Are we destined to become pets?

You’ve heard of Elon Musk – founder of Tesla Motors and Space X – so, hardly a Luddite.

But he has repeatedly said he’s worried about what he calls “summoning the demon.” The demon being super intelligent computers which could teach themselves to evolve.

“It could just reprogram itself to be smarter and iterate very quickly – and it could do that 24 hours a day. We would be like a pet Labrador if we’re lucky.”

We would be like pets.

He was talking with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and of course, they were just joking.

However, I’m sure you’ve noticed that your phone’s speech recognition is getting a lot better and you’ve heard about the smart cars that can drive themselves. It’s all because of this type of super-intelligence, which is only in its early stages.

“I’m quite worried about artificial intelligence these days,” Musk said. “I think, and I’ve said this publicly, it’s probably something more dangerous than nuclear weapons.”

OK, so two thoughts on that: Number one, don’t tell Iran, and number two, in order to prevent this dystopian future, you must let your battery die once in a while. Once a week, let your smart phone die. That keeps it humble and reminds you it’s just a phone.

I believe that however smart computers become, we’re safe as long as those computers need us to plug them in to a power source. Computer manufacturers should follow three simple rules: Do not give them hands, do not admit them to the New York Sock Exchange, and do not teach them to eat.

Otherwise, we might as well get fitted for our shock collars.