The AI Singularity and Transhumanism

innerspaceboy · 04-03-2016, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

Did you follow the story about DeepMind's AlphaGo beating the Go champion? The most interesting part of the story is that the computer program learned how to improve its game by playing itself over and over again. Essentially, it's self taught, making it very different from Deep Blue.

I did come across that story recently. The self-taught bit is fascinating.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neapolitan

The first video is one of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone. I've seen all three films that deal with android/computer consciousness - of course no need to mention 2001: A Space Odyssey and I, Robot. The last video is a TEDx lecture by Rupert Sheldrake. The original curiously has been removed by TEDx so says the up-loader, which reeks of a grand conspiracy. I rather like him, however I don't know how others will take him. He brings up some curious questions about the nature of conscience of living organisms and inorganic material.

Hooray for media links! Thank you. Excepting Future World I have seen each of those films, as well as Blade Runner and Spike Jonze’s ‘Her’.

And in related news, Apple has filed for a patent on software which can detect and respond to a user's mood.

The Twilight Zone and the TED Talk I have not yet seen. I have an archive of the entire TZ franchise and I'm slowly working my way through the series. This episode will certainly be bumped to first-in-line!

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I guess no one's told him that the version of his consciousness in the computer would be merely a copy of him, and not actually him? Unless this computer involves some kind of nutrient-filled container for my surgically-removed brain, then I'm not interested in cloning my thoughts.

Do remember that your body's cells die off and are replaced every seven or so years. You are likely, technically speaking, an entirely different physical being than you were in 2009.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neapolitan

You are voluntarily grafting your thoughts onto the forum, so what's the difference?

o.0

Quote:

Originally Posted by rostasi

I still own his K2600 keyboard. That's all.

Does Stevie Wonder know it's missing?

Neapolitan · 04-03-2016, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

... This is such a seemingly inane, boring comment, that I can't help but feel that I will have been successfully trolled if I respond "incorrectly".

So, to answer your question: yes.

It wasn't a yes/no question. Personally I don't want to be destroyed just to be saved onto a computer or made into an android. I sorta with you, except I don't want any part of it, not even having my brain placed in a nutrient-filled container. However if you ever do decide to put your brains in a nutrient-filled container, I would imagine you would make a formidable Krang.

Back to the topic. I saw a doc on quantum physics and in it, it said that the teleportation that is used in Star Trek could be done with a quantum computer. A person who want to be transported would step onto a transport and be scanned and that turn all the information about of what constitutes a person on an atomic level into information which would be sent to another place where is would arrange each atom in the same exact way. However while scanning every atom it would destroy the original copy in the process. Somewhat like what happen in the movie Prestige, expect in the movie the original wasn't destroyed by the (teleporter) machine.

It seems that most things are evolving into a cyber form. Hypothetically in the future there is a way to save person's conscientiousness into a cyber world, then that process would have to be evolutionary. Then we would be at the evolution stage where people put their thoughts and ideas onto the internet using computers with keyboards. However in the future instead of using computers and a keyboard, the i-Phone 2000 would just read your mind, and the cloud and your conscience would be intertwined.

However it could possibly be that having a computer capture ones conscious could be something that simply can not be done.

innerspaceboy · 04-03-2016, 06:32 PM

A friend just shared an eyeborg TED Talk with me. It was really entertaining.

The Batlord · 04-03-2016, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by innerspaceboy

Do remember that your body's cells die off and are replaced every seven or so years. You are likely, technically speaking, an entirely different physical being than you were in 2009.

The thought has most definitely occurred to me, but the difference is continuity. Even when I'm asleep, some part of my consciousness is still active, and throughout my 29 years of existence, no matter how many of my cells have died, nothing has caused a cessation of ME. But since it would be perfectly possible for computer me and ME me to exist at the same time and converse, then computer me still isn't me in any way that is useful to ME.

OccultHawk · 04-03-2016, 06:51 PM

That and the transporter thing both remind me of the idea that you can die and go to hell. Belief in the soul strikes me as very odd. So does the idea that consciousness exists outside of the chemicals in your brain.

The Batlord · 04-03-2016, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

That and the transporter thing both remind me of the idea that you can die and go to hell. Belief in the soul strikes me as very odd. So does the idea that consciousness exists outside of the chemicals in your brain.

Which is why I am mistrustful of human+ tech which seems to treat consciousness as something transferable.

innerspaceboy · 04-03-2016, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

That and the transporter thing both remind me of the idea that you can die and go to hell. Belief in the soul strikes me as very odd. So does the idea that consciousness exists outside of the chemicals in your brain.

I agree completely. Machine sentience and a dystopian future in which man is enslaved by iPods is one thing, but that immortal soul nonsense is preposterous. I'm happy to see study after study concluding that religiousity's numbers and their patented indoctrination process are rapidly-dwindling in the information age.

...Actually, I've seen people out there... our iPod overlords are upon us today.

The Batlord · 04-03-2016, 07:21 PM

So long as they're not Apple products, I welcome our new mechanical masters.

innerspaceboy · 04-03-2016, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

So long as they're not Apple products, I welcome our new mechanical masters.

I'll add Empire of the Ants to my movie list!

OccultHawk · 04-03-2016, 08:42 PM

Quote:

What visions of the world, both utopian and dystopian, have been proposed for life after the singularity?

Obviously, Kurzweil is very optimistic.

I figure we're bound to get snagged in some never ending computer glitch loop virus type of situation which I suppose would be the closest thing to hell that could realistically ever happen.

Also, I've seen it proposed on pop science TV shows and in print that there will be a movement against machine integration and the people who opt out will be so far below those in the singularity they'll be as intellectually distant as ants are now. Not that I'm really convinced any other kind of intelligence is inferior to human intelligence from an objective standpoint.

Others say lack of access due to poverty will make the rich by comparison übermensch.

04-03-2016, 06:51 PM	#15 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	That and the transporter thing both remind me of the idea that you can die and go to hell. Belief in the soul strikes me as very odd. So does the idea that consciousness exists outside of the chemicals in your brain.