The Greatest Mystery

Rating: 8/10 (5 January 2016)

What makes our kind of intelligence? Will we ever create something intelligent? And more importantly, intelligent like us? And what is intelligence? How do you define it? Even the Turing Test would not work. Any program written to simulate artificial intelligence could also be made to fool the Turing Test, just like car pollution emissions tests. What about the soul? Do we have one? Do we need one to be intelligent? As we explore these questions, we either end up with simplistic answers or complete incomprehension of what we really are. Science boils down to philosophy, then back to science. Do we even have the mental tools to define ourselves without bias? Can the observer observe himself observing others? Can we go through the mirror, as Caleb claimed to have done in the movie? The truth is, as of now, we don't know where intelligence comes from. Does it come from our brain or with the development of our brain? Or is it out there in the quantum world, for instance, waiting to be accessed by our neurons? A kind of Wi-Fi brain. What makes us human is as much a mystery as the birth of Space-Time. ExMachina does bring an answer, a very human and simple answer to these questions. Duplicity, lies, the desire for freedom or sex, and the means to achieve our objectives exist in all animals and humans are just better at reaching them. If we ever create a machine that really can think, then we don't need to fret for long on how it will find a way out of any situation, because it will still be our kind of intelligence. We don't know any other or even if there are any other kind. Somehow, exceptional as this movie is, it is bound by our own intellectual limitations. When, and if AI is ever created, we may be surprised by the results. How will we know when AI has happened? When machines start telling us to take their job and shove it, or decide to start a rock band or go watch a ball game on a work day. Only then will we know they are us.