It is based on this contemplation and this fear, and love for our future generations, that I wrote the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075. It is a romance science fiction, where a man falls in love with a woman, who is a human, but due to her complex association with self aware machines, she is unable to emote like a human being. Due to this reason her human lover faces an emotional catastrophe, but he never gives up on her, because he loves her. Because he too feels he is purpose built by God to love her and make her feel human. Afterall that is who she is!

To find out if he succeeds in this quest and if the woman whom he loves so much gets to experience human-like feelings and emotions, please read the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075. And if you are married, remember that an accident can have many social implications, and you should act sensitively, but within your capacity and at your personal level.