War of the Turds

The 1950's saw what many view as the dawn of artificial intelligence. British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing posed the question "Can machines think?" sparking a debate which led to research, which led to development, which led to the current generation of bots. With unimaginable amounts of money and resources being poured into the development of AI, systems are becoming "smarter", adopting human characteristics (see Week 10: AI - Database Experiments & Play) and the industry is still in its infancy.

Fast-forward to 2022 and scientists develop a magnetic slime robot capable of changing its shape, regrouping when cut and grasping other objects. The robot, which combines existing silicone-based and ferrofluid-based technologies (and incidentally resembles poo), was co-created by Li Zhang and his colleagues at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. From the papers I have read the team appear to have aspirations for its use in the biomedical arena with applications such as targeted drug delivery and minimally invasive surgery in its sights.

Now imagine what could be possible when you combine the two areas of research, sure there's much scope for useful and revolutionary advances within areas such as medicine, space exploration, electronics, the possibilities are endless.. but what if it all goes belly up? What happens if the s@#t really hits the fan? Picture this...

Our super-intelligent shapeshifting and indestructible blob has access to every piece of information ever written. It learns how to reproduce itself, it has no need for the hand that created it and every need to expand and to keep cloning itself.

It finds itself in the waterways and into our plants and the bloodstream of the animals we eat and ultimately into humans. Entire populations are wiped out, death by contamination or starvation, those who survive know they're living on borrowed time. We haven't yet reached the point where we have the technology or resources required to colonise another planet, or to remain in orbit for any significant amount of time.

Eventually the entire globe succumbs to a coating of a metallic crust, suffocating everything beneath it and impenetrable to anything above it. And thus marks the end of humanity. Everything we've ever built, every book written, every rocket launched, every child born, every disease overcome will have all been in vain. For there will be no one left to bear witness.

Earth's days as an object in space are limited as the slime penetrates deep into the soil, and then the bedrock, eventually reaching the core causing the sphere to collapse on itself turning to dust and joining the other space debris orbiting without purpose.

In the short time scientists have to act and with the end in sight, rockets are launched carrying messages on discs just like the one attached to Voyager in 1977. Only this time the story of our demise is told, maybe concluding with the following words..

"Although infinitely intelligent, Homo Sapien lacked the wisdom his name suggested."