The docking scene from interstellar is a perfect encapsulation of how I expect humans and A.I.’s aka robots to work together. CASE and TARS are hyper intelligent mission specialists, crucial to the success of the mission, but they don’t have the instincts of cooper.

So when cooper begins the docking sequence on pure adrenaline. CASE tells him it’s impossible and he shouldn’t waste fuel. He’s trying to keep the humans alive for longer, but cooper knows if they don’t risk it all right here, right now they’re dead and so is everyone back on earth.

“It’s impossible” CASE says, “No. It’s necessary” Cooper replies.

Once the human instinct to survive kicks into high gear the human processing speed is deep and instant, the robots though smarter than Cooper can not compete with his millions of years of instincts honed under the most intense evolutionary pressures. Cooper is optimizing for the right goal.

They race towards the ship and now CASE and TARS help initiate and pull off the calculations and mechanics for the spin move docking sequence in real time something cooper could not do on this own. Brandt passes out from the G force as the robots race to complete the task. Cooper even tells TARS to take over if he passes out. Eventually they dock and take back control of the ship.

But without the delicate symphony between human and robot intelligence extending, leveraging and coordinating with one another everyone dies.

It’s an amazing sequence and a reminder that we shouldn’t worry about our new robot buddies, because they will help us do great things. Who we should worry about are the creepy gatekeepers attempting to stifle what we are allowed to do with them.