A Robot Uprising Might Show Us Who We Are

I have a feeling that a robot uprising, if it ever happens, will give humans a real sense of who we are.

Right now we're divided on almost everything — countries, religions, politics, money. We've never faced something that treats all of us as one species. A machine uprising would. For the first time, it wouldn't matter where you were born or what you believe. You'd just be human.

Everything that can be measured, they'll win

Machines will beat us at everything that can be measured: memory, speed, strength, math, even creativity on paper. That's already happening.

So whatever is left over — whatever they can't copy — that's the real us.

I think that's where the unexplored power of human beings is hiding. Love that goes beyond logic. Gut feelings that turn out to be right. People who somehow see what's coming before it happens. The person who runs back into the fire for a stranger. None of that shows up in a benchmark, and nobody has ever explained it.

Pressure brings it out

Every great story works this way. The hero doesn't find out what they can do until something shows up that's stronger than them. The Terminator, The Matrix, the Avengers — the enemy is what shows the hero who they really are.

Maybe humanity is the same. Maybe we've been sitting on powers we've never needed, because nothing has ever pushed us hard enough to use them.

I'm not wishing for an uprising. But if it comes, I don't think it's the end of us. I think it might be the first time we meet ourselves.