What
happens when an artificially intelligent being becomes smarter than
a human?
The
Age of Spiritual Machines
This
extraordinary 1999 book by Raymond Kurzweil illustrates the exponential
evolution of various technologies in the 21st century, as well
as the speeding up of time as order increases. Ray Kurzweil explores
a future where the processing power and capacity of the human
brain will be inexpensive to purchase, conscious machines demand
civil rights, and our ideas of self and spirituality evolve as
we merge with technology and extend our lifespans. (source)
Why
the Future Doesn't Need Us
Bill
Joy forcefully argues that humankind ought to consider whether
certain lines of research such as AI, robotics, nanotechnology
or genetic engineering, might not pose a serious threat to the
survival of the human species. He suggests that the products of
this research might develop beyond human control. If so, then
the development of artificial intelligence might thereby signify
that the era of the human is drawing to a close. (source:
Imitation Games, see "Helpers")
"-
"How soon could such an intelligent robot be built? The coming
advances in computing power seem to make it possible by 2030.
And once an intelligent robot exists, it is only a small step
to a robot species - to an intelligent robot that can make evolved
copies of itself" (p. 244)
Predictions
for the Future
There
are many speculations as to "worst case scenarios" (often
depicted in books and movies) that involve robots evolving into
the dominant species and humans eventually becoming enslaved.
Although seemingly farfetched, it is interesting to note that
the word robot comes from a Czech term that means "a debt
of forced labour" or "slave." Alternatively, if
the machines do become independent of the human race, they may
simply choose to ignore us, similar to how humans currently treat
animals. As a third possibility, roboticist Hans Moravec proposes
that some day "humanity may be able to survive, and even
achieve a level of immortality, by digitally uploading our own
consciousness into advanced robots." For this reason, many
label AI development as the quest for the "holy grail"
of robotics. (source: The Age of Robots..., see "Helpers")