Why?

I was having a conversation this week, with who, I will not disclose, but they were describing the unlimited possibilities and potential Artificial Intelligence has as a field. We were talking of intelligent walls and tables that could talk. I was personally astonished because what was it we were solving? I am simply ignorant, but I wanted to know what the problem was that we had a solution for. I began wondering if we were answering the questions before asking them, solving the problems before they existed.

I thought, maybe it was an intellectual exploration. How far could we go. That also sounded oddly familiar - how many people had not declared their goal was to conquer the world? It is not that I am anti-imagination or anti-sci-fi, but...I could not pinpoint the source of my hesitation. One of my worries was the what-if question that nagged me. Today, we live in a society that is certainly scary at times. We live with gadgets and tools that are constantly pulling data from us, most of the time without our knowledge. As I write this blog, my data is likely being taken from me - how long I take to type a word, when I created this document, how long I spent, how many edits I have made, the actual document itself, my style of writing (if I had one), how many misspelt words, how many grammar errors, and so on. It is virtually impossible to use these powerful tools without paying the cost of giving away our data, our privacy.

Then I wondered, are smart homes really necessary? In a sense, we already have built bubbles around ourselves with social media. We already live inside an intelligent bubble, so do we need a physical one too? I obviously have no vision nor imagination, but perhaps it is simply that we, as the human race, want to go on this intellectual journey, and worry about the use cases afterwards. Create a solution, then figure out what the problem was.

To be extremely pessimistic for a moment, I was reminded of E = mc^2. If we were to try to move at the speed of light, our mass would have to become infinite, and therefore it is not possible. So, if we kept going in terms of our capabilities in finding patterns, needing more and more data, feeding this gargantuan intelligence that feeds on data like a monster. At some point, we might reach physical limitations, until the next breakthrough - quantum computing perhaps. Regardless, resources are needed to feed a more powerful, more capable, more intelligent tool.

This made me wonder on an extremely microscopic level (that is what this project is about - slicing and dicing such a large field into a more takeable stepping stone), what if my project is not really solving any problem? Am I that convinced that this is useful, or am I too going on a “how much can I learn” journey? I remember, when we were explaining our Original Work projects to our fellow classmates, I was asked this question - “Why?”. I could have made up an answer in that moment, lived in an imaginative world where I had very noble and novel intentions. The truth struck me then. I had fabricated a reason because if there was not one, what was the point? How could it be useful to anyone, except for appeasing my selfish curiosity?

When I walked into this class, I knew I would explore this field by taking little steps as a potential career. I did not expect to question myself. In this scenario, it is too little to make a big impact. However, if these continue, and one day I find myself building something I, along with my teammates, believe to be grand, what would happen if I am incapable of asking myself - “what is the purpose”?