A letter to Stephen Hawking

Evolution is a necessity. Time is unchangeable and cannot be manipulated. A simple connection exists between those two entities; Evolution happens over time and cannot therefore be manipulated. We began as cavemen and apparently the survival of the fittest helped our forefathers gradually build nations worldwide. Humans killed and rebelled against humans and some humans were betrayed, punished and were cast away for standing up against violence and unruly governance. Dark days were somehow passed over time and here we are, a species at its peak of intelligence and we find ourselves building things way ahead of time and everyone’s having a good time.

Let’s rewind the ‘knob of life’ to the cavemen days. Fire was possibly discovered by our early ancestors, Homo erectus. According to my research, the earliest evidence of fire control was found in Koobi Fora, where experts discovered the existence of “oxidized patches of earth” which suggested the use of fire. The world chose to believe that anything in this world is build based on the fundamental powers of Classical Elements; Fire, Air, Water and Earth. Fire, as we all know it is probably the most criticized element in the world. Its bad outweigh the good and simply put, it is a dangerous element to mess around with and as history suggests, fire can only cause damage. Wrong. Think about it this way: The first human or the group of humans who discovered the element known as ‘fire’ were probably worshipped by their community and criticized at the same time. Every living thing in life fears change and therefore the existence of skeptical beings is out of the question. Humans must have feared the outcome of handling fire, the terrible things it could do and the future of their community. And after realizing the pain inflicted by fire at the event of ‘touching fire‘, certain humans must have considered the possibility of evil-minded parties misusing the powers of fire to benefit their own selfish needs. They were right.

Lower Paleolithic regions in Africa suggest the evidence that people could have been burnt by fire and ultimately seeing the end of their lives at the tip of a flame since burned ash and bone fragments were found in caves where our ancestors resided. The critics were probably right; Humans might have used the powers of the fire element to end their personal disputes and thus causing harm to members of their own species. It has been millions of years and look at us now; we play with nuclear energy and we’ve completely forgotten about the dangers of dealing with fire. Evolution has proved the theory of unstoppable time yet again.

So the question is, why did humans forget about the agonizing pain fire inflicted upon us and the endless destruction and unstoppable chaos caused by fire over time? The simple answer is: Humans understood that fire could actually be used in beneficial deeds if used properly and that precautions were needed to control the people who misused the powers of fire. Overtime humans became more cautious when dealing with the element that proved to be useful and destructive at the same time and we evolved.

Sir, recently you addressed the possibility of Artificial Intelligence surpassing the capabilities of human beings, also known as The Technological Singularity, which was a theory that was proposed years ago that suggested the end of the human species and the rise of a new species that were far more advanced and mentally equipped to develop futuristic weapons of mass destruction and utter chaos as suggested by the endless amounts of movies that were created by directors oddly fascinated by this concept. Throughout the different phases of technology, humans found themselves ‘wondering’ and confused when they discovered a new element in life, a new entity or an invention that may or may not harm their existence, yet they found themselves ‘getting to know’ more about the foreign entity and found ways to ‘control’ their impact on human lives.

I believe that the good in Artificial Intelligence outweighs the bad that may or may never actually happen. Of course there will be parties waiting to misuse the technology and build creatures beyond our wildest imaginations and attack their own species with the help of the newly founded sons of the devil but as humans, we shall prevail. We have dealt with numerous amounts of ‘agents of chaos’ throughout the phases of evolution and we proved ourselves worthy of greater intelligence by finding ways to handle these situations. Ethically, the three laws of Robotics, “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm”, “A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law” and “A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law” is bound to assist our existence. We are at the frontlines of developing this new species and we are the individuals who come up with the necessary algorithms for these ‘robots’ to operate and therefore I have utmost confidence that we shall prevail and we will handle the possibility of darkness if it ever comes to that. The benefits of Artificial Intelligence is immense and nipping such a bud would be the worst thing a human could do.

Beings that have the ability to think far beyond what we are equipped to perform can result in the findings of all the mysterious cures to the diseases that take the lives of millions of people around the world and tear families apart, build Neuroprosthetics that enable people walk or feel again after a tragic accident took their abilities away and technology that can make our lives easier, better and comfortable than it already is. As a young innovator striving to be at the front-lines of building this new species, this is a risk I’m willing to take. Evolution and Transcendence is a necessity in life and they cannot be stopped.

I write this letter to kindly request you to look at this matter through a different perspective. The bad can be handled and will be dealt with using necessary precautions. I’m a developer and we were brought up based on the foundation that allowed us to believe that ‘nothing is impossible’. Technology is the ultimate masterpiece of human innovators. Look how far we’ve come and how easy our lives are, all thanks to Technology that we initially looked down upon. Sir, Artificial Intelligence could be the greatest invention of our species and the doorway to a simpler lifestyle. You and I share a common ability; the ability to look at a mysterious glass of wine placed in the middle of the room and predict what it could become in the future, the endless possibilities that could be yielded with that glass of wine and of course, the disadvantages of it and how to rectify them.

I hope this letter gets to you. Truly a fan of your work and will continue to be so. Hoping to see you in person someday.

Yours truly,

Dinuka Jayasuriya.