For decades, the human mind has been infatuated with the idea of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). We often demonize A.I.s out of fear. In popular science-fiction, artificial intelligence is often portrayed as evil but what are we so afraid of? What makes this inevitable reality so terrifying?

As previously mentioned, society has demonized artificial intelligence since it became a concept. We see this in movies such as the groundbreaking movie "2001 A Space Odyssey" as well as some more recent works like "Transformers" and "The Avengers 2; Age of Ultron." The truth is that people are afraid of the unknown. People see this incredibly advanced machine and are intimidated or even frightened by its limitless possibilities. Many of the same people who fear true artificial intelligence are not aware that artificial intelligence is already a part of our everyday lives.

Many people walk around every day with their smartphones close at hand not realizing that they are walking around with a form of weak artificial intelligence. Siri, Cortana, and Google Now are all examples of weak artificial intelligence. They can assist an individual in their day-to-day routines. However there is a difference between weak and strong artificial intelligence. It is theorized that in the next 20 years we will see strong artificial intelligence all around us. Strong artificial intelligence, basically, can learn and improve itself exponentially. It would be able to make decisions much faster than any human ever could. This is usually fine with a majority of people; we would see it as faster internet and faster news updates. Our technical society would grow at incredible rates. What usually causes unrest, however, is the possibility of self-aware A.I.s.

This is the topic that science fiction nerds like myself have always enjoyed reading about. Imagine a computer so intelligent, that it could think for itself. An A.I. that is self-aware and can rationalize and make decisions with perfect precision. Imagine an A.I. that could understand emotion. The possibilities are endless and incredible to say the least. This is actually starting to take effect now. There is a large debate going on now about autonomous cars; cars that can drive themselves. Any car that steers itself, parks itself, and breaks automatically upon moving closer to a stationary object; contains artificial intelligence.

The debate going on about this technology is that eventually we will have public transit and private cars driving themselves. Many people would be excited; a part of me would love to sit back and take a nap while on my way to college every morning. However there is an unsettling issue at hand. If a dangerous situation unfolds in a split second what would happen? How would we program this car to react? Would we teach this A.I. philosophy so that it can make the best ethical decisions? Many people believe it is a good idea. Picture this; your car is driving you to work. Everyday you must pass a bridge in order to get to your job. What happens it there is an accident directly in front of the car and the A.I. is forces to turn right or left. On the car's right, there is five children; on the left, there is a free fall. If the car has ethical principles put into it's A.I. such as Utilitarian principles, the car would swerve left and only kill you, its passenger. The idea is that there would be so many variables in autonomous cars that we may be better off driving ourselves to work. Some say it is too dangerous to trust autonomous cars while others say it can be done in the future.

Artificial intelligence can also be used in medicine. It is likely that the cure for cancer will come from an A.I. rather than a human. It would be able to run diagnostics, work out and test different hypothesis' to ensure precision, and would be able to simulate the test on humans millions of times to ensure accuracy.

The possibilities are endless in regards to where artificial intelligence can go in the future. We may create the next 'Ultron' in an attempt to bring world peace, or we may create something far more incredible. Only time will tell the destiny of the human race; but one thing is certain. Wherever we end up as humans will be because artificial intelligence helped us get there.