"I believe we will remain in charge of the technology for a decently long time and the potential of it to solve many of the world problems will be realised," said Rollo Carpenter, creator of Cleverbot. [More]Ain't it something, Rollo? You believe.
Based on what? Got any empirical backing for that conclusion, or is it actually about as well-defined and measurable, as, say, a religious proclamation, if not even less so? What the hell do you actually know, aside from the fact that there could be a nice paycheck waiting for you some day, and consequences be damned? What does anyone know?
And define "decently long time." What happens then?
When we wanted to carry guns in national parks, some damn "progressive" judge-for-life said we needed to study environmental impacts first. Meanwhile, the engineers and conductors responsible for her ticket on board that gravy train continue to stoke a smoke-belching engine.
I guess I should feel fortunate CERN didn't 'disappear" us in a black hole while searching for the "God Particle."
I don't mean to come off like the "Mr. Scientist" military head in South Park. But as we all know, real science is quite different from agenda (Opposite Day) "science," or as it should be properly regarded, cult doctrine.
Technology becomes ever-more powerful and thus more potentially dangerous.
ReplyDeleteThe end-game of Artificial Intelligence (as well as with nano-scale self-replicating robots) is potentially the rapid ecplising of humankind (or the "grey goo" death of life on Earth).
In spite of these risks, the only option does appear to keep moving forward with technology in general. There are indeed tremendous benefits to be had, and some of them will enable humans to leave Earth enmasse and enable survival of the race should disaster of any sort befall Earth.
Researchers can be advised to proceed with caution, as well we all should. However, attempts to force a halt the research into new technologies parallel the efforts of Theodore Kaczynski, more widely known as the Unabomber.
-PG