In this blog post, we explore the possibility of a future where computers rule humanity and discuss how we can prepare for it.
When I was young, I watched movies like *The Terminator* and *The Matrix*. I still vividly remember feeling afraid while watching them, wondering if a world where humanity is ruled by computers might actually arrive in the near future. In those movies, powerful artificial intelligence that surpassed human will emerged, subjugating humans and establishing a new order. Back then, this scenario became a topic that prompted serious reflection, going beyond mere fear. Fortunately, the dark and bleak future depicted in those films has not yet arrived. And such a future is unlikely to arrive for quite some time.
In fact, we have already become so accustomed to computers. Smartphones have evolved beyond mere phones to become miniature computers. They never leave our hands all day long, and fiddling with them even when there’s nothing to do seems to have become a habit for many people. Modern society lives in a flood of information, and most of this information is now accessible at the touch of a finger. Classes now use computers instead of blackboards, and I, too, am writing this blog post on a computer right now. It has become impossible to imagine doing anything anywhere without a computer. Online shopping, banking, medical services—almost every aspect of our lives revolves around computers. But despite this immense influence, I still do not believe that computers will ever dominate humanity. Because computers are simply too stupid.
Of course, despite this stupidity, computers have been a tremendous innovation for human progress. Their simple yet marvelous processing power has enabled us to perform vast calculations that we would never have dared to attempt in the past. Computers have allowed us to find answers to problems that were mathematically unsolvable through brute-force computation. Experiments and calculations that used to take years can now yield results in a single day through simulation. This has led to new discoveries and technological innovations, making our lives unimaginably richer. Computers have driven innovation in nearly every aspect of science, technology, art, and daily life, establishing themselves as tools that further enhance human creativity. In this way, computers have become our excellent assistants through their simple yet remarkable capabilities. As the years have passed, their capabilities have doubled, and humanity has advanced alongside them. However, we are now beginning to see the limits of this progress. It is time for computers to move beyond simply becoming faster and start becoming smarter.
Computers are fundamentally digital logic circuits composed of 1s and 0s. In other words, when given an input, they make a yes-or-no judgment based on their internal logic and output the result of that judgment. Despite this logical nature, computers aren’t particularly smart. This is because they don’t create logic on their own; they simply make decisions very quickly based on the rules we’ve programmed into them. In that sense, computers are like stubborn fools who work well but lack thought and flexibility. To make such computers smarter, we aim to understand why we are intelligent and apply those insights to them. We are all intelligent. This is thanks to our brains.
Unlike computers, our brains possess intuition, allowing us to solve problems directly and think at a higher level than computers. This is due to neurons—the brain cells—and the synapses, which are the connections between them. Our brains are composed of approximately 100 billion neurons, and each neuron is connected to roughly 10,000 other neurons via synapses, creating a highly complex and sophisticated structure. While these synapses fundamentally transmit digital signals of 1 and 0 (on/off), similar to a computer, they also transmit analog signals that vary continuously, such as signal intensity or patterns.
Thanks to this, our brain is capable of creating a more sophisticated and complex signaling system rather than a simple yes-or-no logic circuit. Furthermore, as signals are transmitted, specific substances accumulate at each synapse, allowing it to remember those signals; as these memories and experiences accumulate, we develop intuition. In this way, the brain is able to be intelligent due to its highly sophisticated and complex structure and functioning. Furthermore, significant efforts are underway to apply the brain’s structure to computers in order to make them as intelligent as the human brain.
Quantum computers, which are currently the subject of extensive research, do not have a fixed state of either 1 or 0. By utilizing the principle of quantum mechanics—where a state can exist in both states simultaneously based on probability—quantum computers can process higher-dimensional logic rather than simple yes-or-no logic. Additionally, a recently developed device called a memristor changes its characteristics based on the signals that pass through it, much like a synapse, and can thus remember those signals. These new technologies, when combined with artificial intelligence (AI), demonstrate the potential to evolve computers from simple computational tools into intelligent thinking tools.
However, we still have a long way to go. There are still countless challenges to overcome before these technologies can be put into practical use. Even regarding the brain we seek to emulate, there is far more we do not know than what we do know. We still need, and are currently conducting, extensive research on the brain. Nevertheless, we will soon be able to create the new computers we desire. This is because we possess the world’s smartest computer: the brain. And the new computers created by incorporating the structure of that intelligent brain will transcend today’s computers—which merely compute—to become thinkers that can actually think. And by then, I might once again find myself worrying about and fearing a future where computers dominate humanity.
