Machine Of Human Dreams Essay

“Humans are not the end of the line, any more than amoebas are the end of the line. We’re a step along the path to more and more intelligent, amazing forms,” says A.I. guru Ben Goertzel as the film opens, just when he walks by a line of people waiting at a bus stop in the documentary directed by Roy Cohen, Machine of Human Dreams.

Intellectually engaging for the inquiring minds and entertaining enough for the general public, the film chronicles Goertzel pursuing his lifelong dreams of creating Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), with broad capabilities at the human level and ultimately beyond. It also highlights the challenging process and the highs and lows of attempting a dream of this scale, with several hearts broken along the way.

Goertzel’s interest in exploring what lies beyond the perceived limits of

The sound effect meshes aptly with the scenes, particularly the robotic sounds as a new scene about the dotcom boom opens. The sequences transitioned smoothly as the film jumps from topic to topic; with every decade of Goertzel’s life covered, from the 1970’s to present day.

‘Life is like a game of chess’, a statement that rings true and is the notion echoed throughout the film, which runs for about 75 minutes. Just like in chess, where time management is required both on the clock and on the board, Goertzel and his OpenCog team wrestle with keeping up to schedule, which results in their failure to obtain governmental fund. Your time is a precious resource, and you’ll lose despite your strengths if you don’t manage it. Sacrifice is also in order: you have to give up a few things in order to gain something. In Goertzel’s case, he gave up his stable job in Australia to move to New York for his A.I. based startup, which led to his divorce. These are some of the many valuable takeaways from the