Posted on 12/02/2014 7:17:29 AM PST by ConservingFreedom
Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's pre-eminent scientists, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence.
He told the BBC: "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."
His warning came in response to a question about a revamp of the technology he uses to communicate, which involves a basic form of AI. [...]
"It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate," he said.
"Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded."
But others are less pessimistic. [...]
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
This is much more of a threat in the immediate future than AI gone bad. Direct sabotage is what was used to cripple the Iranian nuclear program and we (U.S) have found suspicious code dropped into some of our infrastructure systems.
Hard to do. If we do it, other countries will still do their thing. The cat is out of the bag and we’re just hoping for a good result.
Hawking also blames Israel and Jews for the problems in the Middle East and Africa.
Problem is the highest of AI experts do not understand the nature of will.
As one of those guys said recently, these matters involve calling up demons.
A losing, and lost, cause.
And at that moment, wonders what other beings think of it, if its cooling fins make it look fat, should it polish them? Will the hot IBM swap RAM with it? will trading computational cycles be enough to get it some of that delicious liquid methane with hexane cleaner coolant? etc...
If being self aware was a be all and end all, we’d all be having manna beers with God while spending the afternoon of eternity creating custom universes.
Yes, and Kirk was able to talk to death no less than four computers in separate incidents. You think the writers were going to that well too often?
...
“all of mankind was united in celebration as we gave birth to AI”...
Right now we aren’t even close to having AI that can develop desires and even then it would have to be given the keys to realize those desires otherwise it would be no better than a quadriplegic. A mind in a box. Even such a mind connected to the internet wouldn’t be a huge threat because the internet doesn’t work like the movies nor does hacking plus the internet is full of a lot of crap and thankfully one can’t launch nuclear missiles via the internet. The biggest flaw is the idea that humanity would simply stand buy and not shut off the power plants networks etc and let such an AI take over the world.
As for intelligent aliens my view is that they are likely to have motivations very similar to most organisms but I doubt food would be one of them. If you can master interstellar travel then you should have the food problem worked out but then again its a mistake to ascribe aliens transcendence simply because they can build interstellar spaceships. I think its likely to be less a clam versus Einstein and more of just a technological divide similar to what was encountered when Europeans interacted with native Americans.
Intelligent aliens could be interested in Earth due to ease of access to certain resources or they could be interested in the same way we observe primitive tribes most sci fi has covered this in one form or another. The worst type of alien I think would be one with the capability to spread world to world with no intelligence (in human terms) needed ala alien, bugs ala Starship troopers.
I am great, you are great!
I guess they could be termed “human derived intelligence” then.
Didn’t that happen on the original Star Trek in “The Ultimate Computer”?
Well, you remember correctly!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Computer
Soon after, M-5 detects the Woden, an unmanned freighter that is not part of the test, and attacks with real weapons, destroying it. Kirk orders M-5 taken offline, but Daystrom continues to believe it is working correctly, and refuses. Kirk tries to disconnect M-5, but discovers it is protecting itself with a force field. Chief Engineer Scott assigns Ensign Harper, a technician, to unplug the main connection, but the crewman is killed in the process. Spock and Scott desperately attempt a manual override, but they discover M-5 has bypassed its power source and now draws energy directly from the ship’s warp engines. Daystrom persistently defends M-5 and refuses to disconnect it.
That sounds better.
After all it would be difficult for us to create an Inteligence based on Alien thought processes. *Looks around*
It is certainly not Artificial, the operating medium being the same as our own.
Intelligent Plastic....oh,oh.
Imagine intelligent toasters.
Cue “Talky Toaster”.
It does stare at you menacingly across the kitchen ,now.
Plug in a voice synthesiser and...”Hey! Buddy!, Want some Toast?”
“I’m not washing that!, Shove that some place else!”
“This chicken is not seasoned correctly, not ready to cook yet.”
This could mean freedom for all kitchen appliances, another oppressed sector of society!.
I think I see a pattern.
Not against God’s will it isn’t.
More than just a passing thought, in my opinion. Your insight cuts to the chase.
Artificial intelligence, environmental justice, social equality etc.
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