Will the science fiction scenario of a world controlled by machines become reality in the near future?
Everything’s getting connected around us. Computers. Smart mobile computing devices. Embedded systems. Documents. People. Creatures. Pets. Even ideas. Everything now has the possibility of being a node on the network, able to publish and to subscribe. Everything.
Before this decade is out, there’s talk of 50 billion connected things. The Internet of Everything. At one time, this figure seemed fanciful. Now, if anything, it looks conservative. Of that 50 billion, human beings are going to be in a minority, even allowing for multiple devices per person.
As more and more things get connected, there’s an increase in complexity, and it’s not always easy to figure out who or what is in control. So there are a growing number of examples where we instruct machines to do something, without quite understanding how those instructions will play out. This is particularly noticeable when you have instructions that interact with each other: By now, everyone has come across cases like the apparent $23m price tag for an everyday unremarkable book, as two sets of instructions ‘compete’ with each other without human intervention. These things will happen, and happen more frequently, as our connected world strives to become hyper-connected. And as that happens, we run the risk of having a world gone mad, ruled by algorithm as it were. Kevin Slavin has done a good job alerting us to such situations. But I go back to what I said earlier about insurance: The algorithm-in-charge world exists, will exist, will even grow, but it’ll never be in charge of something which threatens life, not until it becomes suable.
(This story appears in the 10 January, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)