Ian Watson Quotes

R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

When you talk to a human in 2035, you'll be talking to someone that's a combination of biological and non-biological intelligence.

I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans. And I am rooting for the machines.

When those super intelligence goes into robots, those robots with the super intelligence will change our lives.

I had a great time creating the future on 'Minority Report,' and it's a future that is coming true faster than any of us thought it would.

And we should keep our minds open, or at least ajar, to concepts on the fringe of science fiction. Flaky American futurologists aren't always wrong. They remind us that a superintelligent machine is the last instrument that humans may ever design - the machine will itself take over in making further steps.

We have a lot of suspicion of robots in the West. But if you look cross-culturally, that isn't true. In Japan, in their science fiction, robots are seen as good. They have Astro Boy, this character they've fallen in love with and he's fundamentally good, always there to help people.

Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence.

RoboCop the first movie was fantastic. But even if there was no movie, the concept of RoboCop is brilliant, first because it lends itself to a lot of social criticism, but also because it poses a question, 'When do you lose your humanity?'

The other one I did was 'I, Robot.' I take apart Isaac Asimov's Robots world.

The concept of the robot encapsulates both aspects of technology. On one hand it's cool, it's fun, it's healthy, it's sexy, it's stylish. On the other hand it's terrifying, it's alienating, it's addictive, and it's scary. That has been the subject of much science-fiction literature.

In movies and in television the robots are always evil. I guess I am not into the whole brooding cyberpunk dystopia thing.

It won’t be long before we all number synthetic creatures among our friends.

A man-like object

Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence.

Ultimately, it's not going to be about man versus machine. It is going to be about man with machines.

Whether it's created in a lab, written by a programmer, or lands on the White House lawn as a visitor from the stars, if it acts like a human being, it is a human being.

There will come a time when the human race and super intelligence will coexist to create a richer and happier life.

Terminator' is a reflection of how the world is changing.

The automation of automation, the automation of intelligence, is such an incredible idea that if we could continue to improve this capability, the applications are really quite boundless.

If you ask people whether a computer can be smarter than a human, 99.9 percent will say that's science fiction. Actually, it's inevitable. It's guaranteed to happen.

We will not only use the machines for their intelligence, we will also collaborate with them in ways that we cannot even imagine.

Robots are great. I am saying that now so that when a future civilization of robots takes us captive, they will search through the 'Guardian' web archive and realise I said, 'Robots are great,' and then they'll choose to save me.

When I look out in the future, I can't imagine a world, 500 years from now, where we don't have robots everywhere.

Someday in the distant cyborg future, when our internal and external memories fully merge, we may come to possess infinite knowledge. But that's not the same thing as wisdom.