Rostock is one of those sf characters who have linked their brain to a computer, thus combining conscious intuition with rapid computation. Since this story was published in 1963, what Rostock says about computers must have become dated:
"'In spite of much loose talk about giant brains, computers do not think, except perhaps on an idiot level. They simply perform logical operations, symbol-shuffling, according to instructions given them...
"'...the larger a computer becomes, the more staff it requires..." (p. 28)
Right now, not individual computers but data centres, networks of computing and storage resources, are becoming dangerously big.
Rostock compares his situation to that of mortals who became gods in the Greek myths:
"'I think they hardly noticed the palaces and music and feasting on Olympus.'" (p. 30)
What a conception of the gods! When, and only when, human labour had produced palaces for a tiny social minority, it was then imagined that supernatural beings dwelt in even greater palaces. But Rostock imagines that what mattered to a new god was how he:
"'...mastered his new capacities... won a god's understanding...'" (ibid.)
Like the change from animal to human?
I can't find this online but I think that the manuscript of one of John Keats' unfinished epics, either Hyperion or The Fall of Hyperion, had ended:
"Immortal glory dawned. He was a god."
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree the treatment of computer tech in "Kings Who Die," first pub. in 1963, has to be dated. But I this story, along with "Call Me Joe," has to be one of the earliest stories using the idea of direct human/computer hookups. I also agree with Anderson that computers are not conscious entities, nor do I believe they ever will be. I'm going to continue dismissing the current hysteria about "AIs" as fear mongering nonsense.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
The current AI's are not conscious but they might be dangerous. No one knows yet. I was told that a computer system was given the task of booking a guy into a gym session but the session was fully booked so the system cancelled all the other bookings!
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That sounds more like plain old glitches, because the software program used by a computer came across problems the software could not handle.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
It is not. The system is given a goal and finds any means to that goal.
Paul.
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