Humans will be “dogs” for artificial intelligence: the emergence of AI was predicted back in 1863

Almost 162 years ago, a visionary predicted with astonishing accuracy the evolution of machines and the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI). He boldly predicted a future in which humanity's creations could acquire consciousness and even supplant us as the dominant species on Earth, writes IFL Science.

His name was Samuel Butler – a British writer (as well as an artist, photographer and composer), best known for his satirical novel “Erewhon”. However, some of his lesser-known but surprisingly far-sighted ideas are contained in a letter he sent to the editor of the New Zealand newspaper The Press on 13 June 1863 under the pseudonym “Cellarius”. One of them was the idea of ​​”machines going out of control”.

The letter discussed the rapid development of technology with the theory of evolution through natural selection. Butler argued that machines could develop to such a degree that their complexity and abilities would surpass those of humans.

They would eventually take the place of the dominant species, becoming so powerful that it would be impossible to destroy them.

“Day by day machines gain more and more power over us; day by day we become more and more dependent on them; more and more people are turned into slaves obliged to look after them, and more and more people devote their lives to the development of mechanical life,” he wrote.

In addition, Butler emphasized that humanity would daily endow technology with greater power and equip it with all sorts of sophisticated mechanisms that would provide it with the same self-regulation and automatic control, which is what intelligence is to us.

“This in itself proves that the trouble has already happened, that our slavery has truly begun, that we have given birth to a race of beings that we are no longer able to destroy,” Butler added in the letter.

However, Butler's view of the future was not entirely apocalyptic. He did not believe that machines would oppress or destroy humanity maliciously – just as we do not seek to destroy all the dogs, cats and mice on Earth. At the same time, humans could become “pets” for AI. The writer compared humanity in the future to dogs and horses, which they are to humans