Although the domination of humanity by computers depicted in movies is far from a reality, the development of computers has brought great changes to our lives. However, computers still have their limitations, and much research is being done to develop computers that think like humans.
When I was a kid, I watched the movies “Terminator” and “The Matrix”. I still remember watching the movie and being afraid that in the near future, humanity would be dominated by computers. In these movies, powerful artificial intelligence that exceeds human will, subordinates humans and creates a new order, and at the time, it was more than just a horror story, but a topic that made me think seriously. Fortunately, we haven’t yet reached the dark and miserable future depicted in the movie, and we probably won’t for a while.
In fact, we’re already too tame with computers. Smartphones have become more than just phones, they’ve become tiny computers. They’re in our hands all day long, and it’s become a habit for many of us to fiddle with them even when nothing else is going on. The modern world is inundated with information, much of which is available at our fingertips. Classes have replaced chalkboards with computers, and I’m now writing blog posts on my computer. It is now unthinkable to go anywhere or do anything without a computer. Almost every aspect of our lives revolves around computers: online shopping, banking, healthcare, etc. But despite their enormous influence, I still don’t think computers will ever take over the human race, because they’re too stupid.
Despite this stupidity, computers have been a huge innovation in our development, and their simple yet phenomenal working capabilities have allowed us to perform vast calculations that we never dared to do before. Computers have made it possible to answer mathematically unsolvable problems by performing simple, unintuitive tasks. Experiments and calculations that once took years to perform can now be simulated and produce results in a day. This has led to new discoveries and technological innovations that have enriched our lives in unimaginable ways. Computers have revolutionized science, technology, art, and almost every other aspect of our daily lives, and have become tools that further enhance human creativity. In this way, computers have become our great assistants, with simple but extraordinary abilities. Over the years, their capabilities have multiplied, and so has humanity’s progress. But now we’re starting to see the limits of that progress. It’s time for computers to get smarter, not faster.
A computer is basically a digital logic circuit made up of 1s and 0s, which means that when you input something, it decides yes or no based on the logic behind it and outputs the result. As logical as computers are, they’re not very smart. They don’t create their own logic, they just make decisions very quickly based on the rules we give them. In that sense, a computer is like an upright fool who is good at what he does, but unthinking and inflexible. And to make them smarter, we want to find out why we are smart and apply it to computers. We are all smart. It’s because of our brains.
Unlike computers, our brains can solve problems directly with intuition and think at a higher level than computers. This is thanks to neurons, the brain cells in our brains, and synapses, the connections between neurons. Our brain is made up of about 100 billion neurons, and each neuron has about 10,000 connections to other neurons called synapses, which are very complex and sophisticated. These synapses basically carry digital signals of 1s and 0s (on/off), just like a computer, but they also carry analog signals that change continuously, such as the intensity or pattern of the signal. This allows our brains to create more sophisticated and complex signaling systems than just yes or no logic circuits. Each synapse can also accumulate certain substances as signals are transmitted so that it can remember those signals, and with the accumulation of memories and experiences, we can have intuition. In this way, the brain can be intelligent with a very sophisticated and complex structure and behavior. And in order to make our computers as smart as the brain, there are many efforts to apply the brain’s structure to computers.
In fact, quantum computers, which are being studied a lot, don’t have two fixed states, 1 and 0. Quantum computers are computers that can compute higher-dimensional logic beyond the simple logic of yes or no by using the principle of quantum mechanics that both states can be possible depending on the probability. In addition, recently developed devices called memristors, like synapses, can change their properties depending on the signals that have passed through them, allowing them to remember those signals. These new technologies, combined with artificial intelligence (AI), show promise for evolving computers from mere computational tools to intelligent thinking tools.
However, we still have a long way to go. There are still countless challenges that need to be addressed before these technologies can be put into practice. There’s also a lot more we don’t know than we do about the brain we’re trying to emulate. We still have a lot to learn about the brain, and we’re still learning. Nevertheless, we will soon be able to create the new computers we want. Because we have the smartest computer in the world, the brain. And the new computers we build that incorporate the brain’s smart architecture will be able to think, not just compute, but thinkers. And maybe then I’ll start to worry and fear a future where computers dominate humans again.
