THE FINAL BATTLE
Cover Illustration: JLAK, Cover Design: Maithreya Jagalur
Copyright 2013 Nagraj Rao
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[An eminent scientist is challenged by a humanoid robot in a verbal combat which lays bare irrationality, inconsistency and senselessness in our lives which we have learned to accept]
THE FINAL BATTLE
The year is 2015.Excitement in the air is palpable. "The Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Robotics" (GCAIR) is being held in Bengaluru, India. But the excitement is not because of GCAIR itself but because a unique event is to coincide with it. Let me explain.
The year 2015 was declared the “Year of Artificial Intelligence”. The star attraction of the concluding event of GCAIR was the competition amongst the robots crafted by various countries. The international press had already named it the “Grand Prix,” of the millennium. While normally robots are judged on the basis of their dexterity at performing complex tasks accurately and efficiently, in this event, they had to prove their mental prowess in reasoning, oratory and presentation skills. A keen
competition was expected amongst entries from Japan, Germany, the USA and China. Some felt that Korea or possibly India could be the dark horse.
Prof. Gautam, a well known authority on Robotics had been pursuing painstaking research at his laboratory in Pune to build an “almost human” Robot for a decade. He was a little wary of nosy people and therefore kept his activities under wraps. But the buzz was that that his team was successful in making a human-like robot whose intelligence level was “almost” human. It can talk, discuss, argue, criticize and even draw on a screen or on a sheet of paper to explain its viewpoint. So the hot news was that this human like robot, lovingly named “Yug” (version 1.0) by Prof.Gautam, was going to make a public appearance in GCAIR. Not only that, Yug was slated to engage Dr.Agasthya in a detailed discussion as a challenge. Dr.Agasthya was a well known physicist, winner of many national and international awards, visiting professor at many internationally reputed universities was recently appointed special adviser to the Prime Minister. There was to be no rehearsal and no inkling was given about the topic to be discussed. Yug would interview Dr Agasthya. Prof Gautam claimed that Yug was capable of having a serious but lively discussion on almost any subject under the sun. The interview was to last about 30 min and will be telecast live on test-tube©, the international video channel.
So this Yug was expected to be penultimate version of the final entry to the international competition.
This was it! The electronic media, with their panache for publicity, had hijacked the event from the technical domain to the public domain by calling it “Battle between Man and Machine”. Newspapers, not to be left behind, had released screaming headlines like “Will Yug eclipse Dr Agasthya?”,”Robot or man-who will have the last laugh”, “Is the age of the robot already here ?” “Are homo sapiens doomed to slavery by the machines?” Some even called it “Kaun banega Jagatpati”. ("who will lord over the world" on the lines of the popular game show "Who wants to be a millionaire").
The stage was set! The public just loved it.
Initially, the organizers toyed with the idea of holding it in a stadium so that maximum number of people could watch it live. But after looking at the public hype being created, issues like crowd control and safety came up and this idea was dropped. It was therefore decided to have it in a well equipped studio in an IT company with only a limited audience. Of course it was to be beamed live on all major TV and internet channels.
Finally the day arrived. The time was 2.30 PM. The traffic on the roads became thin from 1PM itself.
Prof.Gautam briefed Dr. Agasthya separately about the arrangements. The professor explained that Yug had been trained to interview people. It was for Yug to decide the topic. Since Yug had been programmed to argue and respond purely on factual and logical lines, the questioning might sometimes become uncomfortable. Therefore, if at any time, Dr Agasthya felt like terminating the interview, he could do so by pushing a button below the arm of his chair.
Prf. Gautam introduced Yug to the audience and gave some technical details. And then he dramatically unveiled it to the audience. If the people expected a shiny assemblage of electronics and machines with blue eyes and turning heads, they were disappointed. Yug looked almost like a human being with a genial disposition.
With this introduction, Prof Gautam handed over charge to the organisers. Before leaving, he affectionately patted Yug and appeared to fiddle with some switches at the back.
It was almost time for the show. Dr Agasthya was seated comfortably facing Yug. Dr Agasthya was feeling slightly nervous realising that millions of eyes were on him. May be, to calm his nerves, he took the initiative of starting the conversation.
A: How do you do, Yug ?
Y: I am doing fine, thank you. And how have you been doing Dr. Agasthya ?
A: Pretty good. Life has been rather good to me.
Y: Oh! You talked about life. That is something you have but I don’t. Shall
we talk about it, then?
A: Oh, yes. Sure.
Y: I have already been told all about your title, achievements etc. But my
first question is more basic. Who are you?
A: I am a human who goes by the name of Dr Agasthya. I reside in this planet called the Earth. On this earth there are oceans, land masses, mountains, rivers, insects, animals, vegetation, forests and of course humans like me who number approximately 7 billion. I am one of them.
Y: Thanks. How did your world come into existence?
A: We believe that there was a big bang billions of years ago and this planet came into existence. It was a slow process of evolution and after a very very long gap, we humans came into being as a species with ‘superior’ intelligence.
Y:-Who manages this planet called Earth.
A: There is no single group or authority to manage it. Our planet is divided into what we call countries or states numbering more than 200. Each country manages and controls its affairs, people and territory.
Y: Well, it makes sense. Are these countries of equal area and population?
A: No. No. Not at all. They vary widely. The area varies from a few hundred square km to a few million square km and the population varies from a few thousands to hundreds of millions.
Y: Is it not illogical? It would have made more sense to have them more or less of the same area or population.
A: You see, it has evolved over centuries. There was no single entity or authority that could cause it to happen in some logical way.
Y : Interesting. But is there any apex agency to have an overall control?.
A: Well, there is and there isn’t. It is known as the United Nations (UN).But it has a limited role. Each country does as it pleases and some countries fight bitterly among themselves.
Yug paused and made some unintelligible noises.
A: What is it?
Y: Well, you know. I was thinking about the name. Why don’t you people change its name to Divided Nations (DN).Ha....Ha...
A: (in a slightly irritated tone): You know, one cannot expect people to live in harmony when there are large differences amongst them. After all, we are not machines. This world consists of diverse populace. People belong to different races and creed, have different skin colours and follow different religions and belief systems. The climate also varies greatly spanning from very cold to very hot. Even the language they speak is different. It is estimated that there are mor
e than 6000 languages. Within a country also there are many languages and dialects.
Y: I am sorry if my comment has hurt you. Then how do the countries communicate amongst them?
A: We try to communicate in a few major languages.
Y: There are so many people, as you say. Do you feel all of them are leading a contented, comfortable and peaceful life?
A: We are by no means a utopian state. More than 30% of the world population is struggling to make both ends meet. Some of them are super rich and some are living in abject poverty.
Y: What do these super rich people do with their riches? After all how much one needs to lead a decent life?
A: Well, not too much. But these super rich have super needs- they need to have a large mansion with swimming pools and possibly a golf course needing huge maintenance, would like to possess best of jewellery, watches, perfumes, memberships in the super clubs, chauffeur driven cars and so on.
Y: A lot to worry about, isn’t it? Both the superrich and the poorest have a lot to worry about. Only the nature of the worry is different.
A: You could say that again!
Y: But then the remaining population, who are somewhere in between, must be happy.
A: It is not that simple. Basic needs being met is only a necessary condition and may not be sufficient.