Artificial Beings Have Always Inspired Awe – and Terror

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-14-2025

Publication Title

Digital Frontier

Abstract

(First paragraph) NEARLY SIX DECADES AGO – when your grandmum and grandpapa were making out in the back of a dark movie theatre – they came up for air to stare into the piercing red eye of the HAL 9000. This early cinematic depiction of advanced AI from Stanley Kubrick's “2001: A Space Odyssey” smugly declared: “No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.” At that moment, the potential reality of an AI smarter than humans – yet still imbued with human ego – zoomed into the magic meat machines inside the audience’s heads and forevermore lodged itself in the zeitgeist.

Original Publication Citation

Nieubuurt, J. T. (2025, April 14). Artificial beings have always inspired awe – and terror. Digital Frontier. https://digitalfrontier.com/articles/awe-artificial-ai-pandora-talos

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