Peter underwent surgery
If you've seen the movie "The Theory of Everything", or if you still have an impression of the "Ice Bucket Challenge" that was popular on social networks a few years ago, then you may not be unfamiliar with the term "Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis" (later abbreviated as ALS), another name of alzheimer's disease, which is also the illness suffered by Hawking, a British physicist who studies black holes in the universe.
What you may not know is that most patients with this disease will die of respiratory failure within 3-5 years, so some people will equate the disease with the nature of the world soon. AlS has also been called the "cruelest death penalty."
When British scientist Peter Scott-Morgan heard that he had been diagnosed with ALS, which was considered a "terminal illness" by others, his first thought was how to prevent his lover from canceling his long-planned trip to the Egyptian Archaeological Museum - if the trip was canceled, the next time he would go again would not know when. Ten seconds later, his second thought was, "I'm going to fight this disease to the end."
1 Died as a human, or survived as cyborg?
A big reason for such a strong determination and courage to fight the disease is that Peter is a scientist, and it lies in the enlightenment science education, or science fiction education, he received- the result of his childhood addiction to Doctor Who and Star Trek is that he believes that "as long as you are smart enough, brave enough, and use advanced science and technology, there is no difficulty that cannot be overcome."
So he did not accept the fate of being "sentenced to death", but decided to treat the rest of his life as a scientific experiment — an experiment about human beings and cyborg, life and humanity, love and courage. Interestingly, Peter was also one of the first in the UK to be awarded a PhD in robotics, as if from then on, all of this had laid the groundwork for the Cyborg experiments that would later be performed on him.
Cyborg is a term from cosmic studies in the 1960s, and the term Cyborg was formed by a merger of Cybernetic and Organism. Cybernetics is the theory of thought proposed by the American mathematician Wiener, and cybernetics is called the "old three theories" together with system theory and information theory. Cybernetics emphasizes the relationship between information transmission and control, and Cyborg based on this can be understood as the fusion of human (organism) and mechanical systems, that is, the human body and the machine can be integrated and interconnected through information transmission, operating like a machine, thus constituting a new and functionally enhanced organism.
So according to this definition, any human body that blends with a machine seems to be called a cyborg, and even a Paralympic athlete with a prosthetic limb and a hearing impaired person with a built-in cochlear implant can be called a cyborg.
The Peter 2.0 version that Peter Scott Morgan wants to become is the most advanced form of cyborg to date, not only because he uses a variety of high-tech wheelchairs and various exoskeleton equipment, but more importantly, Peter as a human body will be highly integrated with AI, and AI will deeply cooperate and blend with Peter's biological brain.
In order to live longer, Peter underwent a laryngectomy, but it also meant that he completely lost the ability to speak through his throat.
Peter now relies on the synthesized sound of his original voice and a 3D animated avatar on a screen hanging from his chest for public speaking, television interviews, and more. With the help of an Intel team that has worked with Hawking, advanced AI systems will predict the words and expressions peter will use in a particular situation based on his previous performance and language habits, and provide options for him to choose from, while a vivid avatar image can replace the real Peter to express feelings, smile, and even squeeze his eyebrows.
Peter's desire to use technology to control synthetic speech in a single intelligent interface, automatically predict the language he wants to use, mobilize avatars, control self-driving wheelchairs and his own exoskeletons, so he attaches great importance to AI technology.
But in contrast to Hawking, who is wary of artificial intelligence, Peter fully embraced AI technology. Hawking uses the method of communication by selecting words through the facial muscles, and the speed of this way is that only one word can be expressed per minute, because for Hawking, he emphasizes the accuracy of expression, so he is not willing to let AI take over him, but especially emphasizes his own control. Peter is willing to give up a part of his self in order to make communication more natural and smooth, and embraces a new Peter that integrates with AI, that is, Peter 2.0 - he is not exactly Peter himself before the operation, but an advanced version of Cyborg.
"People usually tend to see the relationship between people and artificial intelligence as opposites, but it does not have to be opposites, human-computer cooperation is possible, and AI can be used by people." Peter thought so.
By continuing to exist by transforming from a biologically human to a cyborg, Peter believed he could rewrite what it meant to be human. Just as in Peter 2.0, the book that chronicles this course of life, he borrowed the concept of "Newton's first law of motion" and rewrote "Peter's first law of the universe", "Peter's third rule of the universe" is that love ultimately triumphs over everything.
Here is an excerpt from 36Kr's conversation with Peter:
36 Kr: Why are you so confident that you can change the world's attitude towards the als disease and the way you fight it?
Peter: Because I have always believed that rebelling against our own destiny and changing the universe is the birthright of every human being, even when we are devastated.
Each of us in life will feel that even just surviving is sometimes extremely difficult and frustrating, but each of us can also choose to be born like a phoenix and thrive – no matter who we are, no matter how different our backgrounds, living conditions, and visions for the future are different.
36 Kr: Your account in the book gives the impression that you are well prepared to fight als disease, but what are the situations in the process that you have not envisioned?
Peter: Kindness from strangers should be expected, although such kindness is really rare in contemporary society. But while it may sound strange, perhaps the biggest surprise is that I feel energetic, excited, and looking forward to the future, and I'm really enjoying life. Although if you extrapolate from past data, from the tragic stories that people tell about ALS tirelessly, I should have died at this moment, at least very tragically or in a critical condition.
The reason I'm in such a positive state is of course due to my lover Francis, my family and team support, high technology, and a fair degree of good luck, but I find another important reason.
In fact, being trapped in one's own stiff corpse-like body is not as tragic as people think, because the brain is still functioning freely and will gradually adapt to the physical condition. It is true that it feels bad to be trapped and unable to move the body, but over time, the brain will gradually adapt to such a state that it will forget that I used to be able to walk and move, and even forget that I was able to talk! So it turns out that my brain has a new normal of its own.
I was completely shocked that my brain was so malleable, but this fact should also give some hope to other people with severe disabilities, after all, if I could have such a brain as a frozen person, what else is impossible? At least I felt a strong sense of hope myself.
36Kr: You mention in the book that you hope that AI technology can help you create works of art, but have you been able to create works of art that you are satisfied with in this way?
Peter: There really is! Just before I underwent laryngectomy, I, along with Jerry, vice president of our foundation, spent a year creating a work of art through an AI system that no single human or ai could do on its own — what I called "Cyborg Art."
I named my first Cyborg artwork "METAMORPHOSIS".
Below is a photograph of me and Jerry and the graphic artwork behind me, taken when we were invited to an exhibition in a gallery in London.
Peter at the gallery exhibition site
2 Hawking to the left, Peter to the right
36 Kr: As you write in the book, you will become the first full cyborg in human history, and everything from your body to your brain will be completely transformed. How is your approach to fighting ALS disease different from what Hawking was using at the time?
Peter: As of now, you can think of the AI I'm using as an advanced version of the predictive typing text messages you use on your smartphone. But for the past two years, the Intel Labs team that worked with Hawking has been working with me, and we both want to be able to solve one of the big problems in the conversation —paying close attention to the participants and making predictions about what I'll say next. For example, when I respond to a very close friend, I must behave very differently than I would when I respond to a stranger.
It's difficult to make such a distinction at the technical level, but the awesome Intel team has made a lot of breakthroughs. So in 2022, I'm going to "upgrade and update," and it's going to be the first time in history that I've had this kind of blend with AI.
When Lama Nachman, the head of Intel labs I worked with, told me that the pioneering experiment I was using was the exact opposite of what Hawking wanted at the time, I thought it was so interesting. Because Hawking is a cosmologist rather than a roboticist, he has no interest in AI at all, he hates change, and he's reluctant to make changes even if technology can make his voice sound less like a robot.
Lama says and I'm the other extreme!
I have absolutely no problem working with AI, especially if the latter makes me look smarter, or more interesting, or just a little less forgetful. In addition, I am particularly looking forward to seeing the evolution of Peter 2.0, for example, my current AI synthetic voice has improved a lot compared to 1 year ago, and I hope to see my avatar reach a point where it is indistinguishable from real people in the next few years.
I'm really excited about that, it's going to be a whole new frontier of cutting-edge technology.
36Kr: We know you've worked with a lot of tech companies, can you tell us a little bit about what those collaborations include? Can you please tell us about the technology you used in this process of interviewing us to work with which companies to make our interview run smoothly?
Peter: In 2016 I was able to run, but now I'm almost completely paralyzed except for my eyes (because the path of the eyes to the brain is different from the rest of the body, so the eye muscles of ALS patients are still functioning normally). So now I'm communicating through my virtual person.
How?
Bottom line: a lot of AI technology is used.
First of all, thanks to the collaboration with Intel, I can use my eyes to type on the keyboard, a technology called "eye-tracking technology." The camera that tracks my eyeballs captures which letter I'm looking at, so when the AI thinks it understands what words I'm going to use, it presents me with a series of suggested options — a feature that isn't that perfect yet, but in a few years' time, the AI will know more about myself than I do!
The AI system then transferred the work to another AI system, the one I had spent more than 30 hours recording my still healthy voice, into which I had all the combined pronunciations of words that might have appeared in normal language communication. So they're like the basic elements that make up my AI sound.
Next, thanks to a small but beautiful company, CereProc, my Peter 2.0 voice is infinitely closer to my own soundtrack. And the voice of this AI also began to show emotions and stress, pauses, and other elements that could reflect my personal characteristics.
For example, I've never pre-recorded a word like "36Kr interview," but I'm still able to say it because there's a super-smart AI reading the words I "type" with my eyeballs, and quickly combines such words together and converts them into my AI voice, and also adds the appropriate accent emphasis to prevent me from sounding too much like a robot!
For the time being, we will do a little manual processing at the end, but in the end this process will become completely LED by AI, which means that anyone who can no longer make their own voice will be able to fully convey their personality characteristics through the power of technology and THROUGH AI sound for the first time in history.
In the end, it all shows up on Lenovo's monitor. They're making a special headset that I can use in any scene — even when I'm lying in the duvet at 3 a.m., I can record my thoughts if I suddenly remember an answer to a question you're interviewing. In addition, they have a very fast and convenient system in my wheelchair, which will not only support all the AI technology I use with the help of the cloud, but also be powerful enough to run a super realistic avatar of myself in real time!
36Kr: What impressed you the most in your collaborations with so many tech companies? What do you think is unique about the scientific and technological research conducted in these companies compared to the scientific research conducted in the academic field and on campus?
Peter: First of all, from our starting point, our mission to use human-centered, state-of-the-art AI technology to rewrite the fate of severely disabled patients and the meaning of being born as human beings is unique enough.
But beyond that, the way we work together is also very unique. We have assembled an unprecedentedly strong team of top experts from the world's largest and most influential institutions, scientists from the world's most advanced research institutions, who are working hard for our foundation's research projects, and we are recruiting more talented people to join. We believe that, together, we can change everything that needs to be changed.
As you said earlier, we are fortunate to be able to work with Lenovo from China, and this collaboration is at the heart of our foundation's work. Lenovo's technology is deeply embedded in every aspect of our day-to-day work and is part of our most advanced visual team, which guides the running of our entire foundation.
Of course, we also need more Chinese team talents to join!
After all, as I've always said, because China will be a world leader in research in the field of AI, who better suited than them to give a glimmer of hope in distress to all those who feel trapped in their bodies, including the elderly?
3 Collaborative AI, not standalone AI
36Kr: You mentioned that we have now come to a fork in the road of artificial intelligence development, we are rushing to a path of independent artificial intelligence, and we are missing another path of collaborative artificial intelligence, why do you think this is the case?
Peter: We will never go back and choose whether to go down the path we have chosen in this decade, and the motivation for us to study it is simply too great, as the enthusiasm for the internal combustion engine throughout the 20th century.
At the moment, almost all research is carried out along this path of independent artificial intelligence, because it seems to have developed along the trajectory of historical evolution, but in fact, we humans are missing a huge opportunity. Even in China, where AI is seen as an important vision, the research route chosen by everyone is an almost completely independent ai path.
And if we don't take the human-centered AI development route in time, we will not only miss the research opportunity, but also encounter the "uncontrollable rise" from pure artificial intelligence that is typically recognized.
While AI conquering humans won't be what Hollywood commercial blockbusters depict, as far as I know, humans really can't preset in ARTIFICIAL ai with the same protections as Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics." There's no way to even guarantee that researchers actually have plans to pre-empt protections.
So, if we take the route of purely independent artificial intelligence, by 2050 people will have to face an environment full of all kinds of intelligent organisms and intelligent ideas that are different from human nature, and faster than we think, there will be some intelligent species dominating and overriding other species, above us humans. So soon humans will have to face the situation of being treated as pets, and this is still praying that the intelligent beings who dominate us will not treat us as pests!
But conversely, if we take the human-centric, collaborative AI route, this may be the only route that will not lead us to extinction.
36Kr: Why do you think collaborative AI is a better path? If someone said that independent artificial intelligence is the ultimate direction of technological development, what would you think of this idea?
Peter: In the early 1980s, I was preparing my PhD thesis, which was also the first PhD in robotics in the UK, and based on my research, the last chapter of my self-written book Robot Revolution ended like this: "If an enhanced version of humanity is realized, and humans and artificial intelligence are integrated, it can be achieved that humans and artificial intelligence can co-evolve, rather than watching artificial intelligence separate and go on a separate path." In this way, human beings will one day replace their fragile flesh with longer-lasting mechanical devices and use supercomputers to enhance their intelligence. ”
I wrote this in 1984, and since then I've been advocating for ai as our helper, not our enemy.
To use a metaphor, ai alone can be thought of as a highly skilled jazz pianist, but no one plays with him. On the one hand, of course, independent AI can contribute first-class performances and bring wonderful solo performances to the audience. Yet it is far from reaching its full potential.
On the other hand, if a talented vocal singer is added to the jazz pianist, because the singer clearly has his own unique abilities, the musical effect created by such a combination will be close to the dream level.
So in my opinion, the ultimate path of human nature is to human collaboration with AI, but with humans as the center, humans and AI coexist in harmony, rather than solo performances in their own camps. The future lies in forming an interdependent partnership, not a hostile one, to be synergistic, not zero-sum. So it's a perfect jazz combo.
36Kr: Your description of augmented and virtual reality in the book is impressive, can you please talk more about your thoughts on this?
Peter: Ever since I was a teenager, I've been looking forward to this technology.
Ten years before I wrote my first book, Robot Revolution, in a small class essay, I wrote something like this: "I envision a future where everyone will be connected to AI and will be half a robot," and I also write that we can fly, telepathy, time travel, and all of this in a supercomputer. My teacher thought I was writing science fiction, but I was serious! At that time I called it the "proxy universe", and now people call it the "metacosm".
When I was a teenager, I took this future for granted, and I still think of it that way. And the experience I later adopted to integrate with AI to fight ALS disease turned my whole life into such a scientific experiment to practice the idea of a metacosm.
As a scientist, as a prototype of the Cyborg experiment, I am completely optimistic about the potential of AI, robotics, and even the metacosm to realize what it means for us to be human.
As human beings, we all have a fear of becoming weak and trapped in an underdeveloped body, and we are now in the early stages of breaking free from that fear.
Some people are pessimistic about human nature, but personally, as far as I know, I have infinite expectations for the future of our humanity. Humans as a species are moving from youth to adulthood, so we will experience growth, become less fearful, and feel freer than ever.
36 Kr: In the book you mention the work of the Scott-Morgan Foundation that you and your loved one founded, and there is a touching story about the patient Juilan, can you tell us more about the specific work of the foundation?
Peter: Actually, for our foundation, there is still a lot to be done. Because since the foundation was founded, not only patients with serious illnesses and physical mobility, but also many people who feel trapped in their own bodies have come to seek the help of our foundation. And I feel like we have an obligation to help all of these people in need, because each of us has the right to thrive.
Part of our foundation's vision is to offer more possibilities for people who are physically and mentally challenged, to change the way people think about disability and old age, and to rewrite the future of people who feel trapped in their bodies.
To rewrite the fate of these people, high technology alone is not enough. If we only have good ideas, we will fail; if we can only find a basis for concepts, we will fail; if we can only provide high technology that others don't want, don't know, or can't afford, we will fail.
We will only succeed when people can be given the option to rewrite their destiny if they want access to technology, and when even people with severe physical disabilities can be rewritten.
So in order to rewrite the future, in addition to having amazing high technology, we also need to change the attitudes of others towards disease. We need to see what we're doing as a benign intervention that requires enough attention in both traditional and social media, as well as in government agencies and healthcare facilities.
36Kr: In the last two chapters of the book, you paint a picture of the future that is very close to what we think we think of today as the so-called "metacosm", do you think that virtual reality and the metacosm are destined to happen? How far is it from where we are today?
Peter: It's been half a century since the concept of the metacosm was created and made known, and since so many high-tech companies (not just game companies) are strongly tied to the concept of their futures, I think within a decade the metacosm will be greatly developed.
And that's just the beginning, here's what I envision as life in 2050:
Ninety years after the invention of integrated circuits in 1961, by 2050 every organism will have thousands of times more performance than before. The rapid development of science and technology and humanities allows us to break free from the shackles of our own past, our own genetic DNA attributes, and physical existence.
The world of the metacosm is so beautiful that it has become a revolutionary, alternative version of the real world, especially when AI avatars have become indistinguishable from human-dominated avatars. And the convenience of computer technology allows virtual spaces, and indeed the entire virtual universe, to evolve and upgrade at a very high rate — just as the Internet revolutionized computing networks of the past at the beginning of this century — and also liberates people's free choices about what identity, culture, era to work, play, and even live.
And what's also revolutionary for the hundreds of millions of more connected people is that a reaction to a particular behavior can become a global phenomenon in seconds, and it's known globally that a world-class super consciousness can react and decide on its own in just a few minutes...
36 Kr: What do you think it would be like as an advanced cyborg when Peter in the biological sense died and Peter in the AI part was still alive? In your book, you also seem to express concerns that AI Peter is going to take over the human peter?
Peter: That's right, that gets to the heart of a riddle I threw out in the last chapter of the book—what happens when a cyborg dies? Rather, what does this mean when the main component of a cyborg is advanced AI?
Going back to the jazz metaphor I used earlier, as I said in the book, when part of a jazz group inevitably leaves the group, it is a wonderful experience to listen to the remaining pianist do solo performances.
Especially when the pianist has been profoundly reinvented by the experience of working with singers, and has learned the ability to sing so that he can match the voice of a professional singer...
In other words, if your part of consciousness is perfectly integrated with technological constructs, does biological death no longer mean real death? If AI Peter takes over the human peter, it won't make me feel any unhappiness at all, on the contrary, this situation will make me very curious!
OK let me confess that I know that 36Kr will probably not interview me again in the next 50 years, let alone interview me in centuries or even longer, but I can't help but emphasize that for a scientist, there is a world of difference between "probably not" and "impossible", so when I say "probably not", you know. So a long, long time later, maybe my Peter 2.0 is still alive and can do it and talk to 36 Kr again.
I believe that in the next few decades, someone will evolve into a being who is still very personal (at least in my imagination) in a very similar way to when I became Peter 2.0, but different from the previous human being, and who has an undefined life cycle.
And that's one of the ideas I want readers to realize in my book, which is that most of the people we live in today will enter a whole new era of humanity.
Of course, the scientist part of me made me want to be involved in such a process, and the romantic part made me want to go to that future with the people I loved all my life.
But seriously, who would have imagined that hiding from Death would be such a full-time job that required full-time dedication?
4 Man is human because love transcends everything
36Kr: What is the current focus of the Scott-Morgan Foundation's work and research?
Peter: Over the next three years, all members of our foundation will be joining a project called the "HIGHCLIFF PROGRAM," which incorporates all the research and technological advances we've made so far, and it's a groundbreaking, unprecedented presence.
It's actually a bold, people-centered crazy idea that includes twelve main vision goals, all of which are designed to allow the vulnerable to live safely, to empower the powerless, and to allow the inherently handicapped to thrive.
Here is an illustration of this project:
Illustration of the HIGHCLIFF project
Both of these projects will revolve around a new AI experiment base that Francis and I have funded, and that is free and open to all foundation members.
Simply put, we want to build an unprecedented smart family.
Ostensibly, HIGHCLIFF would be a large, sunny, modern estate built in Torquay, known as the "British Riviera", on the edge of a cliff at the summit, surrounded by subtropical gardens, within walking distance of Torquay Beach and the beautiful village of Cockington.
In a practical sense, it will be a groundbreaking base for applied AI experiments.
Francis and I funded the project in our own name, including the purchase of land and the facilities and interiors of the estate, but from the very beginning, we decided that we would make all parts of the house free to our foundation members, as a laboratory for all kinds of cutting-edge AI technologies and various bold research.
At the heart of this experiment with augmented reality is a house full of high-tech sensors, while inside the machine brake rigs is a super-advanced AI system. Like a resourceful housekeeper, the AI-led HIGHCLIFF home will care for three generations of the family.
In contrast to houses typically built by construction workers and masons and stuccoers, our entire HIGHCLIFF building will be interspersed with technology provided by world-class innovative companies and IT experts, who will be the soul of the house, who are partners of our foundation.
Not only do we want to build a family house, in the next 3 years, we will also use this smart house to show the world that when humans and AI collaborate to create, it is a good thing for both. Our foundation will carve out a whole new way of life for all, a way of life in partnership with human-centered AI, a way of life that embraces technological innovation to make our lives better, and we will thrive in this transformation.
Part of HIGHCLIFF's mission is to lead cutting-edge research that creates more possibilities for people with disabilities, to change people's perception of what people and the elderly look like and perceive life, and to rewrite the future of people with severe disabilities. But that's only part of the mission.
The same vision of innovation — using AI and robotics to liberate people from the shackled minds that limit them and prevent them from freely exploring their potential — applies to all households at HIGHCLIFF.
The modern family I envisioned included me and Francis, my nephew Andrew, Andrew's wife Laura, their two children Ollie and Edidie, the shared cats Smoggy and Sooty, and a pair of guinea pigs. This innovative home design will reflect a new normal: one family, two living spaces, three generations, and four pets.
For our highly unusual but rather typical family, to thrive in the next decade of drastic change requires that the HIGHCLIFF we live in is advanced enough not obsolete. If the pandemic were to go on for a long time, self-isolation and working from home would be easy and fun in such a smart home environment. Illness should not be an obstacle to maintaining individual independence. Even Alzheimer's is safe enough in such a home environment — from an AI perspective, protecting a babbling child from a cliff should be no different than avoiding a confused adult falling into the same dangerous situation. There will be no safer place to live than HIGHCLIFF, and no family member living in it will need to leave the house for health reasons. HIGHCLIFF will always be the best living environment for every family member to thrive.
But in reality, what will such a life look like? How exactly does HIGHCLIFF know what family members, every guest, and even some permanent workers are thinking and taking care of each person's specific needs? What is the best way to help people with severe disabilities, or Alzheimer's, or just old age, to keep them safe, not to go hungry, to be perceptive to changes in the outside world, and to participate in external affairs? What's the best way to balance security and privacy? And to what extent are the "best solutions" for everyone different? For example, how is the "best plan" for me different from the "best plan" for Laura?
How HIGHCLIFF will help Ollie and his buddies with their homework in the garden, while knowing that the Lone Wolf Sith is composing music on an electric piano, while also assisting Andrew and me with high-tech research, while texting Laura at work that the courier she was waiting for had just been delivered home, while turning off the oven button that Andrew had previously turned on for a later family dinner in the garden. Turn off the sprinkler in front of the room to prevent the passing Eddie from getting wet, while keeping the strange person in front of the door who tried to look at the room twice?
How can I have my smart wheelchair take me to a big house and anywhere in the garden with just one command, and at the same time how will HIGHCLIFF do all kinds of things to open and close doors and open lights? How do I even regulate my real-time environment – such as temperature, lighting, music, art viewing installations on the walls of the entire house? How do I control the TV? Or AR? Or VR? How can others have the same level of control? How does HIGHCLIFF interact with other people in the best way? How does HIGHCLIFF train a novice caregiver to meet the criteria for joining a care team? How can I help Laura to delete a resume? What should highcliff's personality traits look like, or should its personality traits fluctuate? What is it like to be in a seemingly impenetrable firewall of HIGHCLIFF, while data flows freely between smart devices in the physical space from the kitchen to the study, to the media room, to the door of the house? By blending seamlessly with family cars and highly customized smart wheelchair devices, and everyone's mobile phone and tablet, how can HIGHCLIFF provide the best protection and service for our families?
No one in the world can answer these questions at the moment, and HIGHCLIFF is such a unique research opportunity, a unique demonstration of human-centered AI, a unique light of hope.
36Kr: If our readers wanted to learn more about ALS or robotics, what books, films, or podcasts would you recommend?
Peter: Honestly, I used to be a very diligent reader, but in recent years I've found myself not having much time to read!
However, I would still recommend a must-read "old" book, after all, this book published in the 1950s has been around for more than 70 years. But just recently when I reread it, I found that what it was talking about was only confirmed by reality today.
The book is Isaac Asimov's I, the Robot.
To my great amazement, this collection of stories was written primarily in the 1940s, when the first computer was only secretly invented, but it already raises the same moral and scientific issues that we face today in the face of AI technology.
So in this sense, this is a book of both historical value and very contemporary avant-garde significance, which is worth reading!
Finally, if that doesn't seem too abrupt, if any readers are interested in my life as a cyborg over the past two years, there's a company that has produced three great podcasts and won a lot of awards. I wasn't directly involved in the production team, and I wouldn't have benefited from any financial aspects of the show, otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned it to you. But I'd say that this podcast provides a perspective that you won't find anywhere else, with a glimpse into people with ALS and some of my personal life history. The URL is as follows:
https://shows.acast.com/humanguineapig
Recommended reading
Title: Peter 2.0 by Peter Scott-Morgan Producer: Boji Tianjuan