John wrote: > If you have not already done so, you should read one of Isaac > Asimov's science fiction novels about the possibilities of robotic > technology. He actually thought of very intelligent robots even > before the present computer technology. He was the one that thought > of the robotic laws which included a rule that robots must not harm > humans at all costs. > When I was a kid I read those and have been very aware of his concept. > >From my own readings, I don't believe artificial intelligence > research has come close to understanding how the human brain operates- > -at least not yet. But it is interesting note that IBM's Big Blue > was able to beat Gary Kasparov in chess. According to its creators, > the computer was able to beat the human world champion by sheer, > brute calculation force, but not necessarily creative imagination. > Are you a computer programmer? I've been one for over 25 years. You can program a chess program that can process every possible move and select a counter move to beat about any chess expert or at least wind up in a stalemate. There are things are minds do that stump AI programmers emulation efforts. On a certain well known program that uses AI the people I worked with were running long lists of "memes" to determine how to emulate human behavior. I directed their attention to Indian philosophy on the subject of the mind, purusha, ayurvedic doshas, etc and though they didn't understand these very well were able to create a much more simplified model. > > >> Right now except for a few things we could roll back to 1970's >> > level > >> technology and people would be happy. We would keep the things that >> benefit society but discard the stuff that is rather peripheral. A >> > major > >> global economic collapse could result in this (and a global nuclear >> > war > >> take us back to 900 AD technology). >> >> But there is so much stuff of little value that technologists want >> > to > >> develop it just seems it all seems like "technological >> > masturbation." > >> They need to step back and ask "is this really useful?'" It is also >> scary that we have technologists who want to become part machine. >> > Not > >> me, baby. Forget that crap, the closer I keep myself to nature the >> better off I am. What do you think? >> > > The very nature of the human mind creates the urge to find new > possibilities in everything that has been invented or discovered. > IMO, there is nothing wrong with this. Unfortunately, the urge often > includes the more common reasons, which are for entertainment and > profit. >
Look up writings by Bill Joy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems on this. He countered Ray Kurzweill's exuberance on technology. Joy felt that "technology ethics" should be taught along side the actual teaching of technology itself. > >From an idealist point of view, the quest for new technology should > be tempered with reason and understanding as to how computers in the > future can benefit humans in terms of practical living, such as > making accurate predictions of hurricanes, earthquakes, sunamis and > other natural catastrophies in order to save human lives. Given the > current financial upheaval, I would like to think that future > computer technology and artificial intelligence might be able to > prognosticate the state of the world economies given the myriad > factors involved for calculating such endeavor. > > JR And maybe you should look into the now defunct "Technocracy" movement and political party. :D Yes, computer models help and better models will be developed. Unfortunately they are only as good as their developers and unfortunately many bright people become vain and effect the ability of their programs in the process. Just look at allopathic medicine and how it keeps rejecting medical models such as ayurveda which have been around for centuries rather than exploring them and extracting why they work (and have lasted so long). I have a friend who in the late 1980's worked for Cray Computer. His laptop nowadays has more power than the Cray he worked on back then. :) Technology will continue to evolve but hopefully at a rate that can be better integrated into society rather than destroy it.
