The Robots Are Coming

Google just changed the world again.

Their Alpha go machine convincingly beat probably the best humankind can offer at the ancient board game of GO - and GO to those of you, who like me have never played I’m told is game of mathematical tactics and strategy similar to chess but much, much more complex and infinite in terms of possible moves and thus crucially requiring both imagination and intuition.

This is huge folks- the robots are coming.

The ability of machines to potentially out think – out imagine and develop intuitions far, far beyond our mere mortal capacities is huge. The implications for us, the future, technology and the wider environment are as hopeful as they are terrifying.

The potential for vast and accelerated abilities to problem solve coupled with new materials is pointing us towards some great leaps forward in many, many ways and undoubtedly a few step back too.

We live in exciting times.

About the same time, humankind was being one-upped by artificially intelligent machines I was in a shed in rural New Zealand watching Aaron ‘Surge’ Surgenor hand shaping me a six-eight ready for winter.

Surge is a bit of local legend, what you might call a quiet achiever- kills it in the surf with more style than a snow leopard from Milan, he’s been shaping and surfing the area since he was a kid- his walls are adorned with fuzzy pictures of empty waves in places whose specific location remain ambiguous even after extensive interrogation. He shows up right when the conditions are good and is gone by the first breaths of onshore- he’s a man of few words but has a facial expression for most of them.

My mind is prone to wandering and as I watched surge draw and cut the template out I started thinking of the increasing encroachment of technology into our modern world- machine shaping has been with us in surfing for a while now- it’s a boring debate really – Hand shaped vs Machine- to be honest, do any of us really care?

If you’ve got your specifications down and they work well for you- how bothered actually are you whether it was muscle memory and flesh or some software-driven-manganese-alloy that shaped them?

I wager that if it feels good and your getting pitted, it matters little.

Personally, I’m a believer in the process- it is not the glossed and speed coated destination that I’m evangelical about; it’s the pencil, sand paper and foam dusted journey I’m concerned with. It’s all the tweaks, imperfections, and nuances that go into a hand shaped board that makes the magic.

It’s a very human kind of magic — one of imperfection, intuition, and imagination.

At least for now a machine won’t intuitively make another pass with the planer just to ‘bring the arse in a bit’, or know that despite you inflated opinion of your wave catching prowess you might just need that extra quarter inch of foam under your chest.

However, nor will the machine mix its resin too hot or put a fin in cocked eyed either.

The surfer shaper relationship is a human one – undoubtedly an economic bond yet one with deep roots in a shared passion.

The Machine hasn’t seen your heavy-footed bottom turn or epileptic duck diving. The machine won't suggest a stinger or a roll in the rail half way through the process- it won't steer you toward and the extra layer of glass on the back third.

All good designs evolve; they start at A and might just have to take few imaginative and intuitive detours to get to B.

As I watched Surge dancing around the foam like you would a coiled cobra in a telephone box- tutting and muttering to himself under his mask, ducking and honing an eye down the rail, wincing and then raising eyebrows- constantly rubbing and feeling his way through the process- imagining the shape and intuitively feeling for the magic form it was hard to imagine a machine providing the same level of experience.

It leaves me a little cold-thinking about sitting in a machine’s garden having a beer discussing the options for my winter quiver- knowing that the machine had never gone over the falls on a six footer or that It didn’t know I have one of the poorest top turns in the game.

Anyhow like I say my mind tends to wander – I was walking back to the take off spot having wiggled my way down the full length of the point on a solid one, stood aloft on my brand new magic board.

Perhaps the days of the hand shaper really are numbered - maybe Alpha go’s progeny will indeed be shaping grapheme boards that they’ve thought up all on their own - I just hope for the magic’s sake it’s a long time coming.

Check out Surge's magic handywork here.

Dan Kerins is photographer, writer, surfer and horticulturalist specialising in ill-planned and under-funded excursions into the lesser known.

To see more of his work please visit: dankerinsphotography.com or keep up to date on Facebook.