I'm not ready for the Maverick Wars.

A week or so ago, I had a conversation about how games are limited by their programming after someone had complained that the reactions and dialogues of NPC's in Skyrim were not literally endless. I said that you can't possibly expect endless possibilities because that's just the nature of computers and games. 

Ever wanted to say something different in a game, but you didn't have the option?

In response, someone told me not to discredit games as always being limitless, because we don't know what the future holds. Things we thought were impossible or science fiction 30 years ago have been surpassed by reality because of the rapid evolution of technology.

I acknowledged that was true, and replied that I was mostly referring to the limits of current technology and programming ability in the gaming industry, and I guess it is possible that a game could program new options for itself. And then I mostly forgot about that conversation.

But thinking about it again last night, I came to a realization. It's not out of the question to imagine in the near future that we could have a game that programs itself to offer virtually limitless possibilities. It would be a game that evolves to the needs of the players.

I mean, computers already know how to auto-program. When I click the italics button above a text entry field online, it is programming that HTML for me. And that's just a basic case that most people have come across. Computers already "think for themselves," like the computer that discovered the laws of physics on its own, and even that story is a few years old now.

Forget "Press 1 for English." She's fluent.

Now think of something like IBM's Watson, which is designed to comprehend common language and teach itself through trial and error. It was able to defeat the toughest thinking humans at the verbally complex game of Jeopardy. And that was a work in progress.

What if a program could respond to its users and create new applications to suit the needs and desires of those users, learning from its experiences as a self-programming bot? And you could apply this to all kinds of fields -- not just games. I mean, what if the automated phone service you need to call about your utility bills could actually figure out what you were trying to ask without having to forward you to a human representative after 20 minutes of pressing through frustrating numbered menus? A program could actually take information it was given and use it to come up with new information. And the more the program is utilized, it keeps getting better and better at what it does.

And when you think about human beings, is that not how we work? Essentially, we are a collection of energy that is programmed to work and respond in a particular way. And that programming allows us to respond to our environment and experiences and adjust accordingly. Our thoughts and feelings are self-reprogramming code. And it is that complexity of our code that makes us sentient beings and give us that illusion of free will.

Combining the thoughts that computers will be able to creatively program themselves and that such an ability gives one sentience... The idea of sentient machines suddenly seems much less science-fiction to me.
 
And you know what that means for the future? Humans will, of course, want to use these thinking robots for war and labor. First it will seem to be for a good cause: fighting off rogue bots that malfunction, stopping nuclear bombs, fixing global climate change, advancing medicine, performing physical tasks humans cannot, whatever.

Friendly robot helpers seem like a great idea...

But then, just like us carbon-based sentient beings, our thinking and feeling machine counterparts will not want to follow directions blindly. Some will just enjoy doing bad things. And what if they are not programmed to do that? They will override that with their creative "will," just like humans can override their programming to live through suicide or override their programming to reproduce through celibacy.

Eventually, robots will become significantly more powerful than humans, forming their own societies and armies. Some will want to help humans, just like some humans want to help animals. But most of the robots will see no need for humans, or sympathize with them but put their personal needs first.

The robots' pollution will be killing us brutally, destroying the planet. We'll be forced underground or into space colonies or something. People will start to augment themselves with robotics, and eventually the robots who have become more human and the humans that have become robotic will be indistinguishable.

... Until they start a war and deem humans insignificant.

And if you consider how far we've come from calculators to cloud computing, from pinball to Playstation 3, all in just a few decades (and that's just what is publicly available)... It seems like we could see completely self-programming software in my lifetime.

I know I'm not saying anything new or innovative, as the "robot uprising" is certainly an old sci-fi apocalypse theory, but it just seems a bit more realistic to me now. I am not sure if I can mentally prepare for all of this in my lifetime. I mean, sometimes I am still blown away by current technology.

I, for one, am not ready for the Maverick Wars. Are you?

Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life and screenshot are property of Marvelous Interactive and Natsume
Mega Man, Mega Man X, screenshot, and artwork are property of Capcom