Analysis/Reflection 1

Upon arriving at Melbourne, my intentions were to acquire a degree and get a job – very typical. I completed Broadcast Media last summer, which reignited my passion for film making. I registered for Film/TV 1 without any further hesitation, hoping that this course will propel me further on the course of creative film making – which is, so far so good. I have always been searching for people that share my vision and passion for film making, I have met some people in and out of university who are so dedicated to their passion and work, it truly inspires me. Hopefully in the near future, I will be able to find or even form my own production team.

Where’s my phone?

There were muffled sounds of drawers banging across the hallway.

“Have you seen my phone?” yelled dad.

“Of course,” I thought to myself.

Seconds later he barged into my room, he lost his phone again. He always had this annoying habit of misplacing belongings at time of need.

“Can you ring my phone, son?” he asked.

He did this so often that there was once I almost vowed to never respond to his pleads. But then again, he is my dad.

I sighed. I grabbed my phone, scrolled through my contacts to ‘Dad’, and gave it a ring.

“I’m calling your number now.”

He left the room and I could hear him slowly walking down the hallway. I have this habit of putting my phone to my ear whenever I am making calls, even if the person I am calling is nearby. I just disliked the loudspeaker function. I listened. There was a decent amount of ringing until finally, dad picked up the phone.

“Found it. It was in the basement. Come see what I found.”

“Just a second, dad.”

The call ended.

I stood up, and just when I approached my room door, my father entered the room again.

“What did you want me to see in the basement?”

His concerned look was now a confused one.

“The basement? That door’s been locked for years. Where’s my phone?”

 

-End-

Ray Kurzweil

Will technology one day overcome the humans? Ray Kurzweil, the current director of engineering at Google, author of 7 books including multiple New York Times and Amazon bestsellers, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, and finally, topic of our niki.

In The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence (1992), Ray predicts technology’s intelligence will supersede human intelligence. Ray has a dream of achieving singularity – a product of integration of human and machine. He says,

“The singularity will represent the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking and existence with our technology, resulting in a world that is still human but that transcends our biological roots. There will be no distinction, post-singularity, between human and machine nor between physical and virtual reality. If you wonder what will remain unequivocally human in such a world, it’s simply this quality: ours is the species that inherently seeks to extend its physical and mental reach beyond current limitations.” 

He also predicted that search engines will be able to respond to complex questions in 8 years. Future search engines will be able to engage in dialogue, or more simply put, react to your questions as if they are talking to you in person.

I am quite excited for what artificial intelligence holds for us in the future.