AUTOMATION AND AI DOMINATION IN THE 2050S (2)

From a five-ton engine to sentient Mechanical Intelligences

So let’s talk about this chap: Charles Babbage. A Victorian genius who designed the world's first mechanical computer, didn't get it built, gave up, put the drawings in a box, and put the box in a cupboard.

His story doesn't end there though. In 2002—131 years after his death—the British Science Museum unveiled a full-size Babbage Engine. The engine had 8,000 parts, weighed 5 tons and measured 11'x7'. With the equivalent of 675 bytes of memory, it ran at a clock speed of 7mhz. Mind blowingly, amazing stuff:

I remembered seeing that computer when I lived in London, and a thought occurred to me—what if it was miniaturized? What if its 11'x7' form could be made the size of a few molecules? What if you combined trillions of these tiny analytical engines together? That gave me an idea for Mechanical Intelligences—MI—based upon clockwork mechanisms instead of silicon.

The invention of a general-purpose, strong artificial intelligence was exactly the type of event that could destabilize the world to the degree my vision suggested. Not in the “Evil AI” approach of Hollywood though. No, in the Cortex series the machines are merely doing as instructed and have perfected automation. 

Once I had that idea, I read every report on automation I could and projected their dire warnings to a logical conclusion: massive, unstoppable unemployment. It seemed I hadn’t gotten over being fired after all. In fact, it appeared unemployment had been on my mind the whole time, but hidden away in the murky depths of my subconscious. 

If automation makes 99% of the workforce unemployed, what then? What would happen when your country goes bankrupt and there’s no social services left to help anyone?

Further, if society breaks down to that extreme who would keep the peace?

Alice Yu. I started thinking about Alice Yu. A woman who became a New York cop as a last, desperate chance. A woman chewed up and spat out by society. 

In my downtime between illustrating buildings, I designed and drew Alice’s clothing, her weapons, her car, the world she lived in. A world I will share with you now over these pages. Next up: An NYPD equipment guide to 2050s survival, something I think you’re really going to like 😀

NEXT: HOW DO COPS SURVIVE IN 2050s NY?

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