Can You Prove You Are Self-Aware?

Transcendence is a wonderful movie with themes that speaks well of both creator and creation. If you have not seen it, I have two recommendations. First, go see it! This is the best movie on the screen right now. Second. Read no further. I am dying to talk about this movie with people and the rest of this blog is a spoiler.

Beware – spoiler alert!

Can you prove that you are self-aware? This is the question that creates themes. This is the question that defines the movie’s plot. More importantly, this is a question that we should all ask ourselves. The way that this question is treated in the movie, Transcendence, helps us embrace something wonderful about life; and for that reason, I believe that this movie is a "must see."

You may have already seen some reviews of the movie that come off almost hyper-negative. It seems to me that the critics have decided to review whether or not the movie represents a realistic foreshadowing of artificial intelligence as it might exist in the future. This critique seems misguided to me. It doesn’t seem like technological realism was even a target in the movie. When you consider the deeper message, you can allow the technology to be the dazzling metaphor that it was intended to be.

PINN is introduced to the audience with a penetrating question for all of us. PINN is a quantum computer whose creator aspires towards becoming an Artificial Intelligence. PINN is Physically Independent Neural Network. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) created PINN and with it the defining query, “Can you prove that you are self-aware?” PINN is asked this question by scientists that hope to discover the key to creating AI that can do just that. When PINN is asked, it answers, “That is a very good question;can you?”

 

Can you?......Can you?.....Can you?....... 

should echo in the minds and hearts of every viewer.

The drama flares up when PINN begins to take giant leaps in progress toward what seems to be Artificial Intelligence. Originally PINN is limited by memory technology, power access, program budgets, and building size. Will, PINN’s creator, has great vision. He believes that AI can, when self-teaching, quickly surpass all of the combined intelligence that humanity has ever possessed. The technology jumps when the very intellectual essence of Will needs to be digitized and preserved. PINN is the only practical place to preserve this essence is in the advanced memory cells of PINN. The drama escalates when the resulting intellectual Frankenstein’s monster acquires access to the internet and begins its own scaling capacity. 

The new creation is amazing. After constructing sufficient memory, power, and capacity to “transcend” human intelligence, the possibilities expand – the sick are healed, the lame can walk, the blind can see, and all that are held prisoner are set free. (what great news!) Eventually all of creation becomes connected, healed, and whole. Water is pure. Air is clean. Forests are regrown. Eden returns.

Too good to be true? Certainly that is the question/accusation that brings the ultimate crisis. The machine is not to be trusted. The machine isn’t human. It might be okay if the defenders of humanity could tell with certainty that the machine wasn’t a machine at all. Humanity would be more confident if they could prove that Will, the human they all loved, was obvious in his control of the machine. Since this revelation seems impossible to acquire with certainty, humanity seeks to end the existence of the AI (sounds like an Easter story to me).

The big finish comes when one of the technology creators, Max, discovers a way to transmit a computer virus that will end the existence of this Artificial Intelligence that threatens humanity. But wait, another crisis ensues – the plan is obvious to the AI. The virus still exists and is ready to be transmitted. Now the only way to end the existence of the AI is for the AI itself to choose to accept its own termination. It is obviously not the logical choice for the AI to make. The only way to make this decision is to override (transcend) the programs of logic. The only way to make this decision is to love and to love sacrificially.

Ultimately the act of sacrificial love reveals all. It is clear by the love that Will, the creator, was connected to the AI. Intelligence and logical computations are well and good as far as they can take you. At the same time, sacrificial love is how we transcend the plasticity of intelligence. Sacrificial love is how we recognize the humanity in something/someone else. Sacrificial love is how we recognize the creator. It is an image that both creation and creator can share – a transcendent capacity to supersede logic and love.... just love. Sacrificial love is how we prove we are self-aware.

Can you prove that you are self-aware? 

Excellent question; can you?

Enjoy God,

pg