Computers are stupid
14th October 2017
In almost every futuristic movie there's always AI all over the place, just as smart as people. It seems to be some sort of common knowledge that this will definitely happen.
But let me tell you now, this is very wrong. Computers are actually stupid and will never be intelligent.
The latest advancement humanity made towards developing AI was 200-years-ago, when Charles Babbage invented what we now call the turing-complete computer. This is a machine that can follow logical instructions quickly and accurately.
And what have we achieved since then? We've made faster turing-complete computers with more memory, and completely forgotten how to use them. Young and old people alike know little about how computers work or what they're useful for besides accessing proprietary software and web-services which are designed to control, exploit and brainwash them.
Now, as I am a programmer, let me tell you one very simple fact about computers. Computers are stupid. All computers do is follow the instructions that have been programmed into them completely pedantically. Any time you see a computer do something "clever", you are actually seeing the cleverness of the programmer(s) who wrote the OS/app. The computer is not intelligent. It will not overthrow humanity.
If you want to learn how to use computers properly, and free yourself from big corps that want you to stay stupid to keep you consuming their adds and overpriced hardware, then you need to use Free Software. This is software that respects your rights to understand, modify and redistribute it. Read my article on how to use Free Software for some great inspiration.