The Ultimate Nightmare: Machines That Think

If we create these, it could definitely become a horror story–IF they take over! When the Master of the Key burst into Whitley Strieber’s hotel room in 1998, Whitley asked him if he was an intelligent machine. MOTKE replied (naturally) that "If I was, I wouldn’t tell you." Are scientists planning to create hybrids to take over some of the work that humans do now? (NOTE: You can get "Hybrids" and "The Key" from the Whitley Strieber Collection, and they will arrive with an autographed bookplate designed by Whitley!)

Plans to develop the “smart” grid–a system that uses intelligent computer networks to manage electric power–cannot succeed without the creation of new “thinking machines” that can learn and adapt to new situations, from power outages along the grid to fluctuations in the power supply. These new machines must take on almost human-like intelligent characteristics, such as the ability to make decisions, adapt to unfamiliar situations, learn from changes in their environments and make sense of how all of the electricity flows through the nation’s power grid. Power engineering expert Ganesh Kumar Venayagamoorthy says these "thinking machines" can make decisions "in complex, uncertain and changing environments."

Here’s what we want to know: WHAT ELSE will these hybrids be doing in the future? This is truly an example of what scientists call "the ghost in the machine." Whitley and Anne are both very familiar with ghosts, as Anne Strieber reveals when she tells TRUE ghost stories for subscribers on this week’s "Screamland" (or ARE they ghosts?) She also reads an incredible contactee letter about the returning dead (Subscribers can still listen to ALL of these shows!)