Technology and computers are advancing fast. How fast? Would you believe ridiculously fast? Exponentially fast? Fast enough to achieve artificial intelligence within our lifetime? So once these computers are able think just like humans, the next step in their evolution would be to continue advancing and developing until they are far past our own intelligence. They would even be able to continue they're own advancement by taking over the creation of more computers from humans of inferior intelligence, so their rate of development would continue to advance, too. And that's when things take a turn for the really intriguing.Because once that happens, anything can happen. Could humans and computers merge together to become super-intelligent cyborgs? Maybe. Will our consciousnesses be scanned into them so we can virtually live our lives through them forever? Possibly. Can these computers help us treat and end aging and death? It could happen. Or will the computers see us as an obsolete, second-rate, worthless species and decide to enslave us or wage war on and completely destroy us? Yeah, that could happen, too.
Of course, you only have to worry about this if you actually think it will happen. But if it does happen, human civilization and humanity will be monumentally and irrevocably transformed from what has been and is now. This transformation is called the Singularity, and according to the people who do believe in this, it will happen. Raymond Kurzweil, a leader in study of the Singularity, says that it will happen in 2045. This isn't science fiction fodder; it's an actual hypothesis on the future and it's now become a movement. There is data and research that back this up and renowned scientists and engineers, too. But there are plenty of other people who think this is nonsensical junk science malarkey, an impossibility, because you can't create a computer with artificial intelligence, with an actual human conscious.
The Singularity reminds me of the plot and concept of a ton of futuristic/robot/science fiction movies. It actually seems kind of scary to me in real life, though, maybe because even if it is going to happen, there is no way of knowing what's going to happen to humanity and human civilization. It could be something great or it could be something awful. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not crazy about the idea of being turned into a cyborg or having my conscious trapped in a computer forever. Though we might be able to create perfect, immortal, super-intelligent humans, wouldn't eradicating all human flaws end up changing what it means to be human? We wouldn't evolve anymore and we'd stay the same forever and ever and ever. Or we could all get blown to smithreens by the computers, which scares me even more. Then there's the whole debate on whether you can recreate something as complex as the human mind, and that seems almost impossible.
I guess the good news is that we'll probably all be alive in 34 years to see if this will actually happen. We'll be in our 50's, so the whole eliminating-aging thing would come in handy.
So, any Singularitarians out there? Is the Singularity encroaching upon us or should we not even concern ourselves with it? Would benefit humanity more than harm it or is it not worth the risks? And who would win in a machine vs. man war?
7 comments:
The matter of fact is that we do not have to worry about this because of 2012!!! sooo.... who cares!!!
But, if 2012 does not happen then I believe we shouldn't have to worry. I expect scientists to be able to create a "destroy all crazy robots" button. If they do not create this button, then we may be in grave danger about 40 years from now. The only question I really have about this is whether we can create human emotions in robots.
How can robots feel sorrow, guilt, anger and happiness?
I wonder if we will be able to switch bodies in the future.
Interesting, I was actually randomly reading about this stuff last week or so.
I have to say the idea of a technological singularity makes me uncomfortable. I'm all for progress, but something like this has some serious implications. For one, it'd pretty much supplant life as we know it, and... I'd kind of miss it.
Another question is whether we would be able to coexist with computer intelligences, which is quite unnerving - I have a quote about this too: "The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made of atoms which it can use for something else." Even if it doesn't consciously turn on us, it can wipe us out simply by outdoing us. Scary stuff.
One relevant aspect of this that I don't believe has been considered (probably because there isn't really a plausible answer) is, if stuff like this happens, what would happen to *government*? Would it just be completely supplanted? The singularity talk seems to regard humanity as one unified species, as opposed to computers. But we aren't. What about third world countries? Would they just be completely run over?
More that I think about it, I'm not really convinced about the singularity. Even superintelligence can't overcome limited resources (to work in an economics angle, ha). After all, they need power to run too, and they won't get it unless we give it to them.
This post remind me of the movie the terminator, because a company wanted to change the way of life and make it better but instead it created killing machines that turned our world into mass destruction. At times i feel that many of these, so called, singularity ideas will happen, but that's from fear. I don't feel we need to develop super people or computer lives. This makes it seem as if the people who are creating these things think that that human race is obsolete. Can't these scientist discover better things like cures to diseases or new ways of transportation and communication?
I find that having life like robots is something we don't need because the human race is a amazing race and you wouldn't want to destroy this with technology, which was meant to make our lives easier.
One word. ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE (it's actually two words)
I don't think this is scary as long as it is put together by well managed and monitored agencies or groups. To be honest, I think that nukes are much more scary. They could easily wipe us out and destabilize the earth just because of human physiological imperfection. What I'm really looking forward to is when we can start replacing things like legs, for super human legs. Heck.... when I'm 60 or 70, I think that that would be a pretty tempting option. Oh, and I think that humans would win against robots, because of all of the fail-safes that we would install and what Tim said.
Post a Comment