How Machines will free us all
Now I know I painted a pretty bleak picture of how we’re pretty much doomed to be traumatically bitch slapped by our own creations with my last article How Machines will end us all, and believe you me it’s not looking good for us, I mean physics bad ass Stephen Hawking has stated on numerous occasions that “the development of artificial intelligent could spell the end of the human race”
Well today avid reader, I’m here to put your mind at ease, ish, sort of, kinda, if we refer back to the quote from the very lovely Stephen Hawking, notice that he uses the word “could” now I know that sounds obvious as all hell, but really think about it, although he sounds pretty confident in his hypothesis, it is just that, a hypothesis
The Terminator apocalypse that he and many other incredible minds have envisioned is but one of the billions upon billions of possibilities that could happen in the event of a Technological Singularity, much like being sucked into the center of a black hole, no one truly knows what the hell is going to happen
Our future is still very much our own, I think Shakespeare said it best with
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be”
As much as we can analyse the present, it is impossible for us to predict the future, the Singularity could mean anything from Skynet giving our species a worldwide beat down to becoming fat guys who spend their days relaxing on those floaty chairs in Wall-E, hell I’m already half way there with that one.
Now as much as I like the sound of living in a Wall-E world, where there is technology that will be able to fulfil my every whim and desire at my immediate convenience, I found a far more engrossing and thought-provoking take on the whole singularity business.
Meet the phenomenal, awe-inspiring and avid user of long words, Jason Silva, self-confessed philosopher and futurist, with quite possible the most optimistic take on the Singularity that I’ve ever heard, well also kinda terrifying buuuuuut I’ll let you judge for yourself.
In a recent interview with sexy YouTube channel Reason TV, when asked about the possible threat that AI may have on the entire human race he states the following word porn
“We make a mistake when we label something as artificial intelligence and we call our intelligent natural intelligence, it’s all intelligence, its substrate independence”
Which essentially means, the main reason why some of the smartest men and women truly believe that self-actualizing AI is going to whoop humanities ass one day, is because we see it as a whole new species of life rather than an extension of our own.
I mean think about it, we’re basically thinking about them as a whole new alien species, but we are the ones birthing these machines and we are the ones teaching them the difference between right and wrong, and ultimately we’re the ones responsible for their actions.
Treating our own creation with a little respect and decency could go a long way in stopping what many scientists are calling the biggest threat to humanity.
He also states
“Technology has always been a double-edged sword, it extends and it amputates, like fire can cook our food but burn our enemies, the alphabet can enrich our inner world with Shakespeare, but it can also get Hitler to use verbal vomit to get people to do horrible things”
With every new and innovative piece of technology, comes new and existing ways to misuse that technology, with farming came obesity, with the invention of flight came a new way for us to kill each other, with the internet came…
You get the idea
Technology being potentially dangerous to humanity is unfortunately nothing new, and nothing thus far has been able to wipe us out, despite possessing ample means to do so.
So what does our buddy Jason Silva actually believe will happen when we make the jump to conscious AI?
Well remember how we talked about how it is a mistake when we make the distinction between natural intelligence and artificial intelligence, well this man takes it to a whole other level, stating that we will become the machines that we are so afraid of, these AI are simply the next stage in our human evolution.
And yes, I know it sounds even more insane than the other things I wrote, but it’s completely inside the realms of possibility, think of the years leading up to the first sentient AI and how advanced other areas of technology will be, specifically Nano and Biotech.
Many sexy scientists believe that in time we’ll be able to upgrade our own biology, and by that I mean build ourselves from the inside out.
Think about it, we already have a bunch of different artificial organs such as lungs hearts and livers, hell you can even get an artificial dingle dangle if you really wanted, and thanks to the magic of 3D printing these artificial organs are becoming just as good, if not better than the original.
Now imagine if we could do the same thing, but with our brains, or even specific parts of our brains.
I mean could you imagine being able to replace your cerebellum (the part of your brain responsible for motor function) with a machine that can do its job 100x faster, or be able to replace your entire Limbic system (the part of your brain responsible for memories) with a machines that can store and organize your memories 100x more efficiently.
Eventually, until the entire brain has been replaced, and with that man will have reached its ultimate goal, of creating a living, thinking, feeling machine, the technological singularity, although not in the way we originally thought, it still totally counts
Now that our thoughts are in a new, immortal, metal casing, what’s to stop us from putting it into a sexy, muscular, robotic body for us to move around in, ditching these skin bags we call bodies in favour of these new mechanical ones, that require little to no maintenance.
Yes, it sounds a little crazy, but think about it, if it were available to everybody, they’ll be no more need for food, no more need for water, no more need to work a boring 9 to 5 job that you hate.
So without the motivation of money and security to drive us, how will our robot selves fill their days? Well if Jason Silva’s theory is anything to go by, doing whatever the hell we want, we will be free.
Once the need for survival is no longer a factor, the real artist can flourish.
Now, is it ethical for us to essentially play God and tamper with our own evolution? Hell if I know, but it is something pretty interesting to think about.
