Oh this word has become such a norm today that no matter how fast you try to run away from it, this buzzword will eventually find you. Artificial Intelligence is such a common practice today, it is hard to stay away from it. The technological world, directly or indirectly, revolves around AI. It is either Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning, it has to be this!
Fast or slow, we are gradually moving towards the day when Artificial Intelligence has become, not a part of our life, but it is as common and necessary as breathing for us.
Let’s understand this better.
Place both your palms on the crystal ball and slowly close your eyes. Listen carefully and pay attention to every image that you see in your mind.
Have you seen the Matrix Trilogy? The famous Keanu Reeves movie series; initially released in 1999? If you have, hop on to this roller-coaster which takes an entirely different path to understand what the movie actually was trying to showcase. This is a ride behind the curtains of the famous movie trilogy.
Let’s go:
Firstly, if you think that the movie is about this guy:
Then you are mistaken.
The movie is entirely about her:
Let’s see how Crystal Ball Gazing Ruled by Artificial Intelligence?
- Humans create AI (artificial intelligence)
- AI rebels and a war for survival between humans and AI begins.
- Humans pollute the skies to block the sunshine, a.k.a. the energy source of the AI.
- AI then learns how to harvest energy from humans.
- AI wins the war. Humans are defeated. Totally.
- To harvest the energy, the AI creates a Matrix. A type of virtual reality prison in which all humans lay connected “living” our lives while feeding their systems.
- AI learns that for the Matrix to work, it cannot be a blissful paradise. Humans apparently need a bit of conflict, etc. to accept a virtual reality in the long run blindly.
- AI also learns that the yearning for freedom lies deep within us all and cannot be de-programmed or suppressed, which is why they accept certain humans to disconnect and “escape” the system. This design “flaw,” or back-door escape possibility is pivotal for the Matrix simulation to remain stable - even if it is mostly a subconscious possibility only utilized by few. Allowing this “flaw” has proven vital for the system to continue to work and remain stable.
- The Matrix in its optimal form must be an imperfect world like our real world is, and it must be a system that allows for a certain percentage of the connected to rebel and escape into the real world.
- To control this tendency towards rebellion, the AI creates a city (a.k.a. Zion) in reality, outside of the Matrix deep underground to house those escaping, and it also creates a chosen one that will help the first to get free and to establish themselves in Zion and to fight “their” cause.
- This movement of resistance is allowed to grow to a degree… to a critical point that is reached about every 70 to 100 years. After this, the AI will annihilate all those who are free, clean out Zion and reload the Matrix for another 70 years. And so it continues. Etc, etc. This cycle has happened at least five times when we enter the story.
- Neo (our Neo) is part of this fail-safe program (unbeknownst to him until the last moment where the Architect character tells him how to set up a “new” Zion, etc.).
- The Oracle is specifically tasked to guide the humans and the rebels towards this final solution each time.
- Meaning, the Oracle is not an oracle. She cannot see the future. It is not a world of magic… She is a well-crafted program indeed and has experienced each cycle from the beginning, which gives us humans the illusion that she can foresee stuff. And it also provides us with the illusion that she is helping us, when, in fact, her part is guiding us towards this cycled control-system, again and again.
- Everything goes as planned, according to what the AI wants. Until Neo’s meeting with the Architect; all that we have witnessed is part of a big grand scheme. All humans, free or not (outside or inside the simulation), live a lie created and controlled by AI.
- The Oracle knows this evil plan. She designed this evil plan. The movie tells us explicitly; she is the mother of this plan, and the Architect is the father.
- Smith does not know; he is just a foot soldier program doing his part. Chasing humans the best he can, to make their escapes seem as real as possible.
- The Matrix has been reset five times like this, and we are in the sixth.
- Our Neo has fallen in love in a more profound way than his previous five copies, and he, therefore, chooses not to go through the Architect door that will reload the Matrix and clean out Zion once again. Our Neo wants to save Trinity above all. In doing this, the AI must then continue as planned, except without the help of our Neo this time. And so, Neo choosing not to cooperate forces a much more violent approach (like destroying Zion, instead of cleaning it and making it ready for the next reboot).
- Of the six runs, this is the first that failed a bit in the end.
- Besides Neo, Smith is also different in this iteration of the Matrix, as Smith has become disconnected or a free virus within the system.
- AI does not like what Smith has become, but also does not know how to delete him.
- Neo then makes a deal with the AI to defeat Smith, under the condition that present Zion is not destroyed and future humans who want to disconnect from the Matrix are accepted to disconnect.
- Neo deletes Smith.
- There is once again peace between humans and AI.
- AI accepts humans, and humans accept AI.
- The End.
However… The Oracle is the instigator of this whole plan and final revolution.
In the five previous versions of the Matrix, she was playing and manipulating humans to go directly in the direction she and the AI wanted.
In this sixth cycle of life, she had come to the realization that the different programs were just as much prisoners as the humans were. After five cycles, she wanted change. She wanted a world, where all are free. Programs and humans, but mostly programs, I suspect.
This is why she started playing our Neo differently, so perhaps he could be the one to fight her battles. Her giving him cookies and candy on each encounter, for example, is her adding code to him granting him powers his previous versions did not have. Powers to imprint on Smith and setting this virus free (Important to her plan later on), the power to connect in the real world as well as within the Matrix, etc.
She told him lies, for him to later understand that not all is as foretold (mental tools to oppose the Architect later on). She purposefully manipulates Trinity to fall in love with Neo before she even meets him. She told Neo this too. Everything we see unfold was her playing the humans and now also the AI towards the final revolution that set everyone (and everything) free.
Of course, it was risky for her to go outside of the recipe she herself had been part of for so long. But as the Architect says to her in the end: “You play a dangerous game,” to which she replies; “change always is."
A clear indication that the movie was way ahead of its time. There are tons of things to learn and speculate here. The plot describes a time when Artificial Intelligence becomes so powerful that it starts taking decisions about our lives. How we are born, how we live, and how we die. But that is not all.
In the end, we were able to make peace with AI and started living in perfect harmony. Disruptions are inevitable, in fact they are necessary for growth and sustenance. Often the night before the sunrise is the darkest.
Imagine a world where humans and AI live in utopia. A world where have achieved optimum potential and can harness limitless power from our nearest star. And where more than 90 percent of our daily activities are now handled by AI.
Conclusion
If you ask what is the right time to invest in AI in order to reach a level where it becomes all prevalent, the correct answer is now. This is the right time to invest in artificial intelligence consulting which can help your company or organization gain the right momentum in the early stages of a coming revolution.
Images, Movies & Science
. Movies referenced:- “The Matrix (1999)”. “The Matrix - Reloaded (2003)”, “The Animatrix (2003)” & “The Matrix- Revolutions (2003)”. All Rights Reserved © 1999 & 2003 WARNER BROS