The Coming Superbrain / S D Rodrian

John Markoff wrote:

Several years ago the artificial-intelligence
pioneer Raymond Kurzweil took the idea one
step further in his 2005 book, “The Singularity
Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.”
He sought to expand Moore’s Law to
encompass more than just processing power
and to simultaneously predict with great
precision the arrival of post-human evolution,
which he said would occur in 2045.
In Dr. Kurzweil’s telling, rapidly increasing
computing power in concert with cyborg
humans would then reach a point when
machine intelligence not only surpassed
human intelligence but took over the process
of technological invention, with unpredictable
consequences.

Even within humanity there are two very distinct
and telling forms of intelligence: Real Intelligence
and Cleverness. [I have often said one cannot
beat a clever man at checkers--a computer is a
super-clever "being" but it has zero Real
Intelligence.] Perhaps the "genuinely" most
intelligent people in human history have never
done anything "clever" enough to achieve any
fame, and have lived out their lives in secluded
happiness (as opposed to nerve-racking fame/
celebrity). Even if the world were taken over
by Terminator-like super-computers, I believe
Really Intelligent people would still manage
to find a way to out-wit the "clever" machines
and continue to find ways to live out lives of
secluded happiness ... It is the hallmark of
real intelligence that it finds a way to adapt,
while those with limited Real Intelligence (and
no matter how clever--true of even computers)
must be placed in nearly-perfect environments
to function comfortably. Certainly, I cannot
imagine that the really intelligent would waste
their time engaging anyone/anything in pointless
contests for world/or limited supremacy!

If there's anything the truly intelligent understand
it is ... the staggering miracle that is any kind of
existence (at all, let alone a conscious one). That
is more than enough for any really intelligent being.

Capitalist William Joy, a co-founder of Sun
Microsystems [writing against people who
predict a very utopian future ... the
development of superhuman machines:
Dr. Kurzweil envisions “uploading,” or the
idea that the contents of our brain and
thought processes can somehow be translated
into a computing environment, making a
form of immortality possible] believes that
“I wasn't’t saying we would be supplanted by
something. I think a catastrophe is more likely.”

Ha! Monkeys are more likely to develop more
efficient ways to throw their feces about... than
to develop any sort of technological Utopia.
And, for better or worse, we are monkeys.

Pn the other hand, it is still unresolved whether
we are intelligent enough to destroy ourselves.

S D Rodrian
http://poems.sdrodrian.com
http://physics.sdrodrian.com
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All religions are local.
Only science is universal.
..

If you want to rob people of their money
it's not a gun (you need) but God: Nobody
has yet come up with a better weapon than
God with which to rob people of their money.
--S D Rodrian

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