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Save Us, Sarah Connor!

Posted by GayPatriot at 6:17 pm - February 18, 2008.
Filed under: Movies, TV & Pop Culture,Post 9-11 America

If you haven’t caught “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles“, definitely check it out tonight on FOX at 9pm Eastern.

In the meantime, I sure hope this scientist is right… that the machines won’t kill us BEFORE the year 2029.

Machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029, a leading US inventor has predicted.  Humanity is on the brink of advances that will see tiny robots implanted in people’s brains to make them more intelligent, said Ray Kurzweil.

“I’ve made the case that we will have both the hardware and the software to achieve human level artificial intelligence with the broad suppleness of human intelligence including our emotional intelligence by 2029,” he said.

“We’re already a human machine civilisation; we use our technology to expand our physical and mental horizons and this will be a further extension of that.”

Humans and machines would eventually merge, by means of devices embedded in people’s bodies to keep them healthy and improve their intelligence, predicted Mr Kurzweil.

Do any of these folks ever stop to think if they SHOULD be doing this kind of research?   Aristotle, where art thou?   Are ethics even taught in our finer institutions of learning these days?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

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7 Comments

  1. Hey Bruce, I think this more of the usual PR game from science-types trying to project an image of the future that serves their interests today… I can recall while in grade school reading Our Weekly Reader and science-types telling us that things like grocery lists would be history when we were adults because we’d talk to our computer in the pantry, he/she would take stock of what’s missing, order it from the store and a robot would delivery it… or that we wouldn’t have individual cars because all the oil would be gone and mass transit would be da-thing in 2000. 

    Right.  2029 will probably turn out to be as lame as 1984 and 2K turned out to be, despite all the dire warnings from the science-types and psuedo-futurists.

    I’d be happy if the publik-skool graduate idiot in the grocery store could just scan the right price for the item someday.

    Comment by Michigan-Matt — February 19, 2008 @ 10:27 am - February 19, 2008

  2. Machines kill people all the time, and they’ve done it without actual human direction, too.  There’s nothing Skynet about that.

    How does transhumanism conflict with ethical norms?  The great thing for my side is, even if you wanted to stop technological progress, you can’t.  Human nature won’t allow it.

    Comment by Crow — February 19, 2008 @ 10:43 am - February 19, 2008

  3. I just wish they’d hurry up and invent the Orgasmatron.

    Comment by Draybee — February 19, 2008 @ 2:33 pm - February 19, 2008

  4. I really can’t add anything to the above…so I won’t.

    Regards,
    Peter H.

    Comment by Peter Hughes — February 19, 2008 @ 7:59 pm - February 19, 2008

  5. With the democrats after my money, the left after my guns and all manner of  ‘for my own good’ groups trying to outlaw cigarettes, red meat, public prayer, trans-fats and martini’s on Sunday mornings, I’ll sweat the robots later. 

    Comment by Vera Charles — February 19, 2008 @ 8:52 pm - February 19, 2008

  6. Human level intelligence seems to be aiming kind of low if you ask me. It would be a good start but only just.

    Our goals and theirs would likely be complimentary or at least compatible. The desire to conquer territory and destroy rivals is primarily biologically, not economically based. Their ability to innovate more productive techniques would likely reduce the importance of land as past technologies have done. If we could be intelligent enough to not attempt to eradicate them they would probably return the favor. Few humans advocate deliberately eradicating all mammalian species simply because we are more intelligent.

    Comment by Saul Wall — February 19, 2008 @ 9:23 pm - February 19, 2008

  7. Stop being so pessimistic. I have only one thing to say, guns that are specifically designed to kill intelligent robots *drool*

    Comment by numeral — February 20, 2008 @ 1:47 pm - February 20, 2008

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