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Technological Singularity / Technological Advancement / Transhumanism

Mindprowler

Mar 2, 2012
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The advancement of technology is something I find incredibly interesting, not only because of the implications it presents (nanotechnology, consumer bionic technology, physical augmentations, incredibly realistic virtual reality simulations, medical advances, life extension and longevity increases etc) but because of how predictable and how consistent advancement laws (Law of Accelerating Returns, Moore's Law, Kryder's Law) have been. The inevitable outcome of these laws is technological singularity, the point in time where machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence. How can this happen? The most obvious first step is the reverse engineering of the human brain, that is, understanding the processes taking place within the brain, understanding the complex dance routine neurons seem to be involved in.

The technologies involved in brain scanning / experimentation (fMRI, MEG, PET, TMS, and TPLS) are all developing at an exponential rate, described by laws like Moore's Law and Kryder's Law. Features like spatial resolution and time resolution are continually increasing allowing us to view more neurons in a smaller time frame, thus allowing us to create increasingly accurate models and simulations of the human brain. Once these models are sufficiently developed we will be able to develop software based on them, replicating the human brain and the activities within, allowing us to work towards developing "strong AI", artificial intelligence with pattern recognition, cognitive function, and learning capabilities similar (and eventually better) than our own. Once artificial intelligence at this level is developed technology will continue to advance even faster since most of the design will be done by the machines themselves (Law of Accelerating Returns, which shows that the rate of technological advancement itself is also exponential, meaning information technology develops along a double exponential curve, showing an exponential curve even on a logarithmic scale).

A lot of people are frightened by this, they envision future wars between man and machine, apocalyptic sci-fi movie scenarios where we end up enslaved by our own technology. I find that rather silly, it completely disregards aim and purpose of the field of bionics, a field that is already well underway. Humanity doesn't just sit there watching their technology get more and more intelligent, humanity merges with their technology. We incorporate the technology into our bodies, nonbiological parts working together with biological parts. We already see this with artificial organs, prosthetic limbs, hearing aids, contact lenses, GPS implants, ultrasonic sensory implants (Kevin Warwick being the first to do this), and other sensory aiding implants. We don't stand beside the exponential curve of technological advancement, we latch on to it and join it.

Anyways, before I get too carried away I'll stop myself here, what are your thoughts regarding the future advancement of technology? What about technological advancement excites you?

tl;dr? Technology develops exponentially, the implications of this are extensive, what are your thoughts?
 
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Ian

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Aug 23, 2006
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I'm pretty excited about how things will change - just imagine something like the iPhone 20 years ago... It can find out information on anything from anywhere, show my position/direction, accept reasonable advanced voice commands, make purchases/apps, basic augmented reality apps for the camera, image recognition apps...etc...

Once something like that becomes much smallers and powerful, that will be pretty exciting. I'm sure we'll be able to do all of that from a contact lens/pair of glasses soon enough (I hope it's within my lifetime!).

Sounds like we're all going to be Borg ;).
 

jackorocko

Apr 4, 2010
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*shrugs* I haven't even looked at or touched an iphone.

I love technology and I love the way it moves the world forward. But, I am always one of the last to adopt. Simply because I hate hauling around baggage. I have yet to ever take my laptop more then a 100 feet from my kitchen table.

As cool as the borg are, I would never concede myself to being a slave to technology.
 

GonzoEngineer

Dec 2, 2011
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I want a device the size of my cell phone.

It will have a headset, but not for audio.

If my Arthritis is kicking up, I can set the knob to "Analgesic", and kill the pain.

Or, I could be relaxing after work, and set the dial to "Delta 9" and get a good buzz to go along with my cold beer!

Or, I could set it to "Speed mode" to go to the work in the morning and kick ass!

And all it will cost me is the battery power.

I can see the future now...9 volt batteries will be "controlled substances" and we will be smuggling them across the borders!

BAHAHAHAHAHA!
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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Just say NO to 9V batteries GonzoEngineer!
 

GreenGiant

Feb 9, 2012
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With all the positive and negative media on the technological singularity (positive being Assimov's and other's creations, negative being The Matrix, Terminator etc) I'm rather on the fence about the whole subject. While it would be cool to be able to have conversations with a robot/your computer/what have you, the risk of things going wrong is a big one.

I love the advancement of technology, I love getting the newest cutting edge piece, and fooling around with it, and seeing that things of older generations and look at the improvements.There are things of old that I will admit are better than the newer stuff but that comes with the territory.

There are already some advances towards the singularity. Back in 2006 there was an article that I read about some robots that were programmed to pick up colored discs, each was programmed with a specific color that they could use as "sustenance" while the other colors would "poison" them. The one that was programmed for red eventually figured out that the other colors didn't hurt him, so it went around and bullied the other robots into letting it have the discs they were grabbing.

Kind of makes you think about how will we hard code them to not do something like that with humans.
 

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