Why hasn't the Singularity gone mainstream (yet?) (advance, mouse, video)
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This is a great example as to why I now say the singularity is mainstream because of this movie even if the majority of people do not see it.
As the Hollywood blockbuster Transcendence debuts this weekend with Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman and clashing visions for the future of humanity, it's tempting to dismiss the notion of highly intelligent machines as mere science fiction. But this would be a mistake, and potentially our worst mistake ever.
Artificial intelligence (AI) research is now progressing rapidly. Recent landmarks such as self-driving cars, a computer winning at Jeopardy!, and the digital personal assistants Siri, Google Now and Cortana are merely symptoms of an IT arms race fueled by unprecedented investments and building on an increasingly mature theoretical foundation. Such achievements will probably pale against what the coming decades will bring.
Did you read the whole article? He also speaks of the dangers which he claims are being ignored.
Quote:
Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks. In the near term, for example, world militaries are considering autonomous weapon systems that can choose and eliminate their own targets; the UN and Human Rights Watch have advocated a treaty banning such weapons. In the medium term, as emphasized by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee in The Second Machine Age, AI may transform our economy to bring both great wealth and great dislocation.
Looking further ahead, there are no fundamental limits to what can be achieved: there is no physical law precluding particles from being organized in ways that perform even more advanced computations than the arrangements of particles in human brains. An explosive transition is possible, although it may play out differently than in the movie: as Irving Good realized in 1965, machines with superhuman intelligence could repeatedly improve their design even further, triggering what Vernor Vinge called a "singularity" and Johnny Depp's movie character calls "transcendence." One can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand. Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.
So, facing possible futures of incalculable benefits and risks, the experts are surely doing everything possible to ensure the best outcome, right? Wrong. If a superior alien civilization sent us a text message saying, "We'll arrive in a few decades," would we just reply, "OK, call us when you get here -- we'll leave the lights on"? Probably not -- but this is more or less what is happening with AI. Although we are facing potentially the best or worst thing ever to happen to humanity, little serious research is devoted to these issues outside small non-profit institutes such as the Cambridge Center for Existential Risk, the Future of Humanity Institute, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and the Future of Life Institute. All of us -- not only scientists, industrialists and generals -- should ask ourselves what can we do now to improve the chances of reaping the benefits and avoiding the risks.
I understand there could be some negative consequences to more advanced technology and that is one reason why I study it so much.
So I saw the movie Transcendence tonight. As I suspected the story line was all Hollywood so I watched it with that in mind. Overall I give the movie a B, not as good as the Singularity is near or Transcended Man both of which I give a A, but those movies were not meant for widespread release thus did not have the kind of impact this movie is having. I could tell this even before I went to see it. Before when I would talk about the singularity many people's eyes would glaze over and they could not understand the concept or the examples I would use to explain it to them. That has all changed with this movie, even with people who have not seen it but heard of it and that is most people. All I have to do is mention like in the movie Transcendence and they not only understood but were telling me how technology is changing fast and how they can see how it will happen. A complete game changer.
So in my opinion the singularity is now mainstream. Thanks to Transcendence.
Last edited by Josseppie; 04-20-2014 at 11:24 PM..
A major breakthrough with getting computers to be able to merge with humans.
This is from Science Daily:
By mimicking a viral strategy, scientists have created the first cloaked DNA nanodevice that survives the body's immune defenses. Their success opens the door to smart DNA nanorobots that use logic to spot cancerous tissue and manufacture drugs on the spot to cripple it, as well as artificial microscopic containers called protocells that detect pathogens in food or toxic chemicals in drinking water.
A major breakthrough with getting computers to be able to merge with humans.
This is from Science Daily:
By mimicking a viral strategy, scientists have created the first cloaked DNA nanodevice that survives the body's immune defenses. Their success opens the door to smart DNA nanorobots that use logic to spot cancerous tissue and manufacture drugs on the spot to cripple it, as well as artificial microscopic containers called protocells that detect pathogens in food or toxic chemicals in drinking water.
This is nothing more than a machine designed by men/women for a specific purpose.
It *might* be a major breakthrough in the medical world but hardly constitutes a major breakthrough with getting computers to be able to merge with humans.
Oh and BTW, only tested in mice.. Sure wish you would post something concrete other than your "studies show" "there is a possibility that" "I project" daily/hourly postings...
The results pave the way for smart DNA nanorobots that could use logic to diagnose cancer earlier and more accurately than doctors can today; target drugs to tumors, or even manufacture drugs on the spot to cripple cancer, the researchers report in the April 22 online issue of ACS Nano.
This is merging with computers and is a major breakthrough. This is going to be a step by step process until we completely merge with computers by 2030 and the singularity.
It will happen Moore's law guarantees it.
Last edited by Josseppie; 04-22-2014 at 02:33 PM..
Since you *love* to live in the world of the future and seem to have blinders on when it comes to reality...
Quote:
Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku this week has discussed in a short video why Moore's Law will collapse "in about 10 years or so." In this video presented by Big Think, the law created by Gordon E. Moore is not debunked, but is instead explained as having a limit - you can't keep getting smaller forever.
A common mistake made by people as no one disagrees the current paradigm, the integrated circuit, will come to a end in about 10 years as they reach about 5nm. However that will not be the end of computers advancing exponentially as they will just move to the next paradigm, the 3D self organizing molecular circuit.
This is not the first paradigm either but actually the 5th. For example in the 1950's they were shrinking the vacuum tube till they could not shrink it any more and keep the vacuum and that was the end of the vacuum tube but not the end of computers advancing exponentially we just moved to the next paradigm the transistor then the integrated circuit.
Now I know the technical definition of Moore's law is for the integrated circuit, however, definitions change over time and anymore the term applies to computers advancing exponentially beyond the integrated circuit so that is why I will continue to call it Moore's law.
Here is a graph that shows the different paradigms since the first modern computer was built in 1890. This graph is from Ray Kurzweil.
One thing to note about the graph. Even though it is a logarithmic graph it sill is going up meaning that on top of computers advancing exponentially that rate is itself getting faster.
Last edited by Josseppie; 04-23-2014 at 10:37 AM..
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Cloaked DNA nanodevices survive pilot mission
