From: The Baileys (nanotech@cwix.com)
Date: Fri Apr 09 1999 - 19:48:50 MDT
Let me preface my remarks by saying that the Matrix has been the
conversational portal that has allowed me to broach many of the concepts of
transhumanism to people that I would not otherwise have the chance to
discuss these concepts with.
Robin Hanson wrote:
>On the positive side I guess you might say they take the ideas
>of virtual reality and artificial intelligence seriously.
>(Then again you might not.) And it had a lot of action &
>violence (no sex) for folks who like that sort of thing.
>
>SPOILER WARNING: DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!
>
>On the negative side, humans cloud the skys to take solar energy
>away from AIs, who then grow humans as energy sources, putting
>them in a virtual reality to distract them from being eaten?!
>Special humans born with an ability to hack the AI's operating
>system better than the AIs?! AIs who have to run and chase
>things in their virtual reality rather than just deleting the
>relevant files?! AIs too stupid to out guess spunky humans
>or to find the hidden human "city" on an Earth run by AIs?
>A fight for human freedom lead by an all-knowing "oracle" who
>gives orders and explains little? Pleeaase.
I agree the film had major conceptual problems. Note, in my initial post on
the movie I stated it was an excellent movie as far as Hollywood is
concerned. The key to this movie is that is makes people think. It expands
horizons. It enhances the elasticity of people's idea of existence and
enlarges the realm of whats possible. I'd love it if we could get everyone
to read Greg Egan or Vernor Vinge or Greg Bear or other good sci-fi authors.
But that is not going to happen.
With that said, there are certainly other major problems in addition to the
ones you've mentioned:
If you take the amount of energy produced by the billions of human
"batteries" and subtract the energy cost of the storage facilities, birthing
fields, and the Matrix itself, I don't see how there would be much residual
power left to fund the power needs of the machine intelligences.
Consider the raw computing power required to simulate the entire biosphere
in complete detail down to at least the atomic level. Billions of human
minds. The position, momentum, etc. of every particle. What happens when
an astrophysicists study the universe, guess now the Matrix has to account
for the rest of the universe too (or at least that part that is being
observed). Which leads me to the most significant blunder of all...
If the machines could construct the Matrix, they could come up with lots of
great alternatives to the "human battery" concept. The Matrix would
require nanotechnology, herculean computing power, etc.
Yes, the Matrix was conceptually flawed on several levels. But it makes
people think, and that has a lot of value by itself.
Doug Bailey
doug.bailey@ey.com
nanotech@cwix.com
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