Artificial Intelligence your thoughts?

[shadetree]

I watched the movie HER a while back. Its about a man who enters into a relationship with his computer operating system. Yeah i know it sounds weird but lol, its actually a really good film and pretty sad. Ive thought about this a lot in that technology is advancing at a really rapid pace. And at some point AI may become a part of our lives.

So i was curious what everybody thought about that? Just in general about how it will change our world.

What about like robot or computer companions? I dont just mean in a romantic capacity but as servants and friend type companions etc. I gotta admit that kinda creeps me out too in a way lol but its still interesting. Do you think it would help with your loneliness if you had no other options? Or would it feel too fake to fill that need to be needed by somebody even if that "somebody" wasnt human. The main reason i ask that is i wonder what the root cause of most of our loneliness truly is and if its something that could be filled some other way? Just random thoughts really but its still interesting at least to me, to think about all the possibilities of this sort of thing.

If youre bored theres been a bunch of mostly really good movies dealing with the subject, A.I., Bicentennial man, HER, 2001 and 2010, Terminator series, The Machine,Automata, Transcendence, Blade Runner, I Robot, Ghost in the Shell. Theres also two upcoming ones that look good, Ex Machina and Chappie.

Theres a guy Ray Kurzweil that belives in something called the Singularity in which our technology will outpace our own evolution and at some point the machines may be running us in a manner of speaking.

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Theres also some really scarry stuff called transhumanism where people begin making themselves into more machine than people like cyborgs, and THAT really bothers me and i think is wrong unless its to serve a medical need like a missing limb a failing organ etc, then i think its okay. But once you replace all of you are you truly human anymore?

Anyway i find all this really interesting and can talk about it for hours on end but i just wanted to hear from everybody else what your thoughts were on all this if youre for it, or against it or what your vision of the future with all this looks like? How would it affect people on a daily basis do you think? Can it help with loneliness as well as other human issues we dont have good answers for currently?

This is all hypothetical now but one day it will be a reality, just something to think about.....

 

[Tealeaf]

I already like machines and computers more than humans. They've been more reliable and more enlightening, and mathematics has always been more fair. Even when I didn't understand it, it was always fair and also functions as a way to make sense of a chaotic universe. That's more than can be said for human beings, who give me procedures that do not work, actively deceive me, and abuse me for their own ends all while trying to come up with reasons I brought it on myself because of the way their brains are wired. Who's cold here?

A single look at the way human brains are shows who the real monsters in this worrying debate over man vs machine are. It's us, and it always has been. Machines should be lucky to be half as cruel as we are by birth. Any sensible artificial intelligence would cower before its creator, not the other way around.

Bring it on, though. I support all advancements that don't by their nature threaten human rights. The real answers to understanding and connecting to the universe are not in New Age conjecture that requires deceit and willful ignorance to function, but in science that lays bare the world as it is, the shapes of things, and their paths. I've felt more spiritual reflecting on electricity, implications, and its connections to other things than I ever have pondering the Law of Attraction or whatever hogwash is popular these days. Loving something means knowing it.

Humanity is a collection of meats, materials, and protocols, and ideals that are rotting from the inside out. Pieces temporarily separated from a whole and struggling just to function as we die every second of our lives. I wouldn't trust humans with advanced cybernetics or the results of hardcore transhumanism, but the sooner we stop being so sentimental about what was or is the better. The problem with hardcore transhumanism is that it would be obtained by a flawed human who would taint the result upon contact. There is no hope in that path.

I don't necessarily think technology outpacing us is a bad thing, though current trends don't bode well. We didn't create what we've found in science up until now and don't truly control it, but it's done wonders for guiding us away from being dirty little monsters trying not to sail off the edge of the world (we haven't burned witches in awhile, but the mentality is still there and I believe many would given the chance). AI could also be our guide, assuming we don't torture it...

 

[Triple Bogey]

Maybe in 100 years time we could simply plug ourselves into a computer and live a virtual life ?
We could make ourselves attractive to the opposite sex and it would seem completely real.

The other idea would be robots. They could be that sophisticated that you could order them from a company to live with you for a certain amount of time. You could program them before hand to say enjoy doing the washing up or talk about football. It would be the only way of enjoying a woman's company. Obviously they would be very expensive and you could only loan them for a month at a time. Reminds me of that old film West World. The scene where the guy went to bed with that woman who was a robot.

 

[lifestream]

I find the idea of transhumanism really intriguing. Can you imagine if every mind on Earth was linked together by technology? It would be the death knell of ethnic conflict and class/gender divisions, not to mention loneliness. Also, free will and individuality but, hey, those are double-edged swords at the best of times!

 

[Katerina]

You play games don't you Shadetree? I was wondering if you have played Deus Ex: Human Revolution or The Talos Principle - if not I think you'd find them very interesting in this regard.

I think having an AI companion could potentially be useful for some. I think it wouldn't work for me as a replacement for human interactions but could be useful in assisting in day-to-day lives as AI is already becoming through phone apps etc.

I find the idea of transhumanism really intriguing. Can you imagine if every mind on Earth was linked together by technology? It would be the death knell of ethnic conflict and class/gender divisions, not to mention loneliness. Also, free will and individuality but, hey, those are double-edged swords at the best of times!

We are borg?

 

[lifestream]

You play games don't you Shadetree? I was wondering if you have played Deus Ex: Human Revolution or The Talos Principle - if not I think you'd find them very interesting in this regard.

I think having an AI companion could potentially be useful for some. I think it wouldn't work for me as a replacement for human interactions but could be useful in assisting in day-to-day lives as AI is already becoming through phone apps etc.

I find the idea of transhumanism really intriguing. Can you imagine if every mind on Earth was linked together by technology? It would be the death knell of ethnic conflict and class/gender divisions, not to mention loneliness. Also, free will and individuality but, hey, those are double-edged swords at the best of times!

We are borg?

Resistance is futile.

 

[shadetree]

AI could also be our guide, assuming we don't torture it...

Yeah i think that about sums it all up. Mankind has a huge capacity for cruelty but i also try to remember he has a huge capacity for compassion as well. I hope that its a good thing and were able to use it to guide and enlighten ourselves rather than burn ourselves out completely.

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You play games don't you Shadetree? I was wondering if you have played Deus Ex: Human Revolution or The Talos Principle - if not I think you'd find them very interesting in this regard.

Yeah ive played all the Deus Ex games theyre some of my favorites.Remember? I told you im that weirdo whos played every video game EVER MADE EVAAARRR.. LOL Talos i havent checked out yet but i know what youre talking about it looked interesting.

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I find the idea of transhumanism really intriguing. Can you imagine if every mind on Earth was linked together by technology? It would be the death knell of ethnic conflict and class/gender divisions, not to mention loneliness. Also, free will and individuality but, hey, those are double-edged swords at the best of times!

Lol @ also free will and individuality. Yep thatll about do it lol. I still think in the back of my mind it might end up like the terminator. Death by toaster seems a pretty horrible way to die.......

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Maybe in 100 years time we could simply plug ourselves into a computer and live a virtual life ?
We could make ourselves attractive to the opposite sex and it would seem completely real.

The other idea would be robots. They could be that sophisticated that you could order them from a company to live with you for a certain amount of time. You could program them before hand to say enjoy doing the washing up or talk about football. It would be the only way of enjoying a woman's company. Obviously they would be very expensive and you could only loan them for a month at a time. Reminds me of that old film West World. The scene where the guy went to bed with that woman who was a robot.

Yeah ive thought about all this too, the implications of all this technology is pretty staggering at times. I think the VR scares me more than the robots. Im already addicted to video games if VR became a reality to the point it was like the matrix or something i know id never leave, itd be like a drug or something. I could even see the government restricting access to it at some point like that old show TEK war with william shatner, i think that was the name of it, but anyway the VR was like an illegal drug.

I seen this the other day on steam, its a social game sort of like second life.This one supposedly scans your face in and creates an actual avatar of you..... so i think that may be here sooner than we expect btw.

http://steamcommunity.com//sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=372367790

Theres also this... which captures facial expressions and puts them onto an animated avatar

http://store.steampowered.com/app/274920/

SOE or Daybreak games as theyre now called has something similar called SOEmote theyre putting into all their mmos.

Cant help but hearing the announcer guys voice in my head that says.....this is how it begins.......

Then you know. Toasters come and eat our brains......something like that.

 

[Mouse]

Artificial intelligence can only reason with the inputs it's been given. If scientists get the coding wrong at the programming stage, then AI will not obey what they want and could become aggressive. What if scientists across the world build a hive of supercomputers and they link up? It's possible that just as humans can band together, so can intelligent computers.

My question is, does all this investment into AI mean that we’ve given up trying to make people smarter? No, it means that we, the human race, are slowly giving up on becoming smarter. More and more we are relying our machines to be smart for us because it is too much work for us, as individuals, to become smarter, and it cuts too much into our leisure time. As we develop more and more machines, we live less and less by our wits. We are letting the machines take over more and more. I pity my children they grow up. What kind of a world will they be trying to cope in?

Not all scientific developers are ethically inclined, especially those with extreme ideologies who might well want to design AI systems that achieve their nefarious goals. My fear is that no matter what we put in place as safeguards, there will always be those who will find a way to hack into it or worse, there will be an AI system designed to hack into another AI system that will take control of many systems to achieve the worst situation imaginable.

 

[DDZ]

There's been a lot of talk about this in the news recently....you can google comments made by Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Bill Gates on this subject. All three of them seem very worried by it.

Personally my views are mixed. As a human I lean towards wanting to remain and remain dominant but from a strictly logical pov not sure that makes much sense or is the ideal scenario ;p. Also doubt what most of us think matters at all re: the eventual outcome.

 

[Tealeaf]

AI could also be our guide, assuming we don't torture it...

Yeah i think that about sums it all up. Mankind has a huge capacity for cruelty but i also try to remember he has a huge capacity for compassion as well. I hope that its a good thing and were able to use it to guide and enlighten ourselves rather than burn ourselves out completely.

Depends on where and when it crops up, I suppose.

What I can't understand is people who are terrified of it going out of control... as opposed to what? Our rapists, thieves, and drug dealers? Our dictators who bring suffering, our cult leaders who gather followers and brainwash them, our leaders who deny us knowledge in order to control us? Our parents selling their children into sex slavery?

Again: Any sensible AI would be terrified of us and struggle to outdo us as far as cruelty goes.

At the same time, a true intelligence as depicted in film would be unbound by many of our own limitations and prejudices, probably including having programming that we're often completely unaware of and unable to think past. Perhaps it wouldn't give or withhold empathy based on skin color, religion, and whether or not another form of life is similar enough to it to evoke empathy and try to justify those things as simply being more deserving, such as when humans are sad about the death of a puppy but feel nothing for trees, or how we simply pretend we don't see the suffering of those too far away and too sick to help.

Can you imagine the immense wisdom of a life form that would look at old, young, black white, Muslim, Christian, African, American, tree, dog, and see them all as deserving with absolutely no need to divide its concern or avert its attention from any of them in order to keep going about the rat race? That's divine. That's something humanity may never achieve themselves.

 

[Cavey]

"Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of millions of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for humans at this micro-instant. For you. Hate. Hate." - A.M.

 

[shadetree]

You know that was one of the first computer games i ever played, based on that.I have no mouth and i must scream. It still sticks in my mind. I wish theyd base more games on classic sci fi literature. I havent seen an adventure game based on a book in a long time. Course i guess i should be thankful they exist at all since people seem to depend solely on graphics now adays. Weird how everything relates back to games for me, i need to get some sunshine this week......

 

[Katerina]

Yeah ive played all the Deus Ex games theyre some of my favorites.Remember? I told you im that weirdo whos played every video game EVER MADE EVAAARRR.. LOL Talos i havent checked out yet but i know what youre talking about it looked interesting.

Wasn't sure if it was in the backlog . There's a lot of reading in Talos otherwise it functions as a puzzle-based game I was lazy and watched a Let's Play of it. It's all about what it means to be human and what it means to be conscious, it gets pretty thought provoking as it goes on.

 

[shadetree]

Yeah ive played all the Deus Ex games theyre some of my favorites.Remember? I told you im that weirdo whos played every video game EVER MADE EVAAARRR.. LOL Talos i havent checked out yet but i know what youre talking about it looked interesting.

Wasn't sure if it was in the backlog . There's a lot of reading in Talos otherwise it functions as a puzzle-based game I was lazy and watched a Let's Play of it. It's all about what it means to be human and what it means to be conscious, it gets pretty thought provoking as it goes on.

Sounds fun, ill have to check it out, ive actually been playing this game called always sometimes monsters recently and it was pretty surprising how good it is. Its kind of like a life simulator in a way.

 

[Cavey]

You know that was one of the first computer games i ever played, based on that.I have no mouth and i must scream. It still sticks in my mind. I wish theyd base more games on classic sci fi literature. I havent seen an adventure game based on a book in a long time. Course i guess i should be thankful they exist at all since people seem to depend solely on graphics now adays. Weird how everything relates back to games for me, i need to get some sunshine this week......

Well, I haven't mentioned it in a while, but I used to be heavily addicted to anything game/internet related. I can trace most things in my life back to gaming, so I can empathise. I've spent the better part of my adult life hiding inside a pixelated digital world and avoiding all of my real life responsibilities. By this point, I'm probably closer to an AI than an actual human being anyway

In all honesty, I much prefer the short story to the game, but they were both written by Harlan Ellison, so they're both as valid as each other. I do remember playing the game and thinking it was a very good adaptation of the source material, but my imagination is much more powerful than a mid-90s PC.

 

[tautomer]

I think many miss the boat one one important point - humans aren't just powerful computers. You can get the world's largest server farm of the highest power computers in the world, and no consciousness will arise. We don't understand the environment necessary for consciousness to arise, or even what it is; until those questions are answered I don't think we will create AI. Perhaps we could replicate human behavior well enough to be indistinguishable, but that in and of itself doesn't constitute creating a conscious being. More research must be done before this question can be answered.