The Imitation Code.

Alan Turing wrote a paper regarding his deciphering of the Enigma Code of German U-boats during the Second World War. In order to break the Enigma Code, an encryption scheme, called an algorithm, was used to decipher the U-boat codes regarding when and where they would attack both merchant ships carrying arms and so on, as well as warships. This of course gave the allies an enormous advantage, as the merchant and warships could be warned and change course. In order to break the Enigma Code, Turing used unimaginably complex sequences. Turing believed that this achievement offered a glimpse into the future consciousness of machines. Could a computer develop to such a point that it could successfully mimic a human? More importantly, humanity would have crossed the Rubicon to a world in which humans would ultimately be governed by robots. In 2012, Vladimer Veselov at the University of Reading created a software program that successfully mimicked a thirteen-year-old Ukranian boy named Eugene Goostman.

Artificial intelligence (AI) he thought, after conducting many experiments, would cease to be artificial, but real. The Hotel Sky Cape Town has 2 robots named Lexi and Ariel, with a new third one named Micah. So the major drawcard for the hotel are their electronic employees, named Micah, Lexi and Ariel. The three AI-powered robots are trained to assist guests in various ways, from luggage portage and room service deliveries, to answering questions about the hotel and surrounding areas. If they notice that guests in one of the rooms look distressed or unhappy (facial recognition), then they report this to reception, and a hotel staff member will pay the guests a courtesy visit and ask if everything is OK.

Increasingly complex machines since 2010 have been able to adapt strategies to fool humans: where a computer behind a screen talks to humans pretending to be human. They were sometimes caught out by giving incorrect answers to questions posed. So now these robots change the subject, ask questions of the judges and even simulate moods and typos in text exchanges. These strategies are meant to make them look more human. Their "imitation" has become increasingly devious.

In 2017 Uber's headquarters in San Francisco described the Uber "cab app". However, for Uber to provide an app that can merely order a cab is only the beginning. Uber in fact has the potential to immerse itself in a digital representation of a city. It is a form of "augmented reality" - a hybrid of real life and a parallel representation on screen in which the digital enmeshes itself in your day-to-day life, and so "becomes your life". At the moment Uber only provide cabs and food, with a little car you can follow on screen en route. But the data that Uber are amassing allows the algorithms to begin predicting your needs and suggesting them (great marketing tool): do you want coffee and so on. We already have contact lenses developed with screens projecting onto the eye allowing instant decision-making. The total Uber experience will mean that the avatar of you will be three steps ahead of the real you: shopping, buying tickets for the cinema, or dealing with traffic jams before you have to, and using voice recognition or retina technology to do it.

This in not Us versus Robots (the terminator), but a future enmeshed together in which the boundaries of where they end and we begin are blurred. This is not a Jetsons world of tin-can machines doing things for us, but digital technology and human life as a seamless whole: a singularity. This augmented reality in our eye will be supplemented by in-body technology - blood-cleaning nano-computers; thermostatic control of our heart rate; blood pressure and stress levels. This is not a world of giant striding machines, but microscopic tech hacks of human life. "Hard edged business decisions are made by people who reconfigured our lives with a plan, and at their heart was one simple conceit: invent a problem and then sell the solution". Rene Girard.

The "IOT" - Internet of things - ?describes the network of physical objects—“things”—that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet globally. The Internet is among the few things humans have built that they do not truly understand. What began as a means of electronic information transmission, has transformed into an omnipresent and endlessly multifaceted outlet for human energy and expression. It is in a constant state of mutation, growing larger and more complex with each passing second. In 2007, the Estonian government's decision to remove a Russian WWII memorial in its capital, Tallinn, resulted in it being abruptly struck down by (DDoS) - "distributed denial of service" attack.

Prof Rory Dunn.