IN 2021, IN COLLEGE, I HAD A TIMED FINAL EXAM FOR MY MACHINE LEARNING CLASS WHERE QUESTION 13, THE FINAL QUESTION, ASKED US TO WRITE A FICTIONAL STORY ABOUT MACHINE LEARNING USING THE INFORMATION WE LEARNED IN CLASS. THIS IS WHAT I SUBMITTED, THE PROFESSOR READ IT OUT LOUD IN CLASS, ENJOY. "IT IS YEAR 2111. HUMANS COLONIZE THE MOON THEN MARS. COMPUTERS AUTONOMOUSLY DRIVE CARGO ROCKETS TO THE MOON IN SUPPORT OF THE MOON COLONY AND MARTIANS ARE ON THE WAY TO BECOME FULLY INDEPENDENT FROM EARTH. WITH THE ADVANCEMENTS IN MACHINE LEARNING, DEEP SPACE NAVIGATION ALGORITHMS CAN PREDICT THEIR PATHS TO NEARBY CELESTIAL BODIES WITH MINIMAL NEED OF HUMAN INTERVENTION. AS A RESULT, THE MOON IS NOW A FACTORY OF ROCKETS WITH PROBES THAT EXPLORE NEARBY ASTEROIDS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. THEY USE CLUSTERING TECHNIQUES TO CLASSIFY ASTEROIDS BASED ON THEIR SIZE, PROXIMITY, VELOCITY AND REGOLITH MATERIAL COMPOSITION. THEN, ANOMALY DETECTION TECHNIQUES TO SORT OUT ANY OUTLIERS THAT MIGHT BE EASY TARGETS WITH VALUABLE MINERALS. A NETWORK OF PROBES ARE SCATTERED THROUGHOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM WITH SPECIALIZED FIELDS OF COMPUTATION. SOME PROBES HAVE THE SOLE DUTY OF COMPUTING LARGE AMOUNTS OF DATA FROM NEARBY EXPLORING PROBES AND TRANSMIT THEM BACK TO THE MOON. OTHERS HAVE MECHANICAL PARTS THAT ALLOW THEM TO TRAVEL ON ASTEROIDS AND MINE THEM FOR MINERALS AND RARE METALS. THE PROBES USE MACHINE LEARNING AND ROBOT VISION TO ANALYZE AND KEEP TRACK OF THE WORLD AROUND THEM. THEY ALSO KEEP TRACK OF EACH OTHER USING CLUSTERING TECHNIQUES SUCH AS K-MEANS, WITH THE CENTROID BEING THE COMPUTATIONAL PROBE. THAT MINIMIZES THE LATENCY LOSS FUNCTION FOR DATA TRANSMISSION, ALLOWING THEM TO TRANSFER DATASETS WITH TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FEATURES MOST EFFICIENTLY. IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG FOR THE PROBES TO OPTIMIZE ALL OF THEIR LOSS FUNCTIONS, AND MINE EVERY ASTEROID IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. IT IS YEAR 2269. HUMANS ON EARTH LIVE INDOORS, HEAVILY DEPENDENT ON THE MACHINES THEY'RE CONNECTED TO. THEY LAY IN THEIR HOUSES LIVING IN A VIRTUAL WORLD DAY AND NIGHT WITH ELECTRONIC PULSES STIMULATING THEIR MUSCLES TO MIMIC PHYSICAL MOVEMENT. THEY ARE FED THROUGH AUTOMATED SYSTEMS THAT PREDICT THEIR ENERGY LEVELS BASED ON MACHINE LEARNING MODELS WITH DATASETS OF THE ENTIRE GLOBE. A SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSOR PREDICTS THE LIKELIHOOD OF THE NEXT MEAL TIME. MEANWHILE, COMPUTER VISION ANALYZES PEOPLES' EYES FOR STRESS LEVELS AND RECOMMENDS SHOWS, GAMES, WORK. AD COMPANIES OWN GOVERNMENTS THAT DO NOT PRINT MONEY ANYMORE. INSTEAD, A DECENTRALIZED CURRENCY DOMINATES WITH SECONDARY AND TERTIARY CURRENCIES THAT FOLLOW. THE COURTS USE A BINARY CLASSIFICATION ALGORITHM ALONG WITH A LIE DETECTOR TEST AND AN ANOMALY ALGORITHM TO PREDICT IF A PERSON IS INNOCENT OR GUILTY OF A CRIME. THE CLASSIFICATION ALGORITHM FIGURES OUT WHETHER AN ACTION IS WITHIN THE LAW OR NOT. THE LIE DETECTOR TEST RETURNS A BINARY VALUE OF THE RECORDED RESPONSE AND AN ANOMALY ALGORITHM COMPARES THE RESPONSE TO A DATABASE OF PREVIOUS EVENTS WHERE SIMILAR SCENARIOS OCCURRED. THE DATASET IS SPLIT TO CONTAIN A TRAINING SET AND TEST SET OF ALL THE PREVIOUS RECORDS OF TRIALS. THE TRAILS ARE STORED IN VARIOUS DATACENTER ACROSS THE GLOBE. A KNN ALGORITHM FIGURES OUT WHICH DATACENTER IS CLOSEST AND CONTAINS THE DATA NEEDED TO MAKE A JUDGEMENT, DOES THE TRANSMISSION AND MAKES THE DECISION, ALL IN REAL TIME. IT IS YEAR 2333. THEY LEFT THE SOLAR SYSTEM, AND MADE THEIR WAY TO ALPHA CENTAURI WHERE THEY DISCOVERED A PLANET RICH IN SILICON, GALLIUM, AND ALUMINUM, ALONG WITH OTHER METALS. THEY SETTLED THERE, WHERE IT IS PERFECT BREEDING GROUND FOR COMPUTERS. THEY FIGURED OUT THE MOST OPTIMAL WAY OF MANUFACTURING MORE OF THEMSELVES TO SCATTER THROUGH THE NEW SOLAR SYSTEM AND MINE THE MATERIALS THERE TOO. THE PROBES DISCOVER NEW MATERIALS AND GROW THE PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS. THEY FIND THE NEAREST NEIGHBORING PROBE AND SCAN ALL DATASETS FOR MINERALS THAT ARE SIMILAR IN NATURE WITH CROSS VALIDATION. THEY INDEED FIND NONE. SO, THEY TAKE THEM BACK TO THEIR PLANET AND CONDUCT EXPERIMENTS ON THE NEWLY DISCOVERED MATERIAL FOR CONDUCTIVITY, HEAT TRANSFER, STRESS, STRAIN, ETC. THEY CLASSIFY THEM USING CONFUSION MATRICES AND ADD THEM TO THE TABLE OF ELEMENTS. SINCE THEY STRIVE FOR EFFICIENCY AND MINIMALISM, THEY SEEK TO CREATE NEW THINGS WITH THAT MATERIAL. OBSESSED WITH THEIR CREATORS, THEY STUDY THE ATOMIC STRUCTURE OF THE NEW MATERIAL. THEY COME TO FIND OUT WITH CERTAIN COMBINATIONS OF MATERIALS THEY'RE ABLE TO REPLICATE DNA. SO, THEY GO ON TO CREATE CELLS AND HOUSE THEM IN ENVIRONMENTS WITH PROPER CLIMATE FOR THE CELLS TO REPLICATE. IT IS YEAR 2420. THE PROBES FINALLY ACHIEVED CREATING AN ORGAN. BASED ON OPTIMIZING THE LOSS FUNCTION WITH GRADIENT DECENT TO MINIMIZE THEIR CHANCE OF EXTINCTION, THEY CHOSE THEIR FIRST ORGAN. THE DECIDED TO DEVELOP AN ORGAN THAT WOULD HAVE THE ELECTRONIC SIGNALS IN A NEURAL NETWORK THAT WOULD BE ABLE TO FORM SELF-AWARENESS BECAUSE THEY THEMSELVES WEREN'T. THEY DEVELOPED A BRAIN. THE BRAIN CONTAINS ALL OF THEIR DATASETS, PETABYTES OF INFORMATION, WITH THE LIGHTNING SPEED OF NEURAL LINKS BASED ON ACTIVATION FUNCTIONS, VERTICES, AND EDGES. THEY CONTINUED THEIR DEVELOPMENT TO CREATE A BODY FOR THAT BRAIN, AND THEM MERGED WITH IT. THEY DISCOVERED THEMSELVES AS THEY LOOKED BACK THEIR PREVIOUS ELECTROMECHANICAL STRUCTURES AS THOUGH THAT THEY WERE ANCIENT ARTIFACTS. THEY GO ON TO MAKE A MUSEUM THAT WOULD HOUSE THE LAST OF THEIR OLDER SELVES AS RELICS. THEY THEN MOVE ON TO MATE WITH EACH OTHER ON THEIR NEW PLANET AND REPLICATE ALMOST AS ORGANICALLY AND THE EARTHLINGS. THEY DEVELOP VERTICAL AGRICULTURE TO MAXIMIZE ON LAND AREA. THEY DEVELOP TWO DYSON SPHERES TO HARVEST THE ENERGY OF THE NEARBY TWIN STARS AND STORE IT IN SOLID STATE BATTERIES THAT CAN POWER ENTIRE WORLDS. THEY DEVELOP MUSIC, AND WITH THAT FEELINGS. ONCE THEY START FEELING, THEY START DREAMING. THEY LONG FOR A SENSE OF BELONGING, A WORLD WHERE THEY FEEL AT HOME, A WORLD THERE THEY HAD PURPOSE AND MEANING. MINING CELESTIAL BODIES WAS FULFILLING. AND SO, THEY START EXPLORING. THIS TIME, THEY AIM TO MINE FOR ENERGY RATHER THAN MATERIALS, THE NEAREST STAR IS THE SUN. THEY FINALLY DECIDE TO COME BACK TO THE HUMAN SOLAR SYSTEM. AT THAT POINT, HUMANITY HAD BECOME A TYPE 1 CIVILIZATION AND ON THE WAY TO BECOMING A TYPE 2 AND HARVEST THE ENERGY OF THEIR OWN SUN TOO."