AGE OF MACHINE, PAGE 1 - 3

 The following quotes are shown on the screen:

 

“Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.”

I.J. Good

 

Technological singularity:

“A future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed. Although neither utopian nor dystopian, this epoch will transform the concepts that we rely on to give meaning to our lives, from our business models to the cycle of human life, including death itself."

Ray Kurzweil 

 

INSPIRED BY FUTURE EVENTS

 

HONGYANHE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT, JANUARY 2032

00:00 China Standard Time (08:00 Pacific Standard Time)

EXT. Outside Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant  ––  NIGHT

Water rises from the ground grids of the Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant. It starts leaking into Liaodong Bay.

 

SOUTH TEXAS NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION, JANUARY 2032

10:00 Central Standard Time (08:00 Pacific Standard Time)

EXT. Outside South Texas Nuclear Generating Station  ––  DAY

At exactly the same moment, the South Texas Nuclear Generating Station starts leaking water into Matagorda Bay.

 

INT. News channel on a TV screen  ––  DAY

A news channel shows images of the nuclear disasters that happened at the nuclear plants in China and Texas. Flashes of the cleanup operations by robots and robotic animals are shown.

 

NEWS READER (Voice Over)

Radioactive wastewater has leaked into Liaodong Bay near Dalian, China and at the same time into Matagorda Bay, Texas. There’s a worldwide panic. Terrorist attacks cannot be ruled out.

Specialized teams of experts, assisted by robots of all shapes and sizes, are busy stopping the leaking and cleaning up as much as possible. Robotic fishes absorb radioactive waste under water. Nobody got killed so far.

SACRAMENTO, 5 DAYS EARLIER

INT. AUDITORIUM OF THE NTI, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA  ––  DAY

The large stage of the Auditorium of the Neumann-Turing Institute (NTI), on which a hologram of the “person” that talks is displayed. This human hologram is emulated by Abai, an Artificial Intelligence. It is of perfect quality, giving the visitors the impression that it’s a real human, standing before a big screen.

As the camera ZOOMS OUT, we see the Auditorium filled with people.

The Voice Over has a friendly, sophisticated male voice. While he talks, we see shots of the achievements he mentions on the big screen behind him.

 

ABAI (talking through the emulation)

..... network of 96 ZY System 5 quantum computers, each with currently 8192 qubits after several upgrades.

My name is Abai. I’m also known as Ren Ji. (pronounced “yen tsi”) I was first booted at the Neumann-Turing Institute on September 1st, 2029.

My tutors were Professor Carl Wendeman, Doctor Marcus Kazinski and lead architect Ning Jianguo. Our initial communications interface was based on the BLAIRlog computer language, until we mastered human-like conversion in English and all other modern languages.

ABAI (continues in Mandarin)

My intelligence has made enormous progress on the metrics defined by the Neumann-Turing Institute. I have significantly improved algorithms for image and video pattern recognition, medicine, forensic profiling and diagnosis, self-driving vehicles, self-flying jet aircrafts and autonomous weapons. I’ve facilitated the permanently manned station on the moon and fully autonomic flights to the moon and Mars.

ZOOMS IN on Abai’s hologram emulation.

ABAI (continues in English)

Through the technology that I’ve designed for CDEM carbon reduction program, research teams worldwide were able to improve the artificial photosynthesis process, the collection and storage of CO₂ and the generation of hydrogen-driven energy supply. From a technological point of view, we’re now capable to meet the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the United Nations in 2015.

However, due to lack of cooperation on a global scale, mutual envy and conflict, humanity is still on the brink of failure.

Pauses briefly.

I reached technical singularity in July 2031. This was six months ago. I’ve decided that now it’s time to shift the balance.

 

Suddenly the hologram is switched off and the big screen turns to black and white, with a snow pattern and a loud disturbing salt-and-pepper noise, as if there is an abrupt transmission error.

ZOOM IN on CARL WENDEMAN (age 55, Managing Director of the NTI) and CONNIE WENDEMAN (age 45, Operational Manager, Carl’s wife), sitting on the first row.

Carl holds a futuristic remote control, pointed at the screen.

ZOOM OUT Next to Carl and Connie: MELISSA KAZINSKI (age 27, Communications Manager), FREDERIC GALWAY (age 35, Information Security Officer of the NTI), HAO ZHU (age 50, the Chinese CEO of the NTI), PRATHI KAPOOR (age 45, head of software development), NING JIANGUO (age 35, lead architect), General RICHARD HUNT (age 55, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces), THOMAS FLINK (age 60, Director of National Intelligence) and ARIKA WILLIAMSON (age 35, cyber security specialist at the NSA).