This is the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’ famous Catholic church in Barcelona. It is also one of the venues of “Origin”, Dan Brown’s latest book.
The book is a captivating story, taking place in Spain this time, that contains all the ingredients that make Dan Brown’s books such great reads.
However, from a a machine learning enthusiast point of view, I dare say that he missed a point of utter importance.
What is that? Please be a little patient while I am getting there! I will have to say a few things about the plot first and I am trying to be very careful so as not to say anything negative about this amazing novel.
The story is about an earth shattering revelation that is about to be made. An answer to where life comes from and a prediction on where we, as humans, are heading to.
Fascinating questions! The answers to them will definitely bring a lot of changes to the world.
Among the characters in the story is Winston. Winston is a supporting role. He acts as a “Deus ex Machina”, helping the characters move on whenever their quest reaches a dead end.
Winston begins as a voice in a headset handed to professor Langton, but it is soon unveiled that he is an artificial intelligence entity!
One so advanced, that its behaviour cannot be distinguished from that of a human.
So what was Brown’s “mistake”?
Winston is a true artificial intelligence agent. A perfect manifestation of artificial general intelligence!
According to the book, Winston is not known to the public.
It is the revelation of Winston to the world that would have been the true earth shattering revelation, the ultimate revolution.
And the one with the most immediate and practical effects to the everyday lives of humans.
Were artificial intelligence of the level of Winston achievable, it would change most of what we know about today’s world. It would redefine almost all aspects of our lives. It would change the way we spend every minute of our days today.
It would change society structure, borders, barriers, monetary systems, labour, government systems, education, medicine, social activities, entertainment, the environment, cities, human interaction, energy sources …
All these terms and so many others would be redefined and some would become extinct as they would no longer be representing anything real.
Exaggerations? Think for a moment, what it would mean to you, at the place where you are standing now, doing what you are doing (apart from reading this) the ability to have a robot next to you, capable of everything you are capable of.
And then try to progress on these thoughts, towards what that would mean for the people around you, expanding that circle more and more in the course of your exercise.
Going back to the book, it is far too obvious that Dan Brown makes extensive research before writing about anything. Besides, he mentions all these different sources of information he uses, in the acknowledgments section.
So I cannot believe that he accidentally overlooked the significance of Winston for the world.
Perhaps, a story all about Winston would not have made an interesting novel.
Or just maybe, that will be his next book!
