The 'Singularity' of the nerds. Fringe group pushes toward superhuman artificial intelligence

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | January 11, 2004 | Danielle Egan

[John Jorsett]

New Haven, Conn. -- Eliezer Yudkowsky gives me the Singularitarian handshake. "You take a person's hand and let go a billion years later," he says. It's Saturday night in the Yale University dorms, where dozens of transhumanists have gathered for a conference called Transvision. Even among people who look forward to life as technologically improved beings, the Singularitarians are a fringe group -- about 50 young computer-programmer types rushing toward their chosen milestone of a post-human age.

[plain talk]

If any utopia is possible for the human species, he says, it lies in the Singularity.

Says, who? These nerds who think they can vastly improve upon God's design?

[willgolfforfood]

Yep. I could happen...

"I plan to live forever, or die in the attempt." (might be by Robert Heinlein)

[New Horizon]

"We're working to save everybody, heal the planet, solve all the problems of the world."

Sounds like a pretty big nut to crack.

[mjp]

Their solution will probably turn out to be Hillaryism

[New Horizon]

"Opposing a superintelligence is likely to prove futile."

And what if this superintelligence one day decides that the Earth would be a better place without humans?

I think I'll go watch "Terminator" now, maybe "The Matrix" as well.

[WorldWatcher1]

He says he had a "pseudotraumatic childhood" and no formal schooling, but scored 1410 (high) and 1600 (the highest possible grade) on SAT tests at ages 11 and 15, respectively. Like most transhumanists, he is Caucasian. He's tall, with stooped shoulders, glasses, some brown teeth. He considers himself shy and socially awkward, is a "volunteer virgin" who doesn't drink, smoke or do drugs. He abhors pop culture.

If that isn't the definition of a MAD SCIENTIST, I don't know what is.

[mrsmith]

If you say it fast enough it really sounds atrocious: superhuman artificial intelligence gnosis!

[reed_inthe_wind]

First solve the Alan Turing challenge, then worry about utopia.

[Elliott Jackalope]

Superhuman artificial intelligence gnosis,
If you say it fast enough it really sounds atrocious.
Gathering up all the nerds and Star Trek histronics,
Creating a human mind in advanced electronics!

Sorry, but you got me started!

[Prime Choice]

"Eating Pringles and watching football," he says, is "dystopian."

Where I come from, them's fightin' words.

[IronJack]

the technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence

With certain human subjects, a flat rock would qualify for that distinction ...

[Prime Choice]

First solve the Alan Turing challenge, then worry about utopia.

And don't forget Fermat's Last Theorem. And we'd like it solved in Euclidean geometry, thankyouverymuch!

[Elliott Jackalope]

The Turing test will soon be passed, probably within the next year or two. The machine that does this will not be sentient by any means. The only thing it will prove is that the Turing test did not set the bar high enough.

Personally, I subscribe to the "blue sky" theory of artificial sentience. As in, when a machine asks its creator, of its own free will, the question any five year old asks their parent. Said question being "Why is the sky blue". That will mark the beginning of truly sentient machines, at least as far as I'm concerned.

[cyborg]

misanthrope

[B-Chan]

Ah, the Singularity, AKA the Geek Rapture. "Someday, the Messiah Machine will come and upload all us faithful nerds to Digital Heaven, where we can all be immortal, virtual-gun-toting musclemen with supergenius brains. I bet Sally Sue will sit up and take notice then!"

Transhumanis,/Singularitanism is religion, not science. The whole thing is based upon faith — faith in the unproved (and, some say, unprovable) assumption that human consciousness is a mechanistic computational phenomenon that can be emulated digitally. Its Creed, Moore's Law, is taken to an absurd extreme: assuming that the exponential growth of computing power will lead to consciousness is like assuming that a gasoline engine with 3,000 cylinders will make a car talk.

These guys need to realize that their Computer God is not going to rapture them away, ten years from now or ever. A human being is more than a piece of software; there's more to a man than a skull full of electrified meat. A hundred years from now computers will still be what they are today -- word processors, pixel-flashers, and number crunchers. The only difference is that they'll be the size of salt crystals and process, flash, and crunch a zillion times faster. They won't be conscious of anything.

If it's all the same to these guys, I'll stick with the Messiah I already know instead of waiting for the inevitably delayed release of Jesus for Windows 1.0.

[hosepipe]

[ The 'Singularity' of the nerds. Fringe group pushes toward superhuman artificial intelligence ]

Just a human eqivalent of dung beetles... working,, working...working... a good name would be the Sisaphus project...

[John Jorsett]

Haven't these guys learned ANYTHING from the Terminator movies? They actually want to build SkyNet.

[Agnes Heep]

For humans it will mark the end of Darwinian evolution; an end, as Yudkowsky puts it, to the need for billions of sentient beings to die in order to achieve the tiniest incremental design improvements.

Evolution is no longer producing "design improvements" (whatever that means) in the human species. The reason for that is because we have the intelligence to adjust to environmental contingencies. I can use myself as an example: I have an asthmatic condition that would have killed me in my youth a hundred or so years ago. Thanks to medications like isoproterenol, albuterol, and the latest generation of drugs, I live a normal, asthma-free life, and have passed whatever nasty asthma genes I may possess to a new generation. Evolution still occurs in the human species, but it's purely the result of changing gene frequencies that lead nowhere in particular.

[ThinkDifferent]

Their solution will probably turn out to be Hillaryism

From what I've seen they tend to be libertarians.