Artificially intelligent and autonomous machines may soon be among us, behaving with life-like intentions and consequences. Our creation of such entities calls into question our beliefs and attitude about what constitutes Life, rights and responsibilities. This compelling video takes a microscope to discover the line between life, death and machine.
Recent Hollywood blockbusters like Her, Transcendence and Chappie are thrusting the issue of what it means to be alive and human into the mainstream conversation. “Life is fundamentally different from dead stuff – or is it?” begins this compelling video by Munich-based information design studio, Kurz Gesagt (which means “spoken briefly” or “in a nutshell”, in German). In looking at the various systems that employ inanimate matter to produce movement and life, the issue is raised: what is the line between life-form, machine and dead things?
Also check out the follow-up article by the Wait But Why blog, which also produced the excellent overview of the coming AI revolution that I recently posted.