A.I. & Zombies 4-Ever

Everything seems to be coming up artificial intelligence and zombies lately, with talk of AI’s wiping us off the earth in order to solve all the world’s problems, and zombies in all forms of storytelling, fighting the living as a reminder of just how mortal we all are.

These two having a zeitgeist moment doesn’t surprise me. They go together like peanut butter and chocolate, provided you don’t taste them.

Zombies are us at a baseline— a body without a brain. Without all the baggage that makes us who we are as individuals, hence great for deep-seeded horror, social satire, or my favorite, both at the same time.

And artificial intelligence is the flipside to zombies. AI, whether online, in a mainframe, or in robots, is us if we were perfect— a brain without a body, or at least without all the baggage that comes with having a body.

That is why I hypothesize that when our age does end, what will take our place will not have the imperfect, but lovable humanity that created them, but instead will rule the planet separate but equal, with no crossover of purpose. There will be zombies and there will be artificial intelligence.

And cockroaches, of course, because where would the world be without them?