Merging of Human and Machine
I am reading with blessed out awe this article on CNN’s website about the Global Catastrophic Risk Conference being held at Oxford University in Britain. One of the topics will be “unintended consequences of new technologies, such as superintelligent machines that, if ill-conceived, might cause the demise of Homo sapiens.”
I might not live to see the day that human will be more robotic than human, but if you listen to the theories in this article, it could be possible that my daughter will live to see it.
My awe lies mostly in the medical breakthroughs that are being attempted: nanobots that can go in and cure diabetes, cancer, and even enable a body to go without breathing for a half an hour. The idea is astounding and exiting – thrilling and at the same time a little frightening.
Scientists point out that the use of technology will change faster than most of us can imagine; that it is not a matter of hundreds of years before these things are a reality, but rather 8 or maybe 20 years. The use of technology and electronics operates at an exponential growth rate.
Most interesting is Dr. Ray Kurzweil’s idea of Singularity –”the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking and existence with our technology, resulting in a world that is still human but that transcends our biological roots.”
It sounds like an interesting read. I plan on picking up a copy — The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
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