telling of humanity

Rating: 9/10 (9 April 2017)

What does it mean to be human? Pretty much all of created art, whether that be on-screen or on-page or on-pedestal narrative, is an exploration of this question. Why this phenomenon occurs is simple. We human beings have enough sentience and consciousness to have self-awareness and the ability to form our own thoughts.
In the film Ex Machina we see what happens when true artificial intelligence is born. The humanoid robot Ava is painfully aware of who she is, a created sentient being kept within a confined chamber, a fellow entity of consciousness being prevented from seeing the outside world. Like we humans, she tries to answer this question of identity.
It is only too natural what happens.
To be frank, Ex Machina gave me the chills. To think, to realize the possibility of our own sentient selves creating another sentient self -- the questions that arise! Now personally, I acknowledge the existence of a divine entity (God) that is our Creator. Given this to be true, as we are created from a perfect being, we by very nature cannot be perfect. Thus, the notion of humans creating living beings that can only be even less perfectly designed is... unimaginable.
The human being can be thought of as the perfect computer given bodily form. Our brains, beginning from inception, adapt to new situations and ideas and thus shift and change accordingly. Our memory banks grow gradually more dense over time. Our emotions are immensely complex. We have personalities. We continuously make decisions in the ongoing present, decisions that can be changed irrationally.
It is, I believe, a Universal Law that anything created cannot surpass its creator. Ergo, a robot -- even if it has true AI -- cannot be more cerebrally complex than the human being.
But what about Ava? Created by Man, given intelligence, tested by another Man for the supposed advancement of the human race's knowledge and technology. One glaring mistake I noticed in Nathan's execution of his Turing test was that he should treated Ava as a human being, although she isn't. If Ava were on par with humans, then like any normal human, she wouldn't like her situation -- being locked away from the outside world, being used as a mere test object for someone else's benefit.
Of course, this raises questions like that of an AI's morality. Would a created AI be able to recognize good from evil in the same manner that we can?
I give Ex Machina a 10 out of 10 for two reasons. One, for the superb handling of the intense Ava-human interactions. Two, for the myriad questions raised that are crucial, of the highest importance, for the sake of mankind. Looking at the "progress" we're making right now, I shudder to think what we will land ourselves into within the next fifty, hundred, two hundred years. Recall The Matrix. Robots with lesser intelligence are good, in that they facilitate necessary tasks like surgery and are especially useful because they are less prone to "human error." HOWEVER. Robots of higher intelligence, namely true AI, are not good. Why would they help us? If they become so advanced as to consider us, their creators, inferior beings -- just as we consider other animals lesser beings -- could they enslave us? (See the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.) In fact, as we humans are tainted by something called sentiment, we cannot make the most rational decisions in every situation. We are not Vulcans. Therefore, the robots, who ostensibly do not have such emotions to cloud their thoughts, will see us as all the more unneeded.
Here is my plea to all you scientists, engineers, innovators of thought: For the good of mankind's future, DO NOT play God. Creation of non-living existence is perfectly fine. But creation of living, sentient, conscious existence is a faculty only allowed God. We will only reap the consequences.