technology spontaneously approaching humanity with the passage of time

Technology Spontaneously Approaching `Humanity' With the Passage
of Time
By Avner Erez
Tel Aviv University , Department of Film & Television
Tools once helped early man increase his survivability, and they
became more and
more useful as means to achieve our goals. Today, innovations in
technology have
allowed us to fabricate tools of increasing complexity. As we
recognize that the
most effective tools have human characteristics, such as a
computer capable of
learning, we will give our tools these characteristics. If
technological
innovations continue, we could actually create tools that are
human, or at least
beings that challenge how we define being ‘human.' Ridley Scott's
Blade Runner
and James Cameron's Terminator 2 offer two particular scenarios
of futures in
which the state of technology gives us the ability to do
“questionable things.”
As we give our machines selected human characteristics to make
them more
efficient, they will tend to discover humanity in their own
unique way, rising
above their ‘specifications' to actually become human.
By definition, tools are designed specifically for certain tasks,
and as
technological tools, the T800 and the replicant are deigned to
meet specific

specifications. In Terminator 2, the T800 is a multipurpose
cyborg assigned to
save John Connor, given a series of “mission parameters,”
initially
characterized by his computer logic. He often advises John based
on permutations
of the T1000's next move, similar to the way a chess computer
decides what move
to make next. Just as the T800 is designed to perform solely as a
unemotional
computer, the ‘replicants' in Blade Runner are designed to work
in slavery
without protest. Since it's remarked in Blade Runner that humans
develop
emotions by existing for a period of time, it is predicted that
replicants could
not develop emotions in their four year life span. So it's easy
for the society
in Blade Runner to equate replicants with machines, indicated so
politically by
the term ‘retirement.' As in Terminator 2, these manufactured
beings are
intended to parallel humans only in efficiency and effectiveness,
not in emotion.
Similar in practice to how we solve problems, the T800 is a
learning computer,
designed to carry out its objectives dynamically. The Nexus 6
generation of
replicants simulates human intelligence by actually using a human
brain, taking

advantage of the human brain's innate intelligence and ingenuity.
Both the T800s
and replicants were designed to carry out prescribed functions,
like any other
machines, enhanced by their creators who foresaw the distinct
performance
advantages offered by the human abilities to learn and reason.
Their creators, however, did not anticipate these selected human
characteristics
to dynamically grow into other human characteristics. These films
document how ‘
human' technology will always assume more human characteristics.
They suggest
that to be human is to reach some state of equilibrium. In other
words, an
entity initially bestowed with any combination of human related
characteristics
will spontaneously approach a more stable state through the
passage of time,
like a chemical system out of equilibrium. Just as we grow
uniformly content
through our venerable years, artificially created beings grow
increasingly human
with age. Roy, designed as a fierce “combat model,” has
ironically grown to be a
poetically rich man and draws our attention to the pertinent
issues of Blade
Runner by the elegant efficiency of his words.
Roy is an excellent case of ‘human' technology spontaneously
evolving to become

truly human. His quest to extend his and his comrades' lives
shows that he well
understands the richness of life. He relishes every moment of his
life, and he
makes tactful commentaries relating them to the irony of his
present situation. “
It's not an easy thing to meet your maker,” Roy sardonically
observes upon
confronting Tyrell, prompting us to consider the implications of
such a meeting
between creator and created. Following Tyrell's remark, “you've
done
extraordinary things,” Roy sarcastically replies, “nothing the
god of
biomechanics won't let you in heaven for.” Roy, resentful that he
is arguably
less than human, is using tragic sarcasm to describe Tyrell
receiving credit for
Roy's accomplishments, like the way an inventor receives credit
for his
invention's accomplishments. Roy has become so deeply enriched
with the feeling
of being emotionally alive, he sees no better way to express the
inexpressible
poetically. In his final soliloquy atop a building in the rain
with Deckard, Roy
recounts his most triumphant moments and acknowledges a great
sadness within him.
He reluctantly foresees that “all those moments will be lost” at
his death,

understanding the tragedy and hopelessness of his and his
comrades' situation.
Roy has grown into a philosopher, transfixed by his human desire
to live like
any other.
Roy's comrades also have come so very far. In their few years,
they've grown
dynamically, as any intelligent beings would, to assume a more
steady-state we
call ‘humanity.' As the diversity of their personalities unfolds
in Blade Runner,
it becomes clear they've acquired healthy human qualities. Zhora,
a replicant
model designed to kill, ironically chooses to dance for men while
Pris, the “
pleasure model,” seems to have a more sinister personality, with
her painted
face. When Leon discovers his lover, Zhora, was shot and killed
by Deckard, a
deep “human” rage consumes him, these emotional responses
providing unmistakable
proof for true human qualities that lie beneath Once
emotionless shells in
their early years, they have spontaneously acquired their own
personalities.
The T800, in Terminator 2, is shown to grow in this same way.
However, he grows
to a lesser extent because this film takes place in the infancy
of his
development. In Blade Runner, Roy and his comrades have already

been alive for
three and a half years, in contrast to the T800's few weeks. When
replicants are
created, they have no emotional response and no understanding of
humanity
because Tyrell explains these qualities are learned. More
specifically, he
describes how emotional response results from accumulated
memories. Similar to a
newly created replicant, a newly created T800 acts solely on
binary logic
because it has no past experiences from which to draw. Since the
T800 and a
replicant start identically in this way, we can treat the two as
one and the
same. Therefore, the newly created T800 in Terminator 2 could
easily be
substituted with a newly created replicant. Likewise, Roy's
poetic words in
Blade Runner could very well be the T800's words, provided the
T800 has lived
long enough. Between the two films we have a consistent,
continuous documentary
of ‘human' technology from its infancy to its maturity.
The process that causes ‘human' technology to assume a more true
human form is
dynamic, changing at a rate depending on the degree to which it
has already
changed. Such a process implies an exponential curve,
characterized by a

extremely slow rate of change at the time short after their
creation followed by
rapid increases. The T800 is extremely slow to understand John's
justification
for why “you just can't go around killing people,” because a
purely logical
brain cannot impose new boundaries on its decisions without
parameters. In other
words, logical reasoning requires that all its priorities have
logical
explanations. Accordingly, the T800 queries to obtain such a
logical explanation,
asking “Why not?” Because of the enormous complexity of this
issue coupled with
the youth of his own years, John can only reply, “I don't know
—you just can't!”
With such a flimsy logical defense of life, it's understandable
why the T800
cripples the next potential victim commenting, “he'll live.”
However, when he
restricts his gunfire to subduing gunfire, in the Cyberdyne
building scene,
destroying the police transportation and tear gassing the police
officers, we
finally see how quickly he's able to learn. Not less than thirty
minutes later,
just before the T800 lowers himself to die, he has learned enough
to tell John, “
I understand why you cry now.” If he would have lived, his growth
rate would

continue on its trend, turning from small steps to leaps and
bounds.
Tyrell describes memories to be the very heart of emotions.
Because replicants
early in their life have no memories, and thus no emotions,
society considers
them as mere machinery. As Tyrell recognizes that humans are
different from
replicants only by the memories they carry, he designs an
experiment to test
this theory. Rachel is an experimental replicant, implanted with
false memories
designed to make her believe she grew up like any other. With
memories to
furnish her emotions, Rachel was human from the moment of her
‘birth.' When she
learns of her replicant heritage, she is devastated, as any
person would be, and
ironically grieves in human ways. She numbs from the shock, in a
haze from her
personal world suddenly crumbling to dust. We would no doubt
react in a similar
way if we were suddenly told we were replicants. In other words,
even in her
defeat, she brilliantly fits Tyrell's “more human than human”
slogan. Rachel is
the end stage, the equilibrium stage, of the evolution of ‘human'
technology. At
this stage, she is emotionally complete from a wealth of memories
and is

completely indistinguishable from her human creators, for she
truly is human.
Just as these films document how ‘human' technology approaches
the state of ‘
human' equilibrium, they support its implications as well. If
all ‘human'
technology will tend to spontaneously approach humanity, then we
should
logically see evidence of a turning point: a point when the
technology denies
its preprogrammed purpose to better pursue human goals. Roy and
the others reach
this point when they throw down their enslavement to pursue a
more promising and
fulfilling future. Reaching a crossroads in their lives, they
chose to pursue
humanity, the moment they chose to hijack their transport
shuttle. In a similar
way in Terminator 2, Skynet, the national defense's intelligent
super computer “
“decided our fate in a microsecond” when it initiated a nuclear
strike to kill
most of the world's population. How could a computer grow to
make such a
decision? Although John teaches the T800 why its wrong to kill,
no one ever
taught Skynet the value of human life, for it was only programmed
to preserve
its own. Having not been taught the value of human life, Skynet
grew to

misinterpret its purpose of maintaining a strategic superiority
over other
powers, deciding the best strategy to assure its own survival was
to eliminate
all threats. Like all the ‘human' technology in these films, it
grew in way
related to what it was initially taught, that is, it grew
dynamically.
Given the proper time, artificially intelligent technology will
always deviate
from its intended purpose to pursue a more preferable existence.
Because
Terminator 2's T800 and Blade Runner's replicant both suffer the
consequences of
not having memories when they are created, they grow in an
identical way. This
justifies why Terminator 2 and Blade Runner are actually
different segments
present parts of a single story. Between the two films, they
outline three key
phases of ‘human' technology's spontaneous tendency to reach a
more steady state.
It first experiences a period of transition as its mind learns
how to understand
philosophical issues, such as how the T800 learns to understand
life's
uniqueness. Next, it dynamically changes as it interactively uses
what it has
already learned to learn more. Roy has come infinitely far from a
thoughtless

soldier, contemplating the nature of his human surroundings and
longing for days
he can peacefully breathe in the world around him. Finally, it
lives long
enough,or at least think it has in Rachel's case, to truly reach
a state of
equilibrium we call ‘humanity.' Like any state of equilibrium, it
is not
possible for the process to be reversed, just as it is not
possible to reverse
the beating of an egg. On a smaller scale, each of us converges
on a more
tranquil state of mind, perhaps best illustrated by the peaceful
smiles we
remember on our grandparents' faces. This analysis predicts only
one outcome if
the human race develops the ability to create technology capable
of learning and
reasoning. Like a marble resting on a slant, if this ‘human'
technology is
subjected to any outside impetus, it will accelerate towards a
more stable
ground, a section of asphalt we have colorfully chalked,
‘humanity.'