Robots rise up
It's been the fodder for countless dystopian movies
: a singularity in which artificial intelligence rivals human smarts.
But though it sounds like science fiction, many computer scientists say the singularity will arrive some time in the 21st century.
Still, few people agree on what that future will look like. Some envision epic battles between robots and humans, while others believe the rise of super-intelligent machines will usher in human immortality. [Extending Life: 7 Ways to Live Past 100]
From mass extinction to life extension, here are six potential implications of super-smart robots.
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Super-Intelligent Machines: 7 Robotic Futures
I think the most likely things we will see is Augmented humans leading to human immortality. And the first humans might have problems with their augmentations just like when cars and planes were first developed. But in the end it could lead eventually to some humans who live hundreds or thousands of years. Whether this is good or bad is relative to how you view the world in the present and future.
We are already seeing mass unemployment worldwide as one of the beginnings of the Singularity.
Things will continue to speed up exponentially and continually exponentially speed up for hundreds of years to come. Also, whether you or I see this speed up in change as bad or good in some ways is irrelevant because it is happening. The most useful point of view would be to adapt to the changes. Because as always for humans it has always been: Adapt or die. It has always been this way. The real question is: Do you wish to stay alive in the world that is coming? That might be the only real question to ask yourselves. A good college education will give you enough skills to survive what is coming.
: a singularity in which artificial intelligence rivals human smarts.But though it sounds like science fiction, many computer
scientists say the singularity will arrive some time in the 21st century.Still, few people agree on what that future will look like. Some envision epic battles between robots and humans, while others believe the rise of super-intelligent machines will usher in human immortality. [Extending Life: 7 Ways to Live Past 100]
From mass extinction to life extension, here are six potential implications of super-smart robots.
Robot war
It's
the nightmare that fueled "The Terminator" — the possibility that
robots could end up vying with humans for dominance. Engineers are
already developing robotic pack mules and soldiers, while drones
have become a mainstay in the war against terror. At least a few
apocalyptic visionaries see super-intelligent robots turning on their
human makers sometime next century. Still, many computer scientists say
this isn't the biggest of the singularity.
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Immortality
Many people, such as the futurist Ray Kurzweil, believe that humans won't have to die
after the singularity. Some envision a future where humans port their
brain into computers, essentially living within the machines. Others
imagine cybernetic parts to replace cancerous limbs and aging hearts,
radically increasing longevity. Either way, death could be transformed from an inevitable aspect of life to a relatively rare occurrence.
Economy on fire
Once
machines can match human intelligence, it will be a simple matter of
copying intelligent agent software, which is capable of programming an
artificial mind, from one computer to the next to create more workers
for the economy. Whereas the economy doubled every thousand years after
the agricultural revolution, and every 15 years after the industrial
revolution, a post-singularity economy could double every month, then
week, Hanson said. That blistering pace of economic growth could be so
fast that humans couldn't keep up.
Environmental destruction
Because
robots don't need air, water or food, they won't fear destroying the
environment like mortals do. As a result, some believe there's a greater
risk of super-intelligent robots draining all of Earth's natural
resources, said Robin Hanson, an economist at George Mason University in
Washington, D.C., who is writing a book about the singularity. The
robot revolution could worsen already dire environmental problems.
Augmented humans
Cybernetic
implants could also mean much smarter, super-powered humans. Kurzweil,
now a director of engineering at Google, envisions a world where most
people make use of cybernetic implants to be smarter, see farther and be
stronger. Of course, that might make humans cyborgs, but most people would be too busy using their newly acquired superpowers to mind much.
Mass unemployment
As
robots get smarter, humans just won't be able to keep up. While simpler
tasks may be outsourced to robots at first, by 2045 Kurzweil predicts
that machines will be billions of times smarter than un-augmented human
beings. Robots have already replaced factory workers, and self-driving
cars are just around the corner. Still other computer-science
technologies, such as the ultrafast stock trading programs that cause "flash crashes,"
are being developed without considering how they could damage people or
put them out of work, said Bill Hibbard, a computer scientist at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Vestigial organs
Once almost all tasks are outsourced to super-intelligence, humans may gradually lose the abilities that once defined Homo sapiens'
smarts. In fact, some say the world is in the midst of the singularity
already: Humans have already relinquished their ability to navigate,
memorize and calculate, said Joan Slonczewski, a microbiologist at
Kenyon College in Ohio. Scientists have even developed empathetic robots to do some of the most human tasks — caring for the sick and elderly.
In the end humans may become like mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of the cells. Though mitochondria were once independent organisms, primitive bacteria engulfed mitochondria long ago, and they gradually outsourced all their functions but making energy. Humans may similarly lose all their abilities, regressing to the point that they only provide energy for the machines.
In the end humans may become like mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of the cells. Though mitochondria were once independent organisms, primitive bacteria engulfed mitochondria long ago, and they gradually outsourced all their functions but making energy. Humans may similarly lose all their abilities, regressing to the point that they only provide energy for the machines.
Super-Intelligent Machines: 7 Robotic Futures
I think the most likely things we will see is Augmented humans leading to human immortality. And the first humans might have problems with their augmentations just like when cars and planes were first developed. But in the end it could lead eventually to some humans who live hundreds or thousands of years. Whether this is good or bad is relative to how you view the world in the present and future.
We are already seeing mass unemployment worldwide as one of the beginnings of the Singularity.
Things will continue to speed up exponentially and continually exponentially speed up for hundreds of years to come. Also, whether you or I see this speed up in change as bad or good in some ways is irrelevant because it is happening. The most useful point of view would be to adapt to the changes. Because as always for humans it has always been: Adapt or die. It has always been this way. The real question is: Do you wish to stay alive in the world that is coming? That might be the only real question to ask yourselves. A good college education will give you enough skills to survive what is coming.
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