Oh My!!!!

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2048138,00.html

But if http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNy-ipksLUM, how can it possibly get here in 35 years?

...Quick! Someone find Sarah Connor!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnreVTKtpMs&feature=related

That said, it's going to be a sad affair. Immortality will be something only very very very very very very very very very very ridiculously disgustingly outlandishly rich people will be able to afford. Therefore everybody you know, including yourself, will probably still die.

Ah well.

Guy: Computer get me my porm for today....
Computer: NO.
End of Civilization right there.

It always bugs me whenever I see someone speak about processor speed as if it automatically equates to artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence doesn't come from a processor, it comes from a program. Granted, a fast processor is required for good artificial intelligence to function efficiently, but it's just one part of a much more complicated machine.

As for the program, that's going to be the hard part. Creating a program that learns and adapts is no small feat. Creating one that functions on a near-human level is just shy of impossible. I suppose at the very least we'll have the processor power to support human-like artificial intelligence long before the code is in place.

35 years huh

If things do get out of hand, here's how it'll probably happen:

Robots will learn that live is unfair, thus they will decide that life must be wiped out.

That 34 years...my singularitatian compubrain figured it....

And then the IT guys and the programmers will have to take them out *cracks knuckles* :toughninja:

Ugh, immortality. I'll pass, good god such an over rated affair.

There's the rub right there. Without the proper programming, the fastest computer in the world is just a calculator.

Wrong.

I got mine to beep.

Agreed.

What? You mean I'll have to wait a whole 35 years for my prosthetic body? But... but they said they could get it to me by Tuesday!
Laaaaaaaaame. :c

Am I the only one who thinks the whole: "scan your consciousness into an immortal cyborg" thing will end being more like xerox and less like a transplant?

Nope, unless it was a brain transplant.

Even a copy isn't possible with current technology. This is another common misconception, that a human brain is like a computer. In a way that's true but really it's like comparing cassette tape to a CD. They both accomplish the same goal but function in a completely different manner. Computers store and process information using bits, 1s and 0s. The human brain stores and processes information in a more anolog form, essentially 1s and 0s and the infinite number of decimals in-between. Even if you could design a computer that functions in this way it would be counter productive. A computer's sole purpose is to consistently and reliably produce precise results which you can't get using an anolog method of processing.

Very well thought out right there :goodjob:

As for immortality, I'll pass. Being alive forever is just to boring and monotonous for me

I for one welcome our new robot overlords. :whistling:

In 1993, I saw a documentary saying the computer have reached the intelligence of crabs and that in the next 20 years (2013), we can expect them to have the intelligence of humans... I am still waiting. To stop a window session, I need to click on "Start", that's really human paradox but I doubt this is a fallout of AI...

I think we are not seeing the real AI. It is every where except that, to make it less "science-fiction", they rebaptise it "Machine Learning" or "Data Mining". The power of human brain is to be able to process millions of inputs and synthetize them in one single output. Computer, so far, are struggling to do these tasks.

On the other side, computers are very good in anolyzing large data sets and detecting hidden patterns, what we cannot do very well. Our brain tends to take "short cut".

So, my opinion is that AI will come more and more in specialized domains: face recognition, voice recognition, script writing, security, industrial applications etc... Multipurpose intelligence has no real applications in regards of the cost of development.

Get a fast enough computer (read: really really fast) and you just need to simulate a human brain or something similar. Unfortunately we then get into some real big ethical issues.

The other alternative would be to build a computer + software system that could design a faster version.


Really? I didn't think so. :shrug: Then again I am not a biologist.

In video games at least, artificial intelligence is something that has constantly underwhelmed me. You need look no further than "Radiant AI".

A computer composing music isn't that much of a mysterious feat either. What happens is that the computer uses algorithms and randomizes something based on a set of instructions ultimately written by a human.

And that's partially why I'm dubious about the idea of artificial intelligence comparable to or greater than human intellect. The really hard part would be actually programming an AI that can do everything a human mind can do just as well as a human, or better, and that's the hard part, and I'd say we're still pretty far from that. I mean, sure, we might be able to make a computer that can compose music, but when you think about it, that's probably not as impressive as it sounds like at first. We can probably safely assume that the computer was programmed specifically to compose songs. Now, if it can also paint pictures and write poetry, and was not programmed to do so as you would program software on a computer, but rather learned to from experience like a person would, then it will be more impressive. The idea of sapient machines is an interesting science-fiction concept, but I'm not so sure it will ever be more than that, I certainly wouldn't count on it ever happening in our life time (Unless we get the immortality medicine mentioned in the article. And while I don't doubt that something along those lines, or at least a considerably extended human lifespan, could happen in the future. I'm not sure that it will happen soon enough for any of us to benefit from it, and even if it does, we must consider that it may not be readily affordable to most people.)

There's also the philosophycal question brought up in that very article about where to draw the line between AI that is intelligent in the same way we would define ourselves as being intelligent, and just a close simulation as that. But that's a subject I'd rather not get into here, for a number of reasons. In part to avoid the risk of going into territory of discussion not allowed on the forum and in part because such a discussion would yield no definite answer, since it's more a philosophical question than a scientific one, and even if any perspective on it could be scientifically proven, it would first require the presence of an AI about which this could be debated, until then, it can only be speculation.

I don't doubt that AI, and technology in general, really, has the potential to bring great changes to the way we live our lives, of course, it already has, and advancing it further will increase those changes. I'm just skeptical towards some of the visions some people have of that. The problem with any vision of the future is that they often tend to be proven wrong. No matter how much attention you pay to anolyzing all the variables and how much you think outside the box, there's still no guarentee you'll be right, partially because the course of the future may be affected by changes you simply could not have predicted, and the further ahead you look, the greater the likelyhood of changes ouside of your predictions occuring.

I am sorry to say that the so-called AI from RPG are basically crap. The characters are reproducing, in a very limited environment, some behaviours. But they have a very limited learning capability. If you want to speak about artificial intelligence, watch rather facial recognition, security profiling applications or even board games like Go or even RTS.
I will give a bit technical answer to the AI definition. I recently wrote a paper on some new methodology to use AI to assess uncertainty and quantify costs and risks of projects in the oil and gas industry.

Sorry to say it but Radiant AI is just an easy way to simulate life. It is to AI what a fan is to an air conditioner (my AC just broke down). AI are systems that perceive their environment and take actions that maximize their chances of success for a given goal. They are able to solve most complex problems, are able to classify, learn, associate, they are error-tolerant and they are managing discrete parameters (i.e. non continuous: {black, red, green, blue, yellow, white} or {shoot, kick, ignore, greet...}). AI is also giving a stochastic answer i.e. shoot: 55%, kick: 20%, ignore: 15%, greet:10%.
We are very very very far from the Singularity with Radiant AI.

EDIT: Selbeth, I am 100% with you. This is an excellent post.