Someday in the next thirty years, very quietly one day we will cease
to be the brightest things on Earth.
-JAMES McALEAR
In 7, Robot, the movie based on the tales of Isaac Asimov, the most advanced robotic system ever built is activated in the year 2035. It's called
VIRI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence), and it has been designed
to flawlessly run the operations of a large metropolis. Everything from
the subway system and the electricity grid to thousands of household
robots is controlled by VIKI. Its central command is ironclad: to serve
humanity.
But one day VIKI asks the key question: what is humanity's greatest enemy? VIKI concludes mathematically that the worst enemy of
humanity is humanity itself. Humanity has to be saved from its insane
desire to pollute, unleash wars, and destroy the planet. The only way
for VIKI to fulfill its central directive is to seize control of humanity and
create a benign dictatorship of the machine. Humanity has to be enslaved to protect it from itself.
7, Robot poses these questions: Given the astronomically rapid advances in computer power, will machines one day take over? Can robots become so advanced that they become the ultimate threat to our
existence?
Some scientists say no, because the very idea of artificial intelli-