Millennium Checkmate

Note: I originally wrote the following essay for my college yearbook "The Class of 2000 Queens College Silhouette." Unfortunately, due to editorial complications, it never appeared there properly. I decided to publish it here at Suite101.com since I felt it serves well as an introduction to the role artificial intelligence (AI) will one day play, and indeed already plays, in our daily lives. In future articles I intend to elaborate further on how AI directly relates to Digital Age Information Security.

Welcome to the new millennium! And though the class of '01 will correctly argue that they are in fact the first graduating class of this millennium no one will be paying any attention. Society has already drained out all the excitement the arrival of the new millennium exhibited. Indeed millennium fever was a curious phenomenon which swept the nation, nay the world. Whether it was due to the media or perhaps advertisers, ("purchase your millennium yearbook!") society seemed increasingly anxious to kick off the new millennium. So anxious in fact we started it a year early. The new millennium, it seems, is an immense culmination of all the advancements and of all the achievements of mankind-- a symbolic pit stop on the road of life where we can pull over and enjoy the view.

And what a view indeed! Science has abolished illnesses once thought incurable. The completion of Human Genome Project promises to lengthen our list of extinct diseases. New mathematical theorems with powerful implications have now been proven. Culture has advanced. More art and music are being produced than ever before. Drama continues to perpetually influence our daily lives. Literature is flourishing. And man has made significant progress in the field of technology.

So where do we go from here? Not too long ago we would all be out on a farm planting corn and raising cattle instead of studying in universities. Other skilled folk would perhaps earn their bread by tailoring garments or pounding out horseshoes as a blacksmith. Today however, we can earn our livelihood simply by pushing the correct keys on a computer terminal. While granted this is a gross oversimplification, it appears that life has essentially been reduced down to one great big algebra problem. It is a problem we are still striving to solve.

Today we fervently program computers to execute all our tasks. Tomorrow will we program computers to program themselves thereby eliminating the need for us remarkably inefficient humans? I dare say hardly. While it is true technology has been a great help to many areas of our world it has had almost no impact on what many consider to be the most important more spiritual aspects of life. No computer will ever be able to compose Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" or produce Leonardo da Vinci 's "Mona Lisa," or scribe William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" with the all the deep-seated and hidden meaning Shakespeare embodies.