A Megacity with AI

Previous posts demonstrated the problems AI can pose to our future. However, other than the fact that all of them—except the Japanese mangas—are set in a megacity or megastructure, it is not very obvious how closely related they are to our current growing problems of overpopulation, climate change, etc. So, here is my own hypothetical megacity set in the far future that incorporates AI, designed to emphasize the scope of AI in both aspects: service and companionship.

Neo Atlantis, name of new New York City in the year 2100, maintains its title as the most populated city in the U.S., boasting over 40 million people, five times its population a century ago—that is, if you count the 10 million AI-enabled robots that roam the city. Before their arrival, AI technology was already present in vehicles, televisions, smartphones, computers, game consoles,… whatever technology that required human interaction is now equipped with an AI capable of making logical decisions. However, robots that are fully humanlike in both appearance and thought were the first of their kind. While merely an experiment by the U.S. government twenty years ago, public demand as well as the president’s own wish to see the technology’s advancement declassified these robots. Their first contribution was the construction of Neo Atlantis itself—what would have been a twenty-year project was cut down to five. The city is now full of skyscrapers, all connected by an underground magnetic train system as well as multilevel transport tubes that connect buildings together. The trains and the cars are all controlled by a central AI superprogram, so the word “car accident” is no longer in the dictionary. Neo Atlantis’ dominant dilemma, as one may guess with any overpopulated city, is unemployment. Of the 40 million people, 15 millions are unemployed, and half of them AI robots that weren’t lucky enough to get hired or found a human companionship. The city’s two most active political groups are HBM (Human before Machine) and EFR (Equality for Robots), who lobby for exactly what you guess they would. Due to the president’s supportive stance on AI robots, his opponents are also using that as their next propaganda. Within Neo Atlantis, there is a mixed reception. Pro-robot activists argue that our robotic counterparts are capable of emotions and logical reasons, thus there should not be any discrimination. The group’s strongest argument is that AI robots can be our solution to overpopulation, due to current technology not allowing reproduction. Anti-robot activists, however, regard the robots as service robots only, produced to serve humans, therefore humans should not be obliged to share services with robots.

The above hypothetical city could very well become our reality. Already, self-driving cars (I recommend you check out the DARPA 2007 Grand Challenge) or computer programs that are capable of responding to us are available. In his book Physics of the Future, Michio Kaku describes the following simple AI “four wall screens” (all technologies he present in the book are physically feasible and many of them already have prototypes):

When you are lonely or in need of company, you will simply ask your wall screen to set up a bridge game with other lonely individuals anywhere in the world. When you want some assistance planning a vacation, organizing a trip, or finding a date, you will do it via your wall screen. In the future, a friendly face might first emerge on your wall screen (a face you can change to suit your tastes). You will ask it to plan a vacation for you. It already knows your preferences and will scan the Internet and give you a list of the best possible options at the best prices.

The technology he described is strikingly similar to Jane and Pauline, covered in a previous post. While it is much more convenient to have a computer program to do your Internet searching for you, the insecurity and privacy concerns talked about earlier will be present as well. In my made-up city, there is also a debate between two aspects of robots, service and companionship, disguised as a political quarry. While they seem to be fighting for jobs (which was mentioned that robots will very soon replace some of our current jobs), at the core, one group is fighting to preserve human identity, while the other is embracing the technology, a battle very much like how Chobits and Doraemon presented. What will you choose your future to be? Will it follow the city of Blade Runner’s footstep and be thankless to the robots, or will your citizens question the human-robot relationship much like the mangas? How will you deal with violent robots like those in Judge Dredd and Hondo City? Should they be put on trial, or are they not “human” enough to warrant a due process? The decisions you make will create different versions of Neo Atlantis, which in all likeliness can become our city. Choose wisely.

The Future and Artificial Intelligence

The analysis of AI presented in different works across literature platforms puts complication of cognitive robots in two categories:

Service Aspect

In Blade Runner and Wall-E, we are presented two possible futures where humans exhibit overreliance on intelligent service robots. In Blade Runner case, the robots grow dissatisfied with the thankless job and become outlaws. For Wall-E, overreliance on robots leads to obesity as well as humans forgetting our Earthly root. Judge Dredd and Hondo City Law also give us a common interpretation in science fiction when smart robots are involved: they use their cognitive skill for violence. Jane and Pauline from Ender’s Game and Red Mars question ethical usage of intelligent computer software. Ultimately, complications with service robots start with the engineering: how will we produce intelligent robots that won’t harm humans, what limits do we put in place to hinder unhealthy reliance on robots as well as computer software like Jane and Pauline?

Relationship Aspect

Chobits, Doraemon, and Blade Runner ask a much more difficult question to answer: how should we treat intelligent robots, as equal or as servants? At their core, they all examine the essence of human life. What makes a human human? In Chobits: love, Doraemon: emotion, Blade Runner: memory. If AI-equipped robots are capable of feelings like human, does that mean they deserve the same respect as another human? If you are leaning on the robots-only-as-servant side, where do we draw the distinction? Megacities in the future will no doubt see a large portion of robots in the workforce, and the question of human-robot distinction will become extremely relevant.

Motion Pictures

Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, is a very popular movie that is set in a futuristic Los Angeles, which is now a megacity. The movie revolves around Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) finding and retiring replicants—bioengineered robots designed to look, act, and think like humans. In this movie, there are two different aspects of AI that we can examine.

In Blade Runner’s universe, the replicants exist to complete dangerous or menial work on Earth’s colonies, such as the Moon. Their presence on Earth is, however, prohibited. This brings up the first aspect of AI being presented by the movie: future civilizations will rely heavily on AI, but, as stated in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series, humans fear intelligent robots that can’t be controlled. Thus, each replicant comes with a four-year expiration date, and Blade Runners like Rick Deckard are employed to hunt and kill replicants. Such dependency in our future, coupled with the paranoia, can be detrimental both to humans and the intelligent robots. Those robots have the reasoning capability of a human, and we humans would object the ungrateful treatments the replicants receive. That said, the second aspect presented in the movie is up for analysis.

As explained in the analysis of Chobits and Doraemon, Blade Runner also has the theme of distinction between human and robots. Whereas Chobits and Doraemon focus on human relationship with robots, Blade Runner has a heavier emphasis on the replicants’ memories and feelings. The movie portrayed the two aspects very well, so it is better to see the clips for yourself:

And the most well-done scene in the movie, where a replicant grieves his memories going to waste as he dies:

While Blade Runner depicted the service replicants as being hateful toward humans for the thankless reliance, the movie Wall-E gives us a different take on robotic-reliance, or perhaps, robotic-overreliance. The following clip sums up the dependency of passengers in a starship, which is a megastructure:

We also see the recurring theme of humans sending intelligent robots to distance place for manual labor (in this case the abandoned Earth):

Overreliance on robots is a common theme in literature, and both Blade Runner and Wall-E give two different possible outcomes of such dependency. Moreover, Blade Runner also questions what makes humans humans and robots robots—or whether such distinction is even necessary. These dilemmas will surely become relevant when AI is as advanced as depicted in these two masterpieces.

Japanese Manga

Japan is, arguably, the most advanced in robotics country, so naturally their manga—Japanese for comic—contain very striking depictions of AI in robotics. The two manga being analyzed are well-received among manga readers: Chobits and Doraemon. Due to Doraemon being canceled by Viz Media before any English volume was published, the post will be utilizing scanlations provided by fans of the series. (For those never read manga before, they are read from right to left, which may take a short while to get used to).

In the world of Chobits, persocoms—personal computers—has become replacements for the computers we see today. The story revolves around the protagonist finding a persocom disposed near the trash, and the two embarks on an adventure to find out her past.

The manga's rendition of persocoms.

Although persocoms are very humanlike, they only function as how they were programmed. A theme that is constantly brought up is human relationship between human and robots. Below is the scene where one talented programmer lamenting the fact that he cannot design a persocom to completely mirror his late sister. In addition, he also warns the protagonist to not become too involved with robots.

It is also repeatedly brought up by other characters, noticeably the protagonist, how human-robot relationship can become complicated.

The protagonist’s persocom, Chi, is however a “chobit”—a type of persocom that has true AI capability, needing no preloaded programming, but she does need learning just as a human infant would. The protagonist does eventually (SPOILER) falls in love with Chi, giving the hope of love to other persocoms. At this point, application to real life becomes murky. As the manga itself repeatedly points out, can a relationship between human and robot goes too far? If the answer is yes, then where do we draw the line of distinction between human and robot? If no, are we really comfortable with a future where you will have to compete with robots for love? As true AI-robot are not yet available, here is a clip that most closely resemble human-robot relationship:

The other manga, Doraemon, is a great classic. In fact, there is an allusion to Doraemon in Chobits:

Doraemon is a robot cat from the 22^nd century who travels back in time to meet Nobita, his owner’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. Nobita is clumsy and not very bright in school, but he is honest and has a good heart. Doraemon and Nobita becomes best of friends and go through over 1,000 short stories, with each one being a life lesson to the reader. The analysis, however, won’t be on the Doraemon-Nobita relationship—this long story does a better job at depicting human-robot relationship:

Doraemon Long Story Vol 22: Nobita and the Robot Kingdom

In the story, Doraemon and gang travels to a different planet in the future in a different dimension (the usual Doraemon plot device to introduce a new setting). On this planet, humans and robots historically live peacefully together, but their queen is planning to modify all robots and remove their emotions, rendering them just tools.

Being a children’s manga, the story gives us a light-hearted depiction to the more serious question: should robots remain tools, even when AI technology is advanced enough to give them emotions, or should they be our friends?

The two different types of human-robot relationships Chobits and Doraemon depict seem to have the similar conclusion that human should indeed treat intelligent robots as equals, but will we be able to tolerate such relationship in our future?

Western Comics

Two Western comics I have picked out for to pitch against are Judge Dredd: Megacity Masters 01 and Hondo City Law. Although they are both in the same fictional universe, each book is different enough to enable a comparison. With both comics being set in two different megacities, they can give us a clear look at possible dangers that AI may pose.

The Judge Dredd universe is unique in that the cops in the cities also make the laws. In both Judge Dredd:  Megacity Masters 01  and Hondo City Law, there are many short chapters telling different stories—often not connected to previous chapters except for recurring of main characters. The two chapters that have depiction of AI to be analyzed are “The Law According to Judge Dredd” from Judge Dredd:  Megacity Masters 01  and “Deus X” from Hondo City Law.

The two stories share a similar depiction of AI:

Judge Dredd: Megacity Masters 01

Judge Dredd: Megacity Masters 01

Hondo City Law

Hondo City Law

In “The Law According to Judge Dredd,” a robot is convinced he is a good judge and looks up to Judge Dredd. He creates many nonsensical laws to his liking and proceeds to execute numerous people. We see the recurring theme in “Deus X,” where a terrorist organization uses destructive intelligent androids to promote human-turn-cyborg as the next mankind advancement. This is surely the darker side of the future of AI, but it reminds us that just as with humans, reasoning skills are not always used for making moral judgments.

For fictions that depict AI as being a violent unstoppable force of the future, Laws of Robotics comes into mind. In a city of millions, like Megacity 1, its denizens will feel more secured if they know AI-robots are walking around with a no-harm-to-human rule programed in (provided they aren’t already dealing with privacy concern posed by the likes of Jane and Pauline). Hopefully, future engineers will take human safety into consideration—but then, with such limitation, will truly-human AI ever be possible?

Printed Books

Artificial Intelligence—AI—is a technology in its infantry that makes numerous appearance in science fictions. Different science fictions may give different presentation of AI. When included in robots, the robots can intelligently carry out tasks assigned to them with little human attention required. In other instances, AI is portrayed as a computer program that is capable of interacting with human. In Kim Robinson’s Red Mars, Pauline is such a computer program.

Red Mars tells a compelling story about a group of scientists on Mars debating about terraforming. One of the main figureheads, John Boone, frequently utilizes an AI with the name Pauline. John uses her for a wide array of tasks, such as piloting his vehicle while he sleeps (a technology that is, in fact, becoming a reality), bringing up encyclopedia articles, collecting data and analyzing them, etc. In many ways, she is comparable to Google, but her ability to converse with John makes her closer to Siri. And, just as with Siri, there are many ethically questionable things that John asks Pauline to do:

• “It was a messy business, and he had to rely on Pauline not only for statistics but advice, which was worrying.”
• “He went back to his bed and thought about it.  ‘Oh, by the way, Pauline; please check Sax's records, and give me a list of all the dowsing expeditions in the last year.’”
• "Pauline, click into the building comm center and copy anything you can that they send out."
• He kept track through Pauline of the movements of quite a few people, the UNOMA investigating force among them.
• Being the engineer behind the living complex’s security system, he utilized Pauline to control the surveilance cameras when he suspected somebody intruded his room for ill intent (indeed, someone planned to frame him into murder by leaving a dead body inside his room).

Readers can easily notice the heavy reliance on Pauline that John exhibits, and more importantly, the reduced sense of privacy and security that comes with Pauline. Pauline can easily pull up track record of anyone’s movement through the database, find any file, and infiltrate security systems (albeit a bit limited). Case in point, using the tag that the dead body inside John’s room had, Pauline quickly identified the person. Although a viable technology and no doubt helpful for research, there seem to be limited individual privacy with technology like Pauline around. In addition, while Pauline could freely pull data, authority could not access what Pauline searched without John’s permission. This one-way privacy protection can be problematic in a megacity environment. With how Pauline was presented, it is implied that stalking can become a crime on a whole new level.

Pauline, find me the location of my husband as well as route his autopilot directly home

In the Ender’s Game series by Orson Scott Card, readers can find another computer program AI like Pauline and Siri: Jane. Jane is first introduced in Speaker for the Dead, a second book in the series chronologically. She is presented as a supercomputer program that only the universe’s ansible network can harbor her (the ansible network is another product science fiction). She becomes friend with the series’ protagonist Andrew Wiggins, more commonly referred to as Ender. Unlike Pauline, Jane is presented as being much more advanced and complex than Pauline.

• She is “capable of performing trillions of tasks simultaneously, and has millions of levels of attention, even her most unaware one being much more alert than a human.”
• “She is the epitome of humanity's fear: an intelligent, thinking, computer program that cannot be controlled.”
• In the novel Xenocide, which is sequel to Speaker for the Dead, a fleet of starship is sent out to destroy Ender’s planet, which is home to a race of alien species that the interstellar government fears. Jane removes herself from the ansible network (the method requires a reading of the novel) while shutting it down, cutting all communication to the fleet.

An artist's rendition of Siri

Imagine a future where technology like Jane and Pauline exist. Will you be comfortable knowing someone can monitor your movement, or that a supercomputer is keeping track of what you’re doing on your computer? Those inherent security concerns are what we will have to prepare for in the future.

Beyond the Machines

Today, when one talks of robots, the image of automated metallic and blocky machines come to mind. Indeed, these automated machines will contribute largely to the construction of future megaprojects, and become more relevant to daily life. However, there is another form of robot that doesn't immediately spring to mind: artificial intelligence. Although still very primitive and far from human's capability, simple AIs exist today and available to public, such as the chat robots Cleverbot and SimSimi, Apple's newest feature Siri, and chess-playing computers that are capable of defeating humans. The overall reasoning capability of these AIs are far from comparable to humans, but there are areas where robots can perform a task much better than humans can. To assert that claim, these CubeStormers do the job very nicely

With the rate technology is expanding, we might witness as-close-to-perfection-as-possible AIs before the turn of the century. As of now, AI-driven cars are becoming a reality, already a legal presence in Nevada. My wish is, however, for the existence of SAIs like those in sci-fis. Two novels that I find excellently portray those are:

In Red Mars, John Boone's SAI Pauline is very much like Apple's Siri, but her reasoning level is higher than Siri's.

Fans of the sci-fi genre should be familiar with Orson Scott Card's works: the Ender's Game Series. Introduced in Speaker for the Dead is Jane, an artificial sentience that assists the characters in ways very similar to Pauline, albeit the way Jane is depicted puts her many levels above Pauline.










The helpful aid of automated machines combining with the reasoning prowess of AIs will no doubt change lifestyles. As with any technology, there will be both well and ill intents for the inventions, but the future they promise is worth looking forward to.