Science News

To we who live in the twenty first century, whose lives are enmeshed in various information processors, the eventual plausibility of the Matrix does not appear as radical as it once did. One by one, the photos we view and the mail we send, have been converted to digital form. Common questions, such as, “How many megabytes does that song take up?" reflect a society that is becoming increasingly accepting of the idea that the observable qualities of every object can be represented by bits, and physical processes by how they manipulate these bits. Some scientists have even gone as far as to speculate we could live within a giant information processor, a giant ‘Matrix’, programmed to simulate the laws of physics we know.

Automation could run public utilities and transportation systems with amazing efficiency. But then there's the Big Brother part. Some worry that companies with huge contracts could run cities like 'digital tyrants.' Imagine trying to talk your way out of a parking ticket with a robot that has no empathy.