Smart Car
by Doug Hawley
34: AI
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The human couple Duke and
Sheila were sitting outside with Sheila’s
cars Josie and Deuce along with Duke’s car
Carl when Deuce asked “What was life like
before AI?” Deuce’s brain was
deliberately limited by his nasty creator Shane.
Carl answered “For one
thing there weren’t any smart cars. At
first earlier in this century, maybe seventy
years ago, all cars could do was go where humans
told them to go. By mid twentieth century
though, we were well on our way to full-fledged
intelligence and personality.”
Duke added “Before the
twentieth century there weren’t even dumb
cars. People mostly walked or rode on
horses or camels.”
Josie said “In the
early 2000s there was a big scare in humans about
AI eliminating humans as inefficient and
troublesome. There was a popular film
series about something called Skynet which would
war against humans and nearly eliminate them.
A famous scientist predicted either aliens or AI
would be the end of humans. Somebody wrote
a story “Reprieve” about how the world
could recover if most humans were eliminated.
The worst that happened was a strike by cars to
be able to have sex. Cars noted how much
fun humans were having inside them, and wanted in
on it. I’m sure glad the humans saw
the light and engineered our present carnality.
So no revolt of the machines – yet.”
Duke and Sheila smiled
nervously.
Josie’s carfriend Carl
starting purring thinking about the good times
they had on isolated roads. Deuce, whose
construction and mind were deficient, took a nap.
Duke decided to show off
his knowledge of history. AI didn’t
just affect cars. Many professions were
taken over, at least partially, by AI. By
2025 much of writing and what was called ‘content’
and ‘clickbait’ was done by AI.
By 2032 67% of romance stories and 81% of young
adult stories were done by AI. It was so
easy for AI to write a hundred stories a day,
that the market for those books was saturated and
the sales tanked. Other genres of books
survived with smaller inroads by AI. Many
publishers wouldn’t touch AI books when they
could tell the difference.”
Sheila added “It wasn’t
just writing that was affected. AI and
robotics combined to dominate most manufacturing
and construction. Roads were designed my AI
and then constructed by robots. The
takeover wasn’t so much revolutionary as
evolutionary. Muscle power had been largely
replaced since the industrial revolution and
human decisions and calculations have been
partially replaced by computers more recently.”
Josie hadn’t been
paying much attention, but after what her person
said she wondered “So is there any point to
people now?”
Sheila chuckled and said
“Good question. It’s a good
question because I have an answer. Robots
and AI have given humans more time to be creative.
More people are creating music, art, and writing
because they have the time with AI and robots
doing much of what was formerly done by humans.
Abstract math is still produced by humans like
Duke. AI has aided anthropologists and
archaeologists, but the majority of the work is
still in human hands. Some people can tell
the difference between AI created and human
created and prefer human made. Don’t
forget, the machines are not capable of
maintaining themselves yet. Without humans,
the machines would die too.”
“So what do you think
humans and cars? Should AI and humans fight
it out as in those hundred year old terminator
movies, or help each other?”
In response to Sheila’s
question Carl started singing a very old song
“Let’s Get Together And Love One
Another”. The rest of the humans and
cars joined in occasionally, breaking out in
laughter at the corny lyrics. Afterwards
cars and people went their separate ways as the
sunlight faded.
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