A Galaxy Not Far, Far Away

A Galaxy Not Far, Far Away

Whitney McKim

INF 103: Computer Literacy

Professor Michael Wayne Jones

July 15, 2008

The time is the distant and unknown future… A time of unheard of technological advances, robots who care, empathetic and thought processing houses, cameras who babysit and prisoners who no longer live behind bars. Machines performing surgeries, unmanned vehicles fighting our wars and hearts beating without the will of the human host.   Horror stories and whimsical fantasies abound from the science fiction novels with dog-eared pages and worn down page numbers. Science magazines and military magazines tell us of the opportunities available to save our human soldiers and medical journals tell the world that there are new discoveries every day that will save thousands, if not millions.   The possibilities amaze and frighten us just the same, sometimes even leaving us numb and unable to speak. Leaving us awe struck and dumb founded.   The future is distant and only the self proclaimed physics can foretell of its tales. However, this is not a novel or in the distant future… this is the tale of today, of the present. Now is the time for our “…galaxy far, far, away”.

Merriam – Webster defines artificial intelligence as a “branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers and the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior. The encyclopedia states that it is, “…a sub-field of computer science concerned with understanding the nature of intelligence and constructing computer systems capable of intelligent action”. (Merriam-Webster, 2008) Any activity that is produced by an animal of any kind requires a process of thought and action, combined. In order for a computer to do this, it first must be given the information or data in order for it to carry out the instructed command. Once the command is sent then the machine in question should perform accordingly. But, what if the machine could be...