Perhaps unconsciously, Allen is asserting the primacy of human intelligence in our known universe – a cognitive barrier beyond which nothing can pass – because evolution made it… or something. Paul, an AI doesn’t have to be smart LIKE us, just as smart AS us. Namsayen?
Can a computer be intelligent like a human? We already accept the existence of other animal intelligences, as long as they’re not as intelligent as us. That is a heartbreaking notion of staggeringly arrogant species-level narcissism.
As the writing staff here (which is, you know, me) have been stuck in a southern Japanese forest for the past four days, not much new has happened at www.anthrobotic.com. But we’re back in the stream now, and will put forth on Monday. Until then, have a look at a slightly remixed/remastered version of the site’s most popular post ever: Technology Created Organized Religion. Next Project: Cults For & Against the Singularity. (Now with snarky topical headings to ease the pain of the article’s length!) Futurism, Techno-Sociology, Technological Anthropology, Sociotechnological Studies, Anthrobotic Sociology – or just, you know, generic human [read full post]
Neuroscientist David J. Linden and Futurist, Inventer, and Entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil call bullshit on each other over the timeline for and feasibility of truly understanding the human brain and altering our perception with nanobots. That’s a funny sentence. [VIA KURZWEIL AI]
Here Kurzweil addresses a laundry list of psychological and sociological questions about the future of human technology and how that currently defines and will come to define our species. Agree or not, it will definitely light a fire in your brains. anthrobotic.com is definitely +1’ing this one. While it’s possible that Kurzweil is severely overoptimistic and overreaching in his proclamations, in evaluating his position two things are certain: one should not listen too carefully to the non-scientists or those who criticize from outside the field (like, for example, robot hater and closeted homosexual Senator Tom Coburn – that sub-reference never [read full post]
So… What’s a Singularity, Yo? Futurism, Techno-Sociology, Technological Anthropology, Sociotechnological Studies, Anthrobotic Sociology – or just, you know, generic human science or whatever, has borrowed from cosmology & astrophysics the concept of a “singularity,” and capitalized it. Very basically, it’s where the rules break down – gravity, time, and space go bananas. Regarding human technology, it centers around us producing an intelligence that supersedes our own, which in turn does its own thing, and as a result all we can predict about the future is that it will become utterly unpredictable – all truisms will fail, we’ll be flying blind. The idea [read full post]