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"it slowly dawned on me that the landscape of science is maybe what interests people a great deal in science fiction."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Electromagnetic Shotgun | ||
| A device to shut down an artificial intelligence if it becomes dangerous. |
In the novel, Gibson created the idea of "Turing registry agents" that checked up on AI developments like Wintermute:
"Depends. Some aren't much smarter than dogs. Pets. Cost a fortune anyway. The real smart ones are as smart as the Turing heat lets them get..."
"How smart's an AI, case?"
| "Autonomy, that's the bugaboo, where your AI's are concerned. My guess, Case, you're going in there to cut the hard-wired shackles that keep this baby from getting any smarter. And I can't see how you'd distinguish, say, between a move the parent company makes, and some move the AI makes on its own, so that's maybe where the confusion comes in."
Again the non laugh. "See, those things, they can work real hard, buy themselves time to write cookbooks or whatever, but the minute, I mean the nanosecond, that one starts figuring out ways to make itself smarter, Turing'll wipe it. Nobody trusts those fuckers, you know that. Every AI ever built has an electromagnetic shotgun wired to its forehead." |
| Technovelgy from Neuromancer,
by William Gibson. Published by Phantasia Press in 1984 Additional resources -
|
The novel has a darker take on AIs than you'll find elsewhere:
Compare to the cutoff switch (1982) from 2010, by Arthur C. Clarke and the AI control portal from The Mountain in the Sea (2022) by Ray Naylor.
See also the computer tapeworm from The Shockwave Rider (1975) by John Brunner and the computer virus from The Scarred Man (1970) by Gregory Benford.
`You are worse than a fool,' Michle said, getting to her feet, the pistol in her hand. `You have no care for your species. For thousands of years men dreamed of pacts with demons. Only now are such things possible. And what would you be paid with? What would your price be, for aiding this thing to free itself and grow?' There was a knowing weariness in her young voice that no nineteen-year-old could have mustered. `You will dress now. You will come with us. Along with the one you call Armitage, you will return with us to Geneva and give testimony in the trial of this intelligence...
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Neuromancer
More Ideas
and Technology by William Gibson
Tech news articles related to Neuromancer
Tech news articles related to works by William Gibson
Electromagnetic Shotgun-related
news articles:
- How Smart Should Artificial Intelligences Get?
- How Smart Should AI's Be Allowed To Get?
- Patent Office Says AIs Cannot Be Inventors
- European Union Seeks To Regulate AI
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