I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream Analysis

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Science fiction writers have long been fascinated with the idea of sentient artificial intelligence. Some writers describe robots with human-like intelligence that will be able to assist humans in their everyday endeavors. Others illustrate a darker, more disturbing future possibility, such as in Harlan Ellison’s short story “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”. Ellison describes a futuristic world in which an artificial intelligence named AM controls everything. After killing off most of the human race, AM has made the five remaining humans nearly immortal and torments them for eternity. Stories like Ellison’s are merely works of fiction; however, the wide spectrum of utopian and dystopian futures that have drafted into existence from the …show more content…

Will it provide easy solutions to difficult problems? Will it smother humanity’s freedom and autonomy? For better or for worse, machine learning will influence our quality of life, which can be defined as a summative measure of comfort, happiness, opportunity, freedom, and other similarly desirable things. In exploring the potential impact of machine learning, it is first necessary to understand the details of its function, particularly how machine learning works and the implications that set it apart. Secondly, it is critical to know how machine learning is currently being used in order to understand how it might be used in the future. Finally, the extent to which machine learning poses a threat to society must also be evaluated. These ideas will provide insight to answer the guiding question: how will advancements in machine learning benefit and threaten our quality of life in the …show more content…

Rob Marvin offers yet another example of machine learning applications, but about cucumbers instead of computers. Marvin tells the story of Makoto Koike, a cucumber farmer who realized the potential for an open-source machine learning library called TensorFlow to complete the unique task of sorting cucumbers by attributes such as color, shape, and size (123). This shows that machine learning has the potential to expand its radius outside of technological fields to unexpected ones such as agriculture, thus implying that it could eventually work its way into every aspect of life. TensorFlow is another significant piece in terms of expanding the uses of machine learning. About TensorFlow, Marvin explains, “The company expanded on its mission to ‘bring the benefits of AI to everyone’” (124). Having an open-source machine learning library enables anyone to access and use a tool like machine learning. Any individual could see a use for machine learning in their company and be able to make its use a reality, possibly leading to a rapid expansion of machine learning into a broad scope of industries. Not only could machine learning offer a better quality of life in terms of cybersecurity and technology usage, but perhaps in every aspect of

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