Author: Kai Owen Pangelinan Larnard

 Over the course of this semester, after diving into AI and the Xenogenesis Trilogy, I’ve noticed that my thoughts on the matter, when it comes to AI, have adapted over time. Nothing drastic, but they have changed over the course of this semester. Originally at the beginning of the semester I had a pretty black and white view of AI, yes I acknowledged that certain things AI could do, could most likely support humanity, but I was a pretty strong believer that one day AI would evolve and begin to morph into something resembling a terminator. I do still believe that to some extent. However now, I must admit that I am still quite a bit strewn in regards to this factor. I don’t know if the benefits that artificial intelligence provides are worth the cons. AI consumes enormous amounts of power, often takes and steals (or is used to steal) other people’s works and finances, on top of that AI is essentially a boiling pot with essentially no bottom and no lid that we dump money and people into. I’ve learned that AI at the moment, while advanced, is still quite lacking. It is amazing at replicating patterns, but so far, that’s it. It can replicate patterns and complete inputs. It doesn’t have sentience, it cannot make decisions on its own just yet, it lacks what we have. Even after all the training we’ve given AI so far, it lacks our common sense and morality. Something I only just realized this semester (I have mentioned this in my previous essay as well) thanks to Octavia Butler’s trilogy, Humans can be both cruel and kind, but if you eliminate the choice to choose, you eliminate the thing that makes us human. At the moment, I believe that it’s due to this lack of choice, and this current lack of empathy that AI has, as the reasoning as to why I cannot trust this technology, especially when we are continuously attempting to grant it sentience. As I’ve mentioned before, AI replicates patterns, and I’m worried as to what patterns AI will pick up in the future, or worse, the present. Our course epigraph, I believe, perfectly explains the current worries I have with AI. “You’re filled with so much life and death and potential for change,” Nikanj continued. “I understand now why some people took so long to get over their fear of your kind.” (Octavia Butler, Dawn). 

Originally the two parties of Octavia Butler’s trilogy (the two species interconnected throughout Dawn, Adulthood Rights, and Imago) both the Oankali and the humans of her story seemed foreign to me. I couldn’t quite come to a decision as to what I thought about them. But the more I read, the more I realized how interconnected everything is. The Oankali think differently but operate under the same logic as our current world functions on, just at a different angle. The reason why I now believe that humanity was so scared of the Oankali, is because of how similar we truly are. Yes they are completely different at face value. Afterall they are different species, capable of seeing colors, sounds, and even a logic that completely eludes us, but that’s not what terrified them, at least from what I can tell after reading the story. What terrified the humans was the similarities. That’s why they couldn’t possibly comprehend the logic behind the Oankali’s actions. From an outside perspective we can see the Oankali’s thoughts on the matter, we can understand their logic, but if I were in the human’s shoes (the ones from Octavia Butler’s story) I believe that I, and others, likely would have acted similarly. We would be able to see their reasoning, but I’m not sure if we’d actually understand their reasoning, and in turn we would attempt to do what we could in order to defend ourselves. Similarly with AI we are trying to do something different, in order to advance. In order to survive and adapt, stagnation is death and life is growth. That is something we have always done, similar to the Oankali who are, in their own words “gene traders” We aren’t at all that much different from them. The Oankali must trade and find new ways to evolve in order to survive, that’s one of the reasons as to why they originally saved humanity. Saving us was payment, and in turn they took our cancer’s and remodified it to suit their needs. It’s a form of symbiosis. We do the exact same thing every single day, take plants for example. We need heat and we use paper to record our history, so we cut down trees to make paper and burned the wood for fuel. We need food so we grow and preserve crops like corn and potatoes. We harvest and replant them to make sure we can sustain ourselves for the future, we graft species together to make them stronger, more durable, and more adaptable to survive in whatever environment we placed them in. We protect them from any variables that could endanger them (weather, animals, invasive species, and even ourselves) and in turn they provide for us. We are the plant, when it comes to the Oankali, they need us for oxygen, and we need them for the continuance of our species. The reason why humans fear the Oankali, is because like the plants, we don’t necessarily understand the senses they have, what they have and can experience. They are different, and while we need difference to fuel us and evolve, we fear it at the same time. In the beginning of the trilogy, in “Adulthood Rights” Lilith told her son that “Human beings fear difference,” and that the “Oankali crave difference”.  These are two sides of the exact same coin. The only difference is that we are much too used to being on the other end of the coin. Octavia Butler, from what I understand so far, enjoys entangling us in mental loops forcing us to think and analyze the situation lest we wish to be caught in a trap. Her stories force us to think, and she writes them in a way where it is very to compare to whatever the current situation may be. 

So after quite a bit of thinking, I’ve come to a conclusion. I now believe that AI isn’t outrightly evil, I know this now. After reading the trilogy and seeing all the good AI can do, or at least has the potential to do I realize this now. In order for us to survive, we must constantly adapt as well, and AI is simply the latest stage of evolution for humanity. In the beginning of the trilogy, in Adulthood right Lilith told her son “to go the Oankali way, embrace difference” something that we wish to do, must do, yet still fight ourselves in doing. I believe that when it comes to the development of AI, we should wait till the world isn’t so volatile. We are beginning to use AI to upgrade our hardware, make our machines and tools much much more efficient than ever before, use it to replace limbs and simulate nervous systems, to identify cancer’s and fight disease, to increase productivity and attempt to decrease wasted time. However, at the moment I still believe it is simply much too early to release and use AI the way we have been, or at least trying to rush it’s development. Something like this, I believe we need to take our time with. I would rather know that the fruits of humanity will blossom for later generations and help feed them, than get one good harvest and watch the whole tree die. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. Our society took over several centuries to develop a chariot, essentially a box with wheels, and almost 2.4 million years to learn how to cook with fire. Then in the past 200 years, we went from fighting with black powder muskets and bows arrows to breaking sound barriers with planes (we’ve literally learned how to fly) traveling 1500 mph at mach 2, developing nuclear weapons, implementing jetpacks into our military, traveling to (and potentially terraforming within the next 50 years) other planets. While I no longer fear AI itself, since at this stage I realize, it’s not AI’s fault for any accidents, crimes, or travesties that may have occurred with the use of AI. AI at this stage, is a tool like any other (except it’s volatile and unpredictable) that needs to be utilized and developed properly. It’s not the tools fault. It’s the person behind it, so in order for it to be utilized properly the person behind the tool needs to know how to use it. So while I am personally against the use of AI, I do realize that there are plenty of amazing things it can do, but until we can properly think out the potential consequences and develop laws for the kinds of use we can apply this technology for, I believe that we should take things slow. 

 Octavia Butler’s “Dawn” was all in all, a great read.  It’s a story about humanity being saved and given a second chance at life thanks to, as the book’s blurb describes it, a “seemingly benevolent alien race”. It was well written, interesting, and fun to follow along. As much as I enjoyed it though, there were definitely things that unsettled me from the human perspective. I remember being particularly intrigued and concerned (more so concerned) with Lilith’s treatment at the very beginning of the story. She stated that she would slowly drift into and out of consciousness in a ‘small, dimly lit, doorless and windowless cubicle’ devoid of any outside contact except for a faceless voice that wouldn’t interact or communicate with her unless it needed an answer to a question. While Lilith was there, she was kept in the dark (both literally and figuratively) and the only thing she was aware of was the fact that her family was dead, there was a terrible war amongst humanity, and that her ‘captors’ kept on putting her to sleep at seemingly random intervals. 

Later on in the story though, her ‘captors’ would be soon identified as humanities saviors, an extraterrestrial species known as the Oankali. A species of gene traders with living ships and advanced technology far beyond any means of our own, that excel in biological modifications. It was because of these abilities that Oankali were able to not only keep Lilith along with a handful of humans alive for over 200 years but also somewhat restore what was left of earth after humanity waged war upon itself. The Oankali that had told us all of this was named ‘Kaaltediinjdahya lel Kahguyaht aj Dinso’ or Jdahya for short. He was kind enough to inform our protagonist of most of which transpired while she was asleep, he was also the one who told Lilith on page 15  “that they believed that there was a consensus among humans to die together” and that this was the only reason why the Oankali didn’t get involved with our war in the first place. It wasn’t there place to disturb a species choice to commit  mass suicide (we also find out from him that such an event has occurred before which is absolutely unthinkable to me), and that the very thought or possibility of warring with one’s own species to the point of their own extinction, was unthinkable to them. It’s also from him on page 35, that we find that while Lilith, along the rest of humanity, was put to sleep the Oolai (also Oankali) “strengthened our immune systems and increased our general resistance to diseases” and have “seen to it that we’ll have a chance to live on our earth – not just die on it”. 

I find nothing wrong with how the Oankali originally saved humanity, while I may disagree with how they went about some things, they did do it to save a species that could have possibly went entirely extinct without outside intervention. What caused me to become disturbed with their actions, or find an issue was they did not tell us of any of this information when they had the chance. They didn’t know anything about us, so I do not find fault with their earlier actions because of that, but they did question us and continued to learn from us for over two centuries, so at that point I believe they should know how the possible side effects of some of their actions. One particular issue that come to mind would be with Lilith’s description of her experience in the “cubicle” they kept her in, to me it’s a wonder she stayed sane. For 200 years the humans that slept (if they experienced the pods and questioning the same way Lilith did) were constantly awoken and kept awake for questioning, they were isolated and their only form of social interaction was to answer the questions, and locked away while they were awake for feeding and any other experiment they needed to conduct in order to save humanity. Though the treatment reminds me of a much tamer version of one of our own  ‘enhanced interrogation’ methods that were used at some of our CIA black sites.  Human isolation was used for a reason, humans are after all social creatures, and most people can’t handle isolation like that to such an extreme. The U.S supreme court even described prisoners under the use of such treatment ending up violently insane, committing suicide, and or suffering from the partial loss of their mental activity as the most common results after enduring such treatment. So I’m not exactly surprised that the most common assumption for us was that we were held captive by the CIA, KGB, or even the FBI, or even at the amount of aggression most humans showed to their “captors”, I know after enduring such treatment, I too would be upset. I’m not sure if Butler had this in mind when she described the “cubicle”, but it was really well placed to set the tone for this story. It sent me on a wild goose chase for the first couple chapters with speculations as to whether the Oankali are good or evil. 

 After reading further though, I am reminded time and time again that the Oankali are not human, so they don’t think the way we do, they even have a completely different proprioception and sensories, along with necessities and even emotions. These differences in biology lead to completely different methodologies and abilities, abilities that even allow the Oankali to sense human emotions or even sometimes intentions. Using this they narrowed humanities two main characteristics, intelligence and hierarchy, which according to them are in direct conflict with one another.  Even with all this understanding, they couldn’t quite handle us. Under their watch, what little is left of humanity has become divided, over 8 people have either been assaulted, wounded, or died, which while terrible doesn’t sound as bad if you’re thinking about Earth’s former population. However, considering that 8 out of the 80 people who are supposed to reclaim Earth and hopefully re-establish what’s left of us, that’s really terrifying. What troubles me the most though, even after all of this, is the question as to whether humanity will survive. Or if something that resembles a human will take its place. Humans can be both cruel and kind, but if you eliminate the choice to choose, you eliminate the thing that makes us human. So now after recent events (the situation where Nikanj ended up creating and quite literally designing the child for Lilith without her knowledge or permission is what I’m thinking of at the moment), I’m not sure whether the Oankali understand that.  I don’t know anymore how this will turn out, but I hope that there may have been a misunderstanding from Lilith’s perspective. At the moment though, I’m now beginning to wonder whether Victor and Joseph’s views (dying human) may have had a point. I’m hoping for the best but will be ready to read the worst, so far, Mrs. Butler has left me really not sure what to think about this entire situation on either side, but I am sure that I’m excited to see how things may turn out in the next story. 

From what I’ve learned so far, I truly do believe that AI may very well be the precipice of our generation. I believe it will be a turning point that will either further advance us in every industry, or begin the end of life as we know it. I personally am against the use of AI, though I can see the possibilities and the good AI can do if used properly. Artificial Intelligence  is simply a series of code that is both meant to recognize and recreate patterns, it’s a replication or reflection of whoever their creator was and what their goal was, a machine made to do what humans normally would.  AI in general, isn’t a relatively new concept, in fact we’ve been theorizing and worrying about artificial intelligence since the 1950’s when Alan Turning first wondered “could machines think” (I found this in ‘The birth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) research | Science and Technology’ a short article backed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory which briefly covers the history of AI). While there have been a lot of breakthroughs with this technology as of late, we’ve been working on it for a while now. It’s not an entirely new concept anymore and it has yet to be fully normalized. It is, however, a technology we’ve been using to make our lives more convenient throughout the past couple decades. The Roomba, for example, began development in the 1990’s before it was released in 2002, it’s a robot that was programmed using artificial intelligence to vacuum so that we don’t have to. Comfort and convenience is a perfect model of business that companies love to explore and strive in. Thanks to AI, there is a whole new window for products that are meant to make things even simpler and easier or help create and advance in technology and medicine.  

Artificial intelligence has such a large window of available products that can be expanded on, that there’s an entire market for AI toilets, toasters, and fridges. Their very lucrative as well, roomba alone has generated almost a billion dollars in sales. Companies like BJ’s and Target use AI chatbots to help their customers find products, some stores like Stop & Shop have robots that move throughout the store to help customers. It’s even in our search engines now. I’m going to use google for an example this time. If you search something on google, it will have an AI overview section to briefly explain the topic you’re looking into. I searched ‘Driving jobs’ on their web browser, the first that came up was an ‘*AI Overview’ that listed four different routes that I can take along with links to all the jobs related to my search and how to get those kinds of jobs. It even listed some tips on other jobs that are less popular along with very clear instructions on how I should get my drivers license along with a CDL (commercial drivers license) if I so choose. Corporations like Boston Dynamics’ and ‘TESLA’  though, are choosing to walk on a different path. They are working on creating humanoid bodies so that their AI can replace and aid us in our work and tasks throughout the day to help us save time and energy, enhance our work quality, or even replace human workers for jobs that may be deemed too dangerous or inefficient to be in. Boston Dynamics is a company that is creating and has made quite the impressive line up of machines. Within just the past decade they made a robot dog named Spot, a small robot dog which was generally created to inspect industrial sites, carry out hazardous missions, and make deliveries. They can even cross coordinate and travel in packs if need be in order to complete their tasks. Boston dynamics has received DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) funding and have begun to work on a project known as ‘Big Dog’ (which is basically a much larger version spot that will basically be a walking mechanical mule for rough terrain) for the military, along with Atlas (the most flexible humanoid robot so far). Tesla on the other hand is working on a robot called Optimus, a robot that has a really similar resemblance to Sunny from IROBOT, and is essentially a much slower version of Sunny. Tesla also creates multiple lines of self-driving cars, powered by AI.

Going off of the self-driving cars, there are plenty of companies working on using AI in Semi-trucks as well. There are typically 500,000 accidents a year caused by or involved with these Semi’s, with around 5,000 fatalities and 100,000 injuries as a result. Companies like Aurora, Volvo, and Kodiak are already working on completely autonomous trucks. While AI shouldn’t have complete control over the vehicle, giving drivers the option for an artificial co-pilot could help mitigate the risks for all drivers on the road, depending on the conditions. It can and has even been used for medical purposes. The movie IROBOT would be the perfect example to see all the benefits. It shows self-driving cars and trucks, the humanoid AI, along with the possible medical applications of AI like prosthesis. It’s a movie that came out in 2004 starring Will Smith, based off of the novel ‘Caves of Steel’ by Isaac Asimov, which shows a future powered and influenced by AI and the related products. If you exclude the general premise, this movie showcases plenty of the possible uses for AI to benefit humanity as a whole, it even showed some of the downside though we will be covering that at a later date.  Artificial Intelligence, if used properly, can be used to make our lives safer, more convenient, and much more productive