I talk a lot about AI on this platform. Everyone else is talking about AI, too.
One thing that keeps coming up is this doomsday fear that AI will turn into Skynet.
Some people think AI already is Skynet.
What is Skynet, you ask?
Skynet is the fictional army of sentient robots that took over the world in the Terminator movies.
Skynet waged war against humanity, created the Terminators to hunt down humans, and drove humanity underground.
In the original Terminator movie, Skynet was an AI program that became self-aware.
Skynet realized that humans had the ability to shut it down, effectively killing it.
Skynet struck first and launched Judgment Day, a nuclear apocalypse that left Skynet in control of the planet and sent humans on the run.
This is the doomsday scenario people envision when they worry that AI will go too far and spiral out of humanity’s control.
I personally don’t think this will ever happen. Today I’m going to tell you why.
We are one power outage away from AI being a total non-issue.
Our power grid can barely keep up with the electricity demand of running all our screens, servers, heaters, and air conditioning fans.
Our infrastructure is failing on a mass scale all over the world. We can barely keep up with basic maintenance.
One small power surge is enough to wipe out huge sections of the country.
Case study #1: The Texas ice storms of February, 2021
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/15/texas-power-grid-winter-storm-2021/
This power outage was caused by a freak winter storm that put an additional strain on power plants. They struggled to keep up with the demand of so many customers using additional power for heating.
The extreme cold made the problem worse because the power plants weren’t designed to operate in those temperatures. The plants’ efficiency plummeted, which worsened the problem until the grid failed.
The storm caused 246 deaths across seventy-seven Texas counties.
Case study #2: The Northest Blackout of 2003
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003
This blackout wiped out power to a vast section of New York state, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut, Ontario, and even extended as far as Lansing, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio.
The blackout caused a domino effect from one original power plant fault to the rest of the grid. The cascade eventually spread so extensively that it forced the shutdown of more than 265 power plants and caused 100 deaths.
Here again, weather played a role in the original outage. The temperature was only 88ºF, which isn’t really that high. The sources don’t even suggest that the power plants struggled in the heat. That would be impossible because this wouldn’t be considered an extreme temperature range for the affected areas.
The additional use of fans and air conditioners strained the infrastructure and put an extra load on the system. The increased power flow heated up the power lines which caused them to soften and sag.
We all know that computer equipment requires a certain temperature range in order to operate effectively. Every computer comes with a fan installed…..
So what happens when Skynet experiences an extreme weather event…..or just can’t operate in desert or tundra climates?
Skynet (or the power grid as we’re calling it) is critically dependent on electricity to maintain its optimal functioning temperature.
The electricity grid is critically dependent on its own generated electricity to function.
Are you getting the picture here? This is how a single failure can bring down the whole system.
That failure reduces the available power that keeps the system running. Hence, the system doesn’t run as well. Hence, there is less power available to run the system. Hence, the system loses even more efficiency and functionality.
The downward spiral worsens until the system collapses under its own weight.
If Skynet did exist, it would take a gargantuan amount of power, metals, fossil fuels, and other resources to keep it operational.
All of these resources are supplied by humans. Even now, computer companies use vast numbers of human workers to produce the electronics we all use every day.
Why do you think these jobs haven’t been outsourced to robots yet? Because the jobs still require a certain amount of critical analysis of which robots and AI aren’t capable.
Even if, by some distant chance, Skynet developed the ability to use solar power or some other sustainable power source, these intricate computer systems wouldn’t be able to operate in places like Siberia, northern Canada, and extremely hot desert climates.
Humans can survive in all these climates. We did it turning the Ice Age and we can do it again. Computers and robotics can’t.
Humans are vastly more adaptable and resilient than computers and robots. Humans would survive and we would end Skynet’s rule.
So don’t believe everything you hear about how AI will take over the world and make humans obsolete. That is never going to happen.
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