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God Superintelligence

The Inevitability of God

It only takes a small leap of imagination for most people to see that some form of superintelligence is inevitable eventually. Some see this as an advanced civilization on another remote planet, for others it’s a “smart” toaster that decides it’s had enough of humanity. Regardless, if you look at just how quickly humans have gone from living in caves smashing each other’s heads with rocks to putting robots on distant plants.. it’s pretty mind blowing. Especially when you factor in the billions of years Earth has been here and even the Universe. Humanity hasn’t even been a blink. My point is this: If we’ve come this close to creating a self creating superintelligence in the incredibly short period of time since the invention of fire.. doesn’t it seem odd to think we are the first to make this happen? Considering the trillions of stars and now billions of potentially habitable planets out there surely some race of creature has managed to make some sort of inorganic being capable of improving itself and an near infinite rate. Because we know it’s possible, that means it’s probable. If it’s probable, given the time and number of planets, it’s inevitable. Even if it hasn’t happened yet, we could be in a superintelligence arms race with other beings out in the Universe somewhere. It would seem like it’s us or them. Someday we may have some being made out of who knows what show up and decide that it needs to fulfill it’s creator’s mandate, “We need more paperclips, you will all be paperclips”. It’s inevitable.

Why is it so easy for people to believe in advanced alien life but not God?

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Uncategorized

Summoning Musk’s Demon

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/30/ants-are-summoning-musks-demon.html

“I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight at the national and international level just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon,” said Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors

Interesting use of the word “demon”.

I think the fear is less about AI being “evil” in the traditional sense.. but more just not really caring at all about humanity. It would most likely view humans as we view an ant colony that gets in the way of our yard work. “It was for the greater good”.

Categories
Article Superintelligence

Superintelligence Now

https://howwegettonext.com/superintelligence-now-eb824f57f487#.ifck4vtz7

“we are probably better thought of as the stupidest possible biological species capable of starting a technological civilization — a niche we filled because we got there first, not because we are in any sense optimally adapted to it.”

Categories
Transhumanist

Humans in 1000 years

While this is more about rebuilding humans (transhumanism) it’s still an important part of the discussion. From a philosophical/theological standpoint it’s “Becoming gods” vs. “Rebuilding God”. Rather then building one superintelligence, it’s the idea that someday all humans can be their own immortal superintelligence.

Categories
AI Robots Transhumanist

Why alien life will be robotic

http://nautil.us/issue/29/scaling/why-alien-life-will-be-robotic

“Few doubt that machines will gradually surpass more and more of our distinctively human capabilities—or enhance them via cyborg technology. Disagreements are basically about the timescale: the rate of travel, not the direction of travel. The cautious amongst us envisage timescales of centuries rather than decades for these transformations.”

 

Categories
God

I don’t like dinosaurs

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It’s not only that I don’t like the idea of giant “thunder lizards” that tore each other to pieces with giant claws and razor sharp teeth. I don’t like that they came.. and they went. Why? What purpose did they serve? Was God just thinking, “You know what would be really cool?” and then POOF! Dinosaurs. And then one day he decided that they were a bad idea and then BOOM! Gone. It’s hard to fit that into a classic creationist paradigm. We prefer to think of God lovingly crafting little bunnies and then setting them free in the garden.

So, I think this is one aspect of God everyone would agree to change. No dinosaurs. I would like to think that there is some good logical reason for them. Here are a few ideas that have absolutely no basis in reality other then that they came from my head:

  1. They were part of the “chaos” in the beginning. You can make a case that God creates out of chaos and they were part of a more messy view of creation.
  2. They lived in the “wilderness” outside of the garden of Eden and weren’t really meant to be interacted with.
  3. Humanity was meant to live with dinosaurs in peace. Who knows.. maybe “Dinotopia” had it right.
  4. Perhaps the flood was part of a larger event such as an ice comet impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. Of course, I kind of cringe even typing this as it’s pure speculation.
  5. Dinosaurs are a good reminder of the sorts of creatures we COULD be dealing with. Maybe it’s God’s grace that we only have sharks and tigers to deal with, which seem quite tame compared with the velociraptors.
  6. Maybe Satan has some creation powers of his own. That would explain yellow jackets and mosquitoes as well.

I do feel more comfortable with the idea of God creating out of chaos as that seems to fit the human experience fairly well. We see brokenness all around but God brings order out of it for his own joy. Though, chaos/mess is just a term we often apply when we can’t see the big picture. If you look closely at impressionist painting… or looking a the stacks of papers on my bookkeeper’s desk.. or the sea of stars.. or maybe even Pi. It could easily be a part of a picture we can’t fully grasp yet.

 

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Uncategorized

Introduction

Most scientists disagree about when it’s going to happen.. but they all agree it will: There will an intelligence explosion. At some point in our future (10-50 years) computers will get to the point where they can improve themselves.. and then improve themselves faster.. and faster. So, what happens then? Does that mean they’ll take over the world? Will they solve all of our problems? Our culture is rife with Terminator-style scenarios where they quickly crush us or enslave us (The Matrix). It’s easy to laugh off and carry on with the ho-hum of life, but I think there is an opportunity here to have a discussion. What does this mean for us as humans? Were we just a brief stop on evolution’s inevitable path? Do we become gods ourselves? What does this mean for God and/or gods? Is this an opportunity or the end of all things “human”? Also, if this is possible.. isn’t is a bit naive to assume it hasn’t happened already?