Author: geoff
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Virtual Heaven.. or Hell
This next year (2016) is going to big year for virtual reality. The are at least 4 big names jumping in to virtual reality. While being “teased” for a few years now.. next year is when everything is going to finally be released. It will take awhile before it goes “mainstream” but from everything I’ve read the experiences that VR provides will make it compelling enough to bring just about everyone onboard. Why go to the theater when you can have a virtual IMAX screen in your house? Why would elderly people travel across the country to visit loved ones when they can be there virtually? Why leave prison when you can virtually leave? Why do anything when you can do it virtually? This has been science fiction fodder since the 70s. Well, it’s finally here. Today’s headsets finally have the hi-rez displays and gyroscopes to make a truly immersive experience. In a recent article about a virtual Wright Brothers experience users always asked how the developers did the “wind”. The developers laughed, “There was no wind.. your brain just filled in the gaps”. As we rapidly head into this future I wonder about the social ramifications. Like most new technology there will a dozens of positive uses (social connections, history, industry, etc. etc.) and LOTS of abuses (social disconnection, pornography, escapism, addiction, etc.). Just like our smart phones. I wonder too if people will see this as an opportunity to create virtual Heavens. But, I am guessing having a virtual world where you can do anything all the time won’t quickly turn into a virtual Hell. It would seem to me that living for eternity in world without any real external meaning would be essentially Hell.
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Can robots love?
This particular question has probably been debated since the the advent of the computer.. and maybe even before. However, this may become more of a heated topic in the near future. As rapid strides are made into the realms of AI it’s going to be come more important. We are going to want more and more from our digital personal assistants and it won’t be long before they start anticipating our wants and needs. Amazon and Facebook probably know more about what I want then I do. Siri scans my emails and suggests contacts and calendar appointments. Our smart home thermostats anticipate our arrival to regulate our temperature. Soon driverless cars will anticipate where and when we’ll need to be. If a single entity, such as Siri, becomes the central point for our managing much of our lives it may well be that we establish some form of emotional connection. However, going beyond a digital assistant things get a little less clear. Take for instance the simple command “Make me happy”. As Nick Bostrom points out in his book “Superintelligence” the AI may very well realize that happiness in the human brain is correlated to chemicals and the next thing you know you’ve got a wire running into your brain and an unending grin on your face. Or how about “Keep me safe”. You would almost certainly be locked in metal box and fed through tubes. Maybe even worse, a truly powerful entity could start destroying anything that it deems as a threat.
So, what’s the solution? You can’t possibly program or even train an AI for every possible scenario. Even the simplest task could be misconstrued with catastrophic consequences. If you fed it every law created by humanity.. it would be unusable. I would argue that the only really safe way would be for this superintelligence to fully understand what it is to be human.. is for it to be human itself. Of course, it would face numerous temptations.. such as “I could solve all humanity’s problems with force”. Or, “I should probably wipe out most of humanity and start over”. Our only hope would be that is laid down it’s power long enough to fully grasp the human condition.
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Our cultural savior complex
American culture is drowning in superheroes. It would seem that 1 out of every 3 movies is a superhero movie. Why? I think we know that it’s going to take more then mere mortals to get us out of the mess we are in. We often lift up guys like Bill Gates and Elon Musk as potential saviors. Our real life “Iron Man” as Musk has been called. We need help. We need people who aren’t ripped apart by bullets and that don’t fall into the typical trappings of wealth and power.
Humans are constantly confronted with our limitations. People around us get sick and die. We read about problems that seem completely unsolvable. We vainly throw posts out on Facebook hoping to trigger some sort of grass roots movement that will change the world. And boy oh boy do we cope. Chocolate, exercise, video games, sex, Netflix.. and back to movies about people or even demi-gods that have the ability to do what we can’t.. save the world.. or at least make a small part of it better.
In the context of “Rebuilding God” this will probably mean that humanity will get to a point that we’ll be willing to try anything to have a savior. Even if that means flipping a switch on the creation of a homemade god. Imagine a “human” that can know everything.. that can live thousands of years.. that can connect all the dots and solve all the hardest problems. Sure, it may wipe us out in the process.. but hopefully not. Maybe.
“We’re at this point in actual evolution where, previously, animals didn’t have eyes, and now they have eyes,” he said. “That’s going to change a lot of stuff. Computers used to not be able to see very well, and now they’re starting to open their eyes.”
http://www.nature.com/news/artificial-intelligence-called-in-to-tackle-lhc-data-deluge-1.18922
““It could be an insurance policy, just in case the theorist who made the right prediction isn’t born yet.””
“Consider a brain—with as many neurons as stars in the galaxy linked together through trillions of connections it’s the most complex object in the known universe. Try to compress it. Call it by just two words. Call it Martin Guerre. Push further. A single word, a single letter.
Call it “I.”
Or.. I AM?
“The Universe, like the organisms that reside within it, is a mortal entity. Born in the Big Bang, it will eventually meet its fate through an equally cataclysmic process, whether it be in the form of a Big Rip, a Big Crunch, or an eternal deep freeze. Regardless, all life as we know it will be extinguished.
Unless, of course, our highly advanced offspring can find a way to escape the confines of the cosmos—or more radically, change the rules of the cosmological game.”
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The Doomsday Invention
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/23/doomsday-invention-artificial-intelligence-nick-bostrom
“If scientific- and technological-development efforts do not effectively cease, then all important basic capabilities that could be obtained through some possible technology will be obtained.” In light of this, he suspects that the farther into the future one looks the less likely it seems that life will continue as it is. He favors the far ends of possibility: humanity becomes transcendent or it perishes.
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/we-must-destroy-nukes-before-an-artificial-intelligence-learns-to-use-them
Pretty grim view of AI.