Kinkajou
Kinkajou: Probably the biggest problem I see with the definition of the singularity, is whether the human definition of intelligence is the correct and the only definition of intelligence.
We believe we understand intelligence because we look at ourselves in the mirror believing we are intelligent and believe that we understand what facets of brain processing are important in the definition of intelligence.
I suppose the most basic definition of intelligence is the ability to solve problems.
Perhaps one day we may look back and see that much of our definition of intelligence simply highlights our bias for analog signal processing (our brains) as opposed to digital signal processing (CPU chips perhaps with Memristors ).
IQ tests at one time were reputed to favour specific social classes with specific cultural backgrounds.
All humans have a certain innate intelligence. However it is without doubt that some are more intelligent than others. Some forms of genetic human brain programming are perhaps not conducive to complex problem solving. Note the slow development of civilisation in the Indus Valley as opposed to the explosive development of civilisation in the Tigris Euphrates river valleys constituting Sumeria.
Egyptian civilisation also developed rapidly but with a different flavour.
In our personality website we make the point, that the genetic endowment of the people who make civilisation substantially influences the rate at which civilisation develops. Sumeria would appear to correspond with enneagram “ seven” genetic types.
Egyptian civilisation would appear to correspond with the enneagram “eight” genetic type. And the Indus Valley civilisations would appear to correspond with the enneagram “one” genetic type.
Our author makes the point that civilisation on earth would develop substantially more slowly and in a very different fashion if the population were predominantly and enneagram “nine” genetic base. This site also suggests that the rise and fall of nations may reflect the altered genetic mix of its citizens following waves of conquest and colonisation by refugees.
Intelligence even within the human definition of intelligence, would seem to have many aspects and to be very dependent on our genetic brain programming.
Perhaps in terms of “civilisation”, some human types are less” intelligent” than others.
In reality, it is more realistic to say that the different human types approach intelligence in different fashions. Some of these are more conducive to rapid development. Some are more conducive to simply maintaining a civilisation. Intelligence is a hallmark of humanity, but it is more likely that factors such as Paill determines intelligence, than simple genetics.
..... 
Intelligence in computer terms may simply reflect our expertise in programming or our ability to use complex hardware components such as Memristors. To suggest an example, the biggest problem for computer circuitry is that it is required to give the same answer with every computation of the same problem. How can you intelligently adapt to a new situation, if the same question always gives the same answer.
But imagine if you had a “bendy” CPU chip, which gives a different answer with each computation of the same problem. But, if the same question asked to a computer gives a different answer, by human definition the computer is erratic and unreliable. To bypass this issue the computer requires quality control.
A solution: At the extreme, 2 additional CPU chips may be required to compute the problem to confirm that the traditional answer has been generated and that this is different to the answer from the “bendy” CPU chip.
The program may then look at this different answer and apply to the problem to see if this answer is a better answer than the standard “correct” answer.
There is another possible software solution to this issue as well. Heuristic learning programming and Bayesian problem solving may well teach the computer that the “bendy” answer works best.
The computer then needs to be able to incorporate this answer into its standard computational modes, perhaps by memory much the same as in human beings. Perhaps it is the discrepancies that are generated by computation which form the basis of intelligence. Different answers that work better than the correct answers may underlie a path to new problem-solving.
And from our Science fiction examples, maybe these software proposals are too technical. Maybe all the computing software program requires is a little virus, saying: when there is no answer, take a chance”.
(Space Above and Beyond : the Silicoids).
Examples from Science Fiction include:
Kinkajou:
Examples in science fiction movies and literature abound: Skynet, the robot of lost in space, Daneel in Isaac Asimov’s robot series of books, Cortana in the Halo series of books/games.
I think the most interesting examples are Skynet – an evil intelligence attempting to replace humanity. I cannot help but wonder why a machine supposedly with so much intelligence would not simply take the path of least resistance and opt to work with humanity for the future. Everybody wins, nobody loses. Skynet instead chose a path of conflict with winners and losers – and a good chance of it itself being the loser.
In Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, the students in the library of Trantor fought to maintain the life of their AI. Humanity and machines together, not apart.
Hober Mallow
Freya Nakamachi 47 in Charles Stross’s book “Saturn’s Children” builds a picture of a world whereby machines with CPUs have supplanted humanity. It is machine intelligence that is building a future and the civilisation.
Freya Nakamachi- 47
Another interesting example is in Alan Dean Foster’s book “ The Mocking Program.” A program is intelligent when it can replace human functions and its activities are indistinguishable from those of a real human being. I think perhaps the closest facsimile to this type of intelligence of the soft AI intelligences of the Virtual Assistants available online.
I personally would love to have a “Mocking Program” to run the mundane aspects of my life.
Another solution to fulfilling mundane tasks in life while reserving one’s time for “quality time”, exists in the book David Brin: Kiln people. In this book, “ Dittos” are created from a special type of memory clay, exist for short periods of time fulfilling ordinary tasks such as house work – with the memory of events being recombined with the original at the end of the day – a sort of update.
Peter Hamilton: The Naked God. This author makes the point that perhaps intelligence is carried by a soul or life force which may exist in another dimension. In his civilisation, mechanisms can be built capable of carrying the computational capacity necessary to simulate a human being.
These “serjeants” are used as disposable soldiers but can also be used to house a returning human soul. Life can transcend death. You can have a body and choose to live or you can choose to die.
2 North
Donald Kingsbury: Psychohistorical Crisis. In this book, perhaps the pinnacle of artificial intelligence is not a collection of silicon on a chip. It is perhaps an extension of silicon onto a human being. The “FAMs” allow human beings to transcend their biological limitations and to acquire computer-like processing abilities. What is the point of a computerised artificial intelligence when you can have a computerised human one, and with a plethora of potential adaptations.
Eron Osa
Frank Herbert: Dune. Many people who can perform amazing skills of memory using their “human” brain, have perhaps shown us that it is our “understanding” of the way that the human brain works, which limits the exploitation of the potential of the human brain.
In this book, human beings can be trained to perform computational feats that rival those of modern day computers. The human “mentat” is the answer to a society which cannot accept even a hint of the existence of artificial intelligence.
In reading about the feats of these human “ memorising” machines, the key skill which these people promote is the “picturising” of lists. It would appear that the brain is genetically engineered to remember lists of pictures, not lists of verbal symbols. So by imagining a bizarre picture next to every item on a list that needs to be remembered, many more items can be recalled from memory that originated from a list.
One human “mentat” in our current era suggested picking a word or sequence of words and creating a bizarre picture in our mind for this. Once we concentrate on this picture, the word sequence is encoded. He was able to memorise an entire book by this method.
Duncan Idaho
Joan Slonczewski: Brain Plague. A common theme emerges from this book that intelligence may be related to speed. Also to collaboration or interconnectivity. Humanity demands quick solutions and complex ones.
The biological entities inhabiting the brain of the main character of this book, work in “QuickTime” to give quick solutions. Being a civilisation of such entities, every solution becomes a group solution with a coalescence of individual thoughts and individual paths.
My own opinion runs a little contrary to this. The suggestion above implies intelligence by committee. No great insight, great work of literature or great work of art has ever been done by committee. It is the individual who makes the breakthrough, which then sublimes into the greater consciousness of humanity.
Chrys
There are several authors who have suggested the example of “slow intelligence”. Joseph Green: Conscience Interplanetary, gives the example of “Crier”: a biological treelike intelligence with individual growths combining to form an intelligence.
In Neil Archer’s novel: The Spinner, the author showcases a group of wasps who possess a slow intelligence and who eventually learn to communicate with the human race.
To kill such a wasp then becomes an act of murder, which must be protected by law. The computational power of the wasps is distributed through its individuals who are capable of coordinating their intelligent attention.
Crier
The Final example exists in Christopher Rowley: The Black Ship – the ants communicate chemically, coordinated by a worker class called the “ Vizier”. It is slow intelligence but a very effective one, one which had allowed the ants to achieve star flight and to escape their world.
Lady Fundan
Neil Archer: Grid Linked gives the example of a human being artificially connected to computer intelligence assets. The book contains numerous examples of other humans connected to artificial enhancements. It perhaps gives a natural description of the growth of a species to “Cyborg” status.
As enhancements become more powerful and more able to be interfaced with biology, they are sought by increasingly larger numbers of people for increasingly larger numbers of reasons. The race escapes its biological roots to become a machine – biological coalescence: Cyborgs.
The author also showcases how artificial intelligences can become citizens within their own right and are capable of holding jobs and of ensuring their own existence. It is the AI which runs a planet or operates a runcible, operational feats beyond the capacities of any single human being, even enhanced ones.
AIs can certainly capable of operating mobile mechanicals to do their errands for them. Being a computing box does not have to mean that you cannot move, if you wish to.
Cormac
David Brin: Star Tide Rising. This author demonstrates how artificial intelligences can be given directions and problems which they work at solving over long periods of time. Complex problems can demand a systematic process covering many points of attack and a consideration many points of solution.
This is a process better adapted to a computer than to a human being. The “ Niss” machine has been designed by the alien Tymbrini to probe the programming of the galactic library, to discover how the library has been used to limit the potential of many species.
Tom Orley
Ian Douglas: Luna Marine. AI’s would appear to be a collection of programs / software which as a cluster are capable of simulating “intelligence”. This is the Java path to AI. By combining the right applets, something greater than any individual part can be born.
Computer software design has begun to default to this model. Programs are more often designed to be modularised. Each module can then be updated or changed it necessary.
This reduces the redevelopment and maintenance costs. If the program is designed to be modularised, the new modules can also be grafted onto the main program more easily – adding new abilities.
There is a final model of intelligence which deserves some attention. While we value intelligence, perhaps intelligence is not to be valued. We see zombies threatening civilisation recurrently.
John Wyndham: The Day of the Triffids shows how a marginally intelligent plant with little concern for its own personal survival can force humanity to the brink of extermination. The plants have some memory and are capable of learning from experience. A situation akin to that of the hunter learning to hunt its prey.
Jack (John Charles Ramsey)
Kinkajou: What does this technology
remind me of in Brisbane? :
Visit Brisbane’s City Hall. Perhaps one day our “City Fathers” will await you. (The concept of the City Fathers was first mooted in the “Cities in Flight” series of books by James Blish. As the cities use their spin dizzy drives to leave the Earth, it was the computer intelligences of the City Fathers who are responsible for much of the day-to-day operations of the city.)
Comment on Intelligence
Face it: wasps are intelligent too
Nice antennae.
Humans believe that they are the pinnacle of intelligence upon this planet, yet many species with far fewer neurones match our achievements.
A recent paper in the journal Science showed that one species of wasps can recognise the faces of its fellow insects. It would appear that this ability is not exclusive to humans and primates, and in fact does not even require the presence of a large brain.
Facial recognition is useful in species whether females fight each of the dominance of their shared nest. Facial recognition saves them having to repeat dominance battles with “allies”. The surprising aspect of the process is that facial recognition actually requires very little neural processing power.
Perhaps the advantages of a big brain relate more to higher memory storage capacity (i.e. big hard disk drive on the computer) than to advantages in processing power.
Crows are renowned for being able to count people entering or leaving or building, (adding and subtracting). They can identify people as individuals and can even work out that another bird may be hiding its food, so that other birds may not steal it. A bird’s brain is far more compact than that of a human being.
Intelligence may well be a “situation specific” achievement. It may be a way of solving problems important to an individual species – enough to keep the individuals of the species alive. Specialised cognition may well be able to be shaped by genetic and environmental pressures.
They may allow the insects to function in societies, to deal with external threats, and solve problems of everyday survival relevant to individual of the species. Inserts in fact have very complex social setups with very complicated hierarchies. And all that with a very small brain.
The whole concept of intelligence isn’t an easy one to define. There’s that urban myth about how immigrants to America who had never had the benefit of electricity were marked down in early intelligence tests because they couldn’t recognise a diagram of a light bulb.
Intelligence is relative – if an animal can’t solve a problem it will never encounter, does that make it less intelligent? Or just well adapted to its environment?
Clever New Applications:
The computer sector is the most actively driven sector of technological development today. And finance is the engine which drives this development. Because the sale of computer technology is so profitable, substantial intellectual and other resources are available for development of new ideas.
Consequently, I think is very hard to suggest clever new applications that have not already been thought of.
My picks from everyone else’s clever new applications –
-
Bayesian/heuristic programming
-
AI software
-
The Sprite – alluded to originally by Microsoft as the “Web of Embedded Devices” or the “ Web of Things”. I think though that sometimes a clever new name can drive as much development as a good idea. The name “Sprite” engages the attention and imagination to my mind, far more than “embedded devices” and “web of things”.
Sprite
Exponential Technology and the Singularity
Kinkajou:
The singularity is something I find absolutely fascinating", says Kinkajou. Less of a technology, and more of an idea stemming from the implications of certain technologies, namely artificial intelligence, the singularity is based on exponentially accelerating returns in technology.
It follows the thought that because technological development is exponential in nature once we develop artificial intelligence. They will able to improve themselves and other technology far faster than humans can or could ever comprehend.
"Although there is much truth to the idea of exponential technology, Moore's Law is proof of that, I still think there must be some sort of upper limit on technologies", Erasmus replies. After all, there are only so many transistors you can fit on a chip.
Kinkajou agrees however, after reading books like Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near, you can see that once a technology starts to 'flatten out' on the exponential curve another technology will take its place. For example once cathode ray tubes were no longer able to be improved for their use in computing, the transistor took over and continued on the exponential curve. Perhaps next will be optical or quantum computing.
The key is not to look at a single technologies potential for exponential returns but rather a whole host of technologies that, when combined, continue the trend
Furthermore it should be noted that no technology is isolated in its own development.
For example, once a faster computer chip is developed this can then be used for further development and research in unrelated fields such as medical research or engineering. In many cases the improvements that yield from this continuing process can then be fed back into the pipeline, so to speak, and assist in the development of even more powerful computer processors.
The idea of exponential technology has always been the most clear and interesting when looking to the past. From 1900 to 2000, a mere 100 years in human development, there have been many gargantuan leaps in technology; the dominance of the automobile, the advent of aeroplanes, the moon landing, penicillin, computers, television and the internet.
In terms of exponential technology these developments will be comparable to the next 50 years of development.
In only ten years we have already seen the internet become involved in almost every aspect of society with the creation and widespread uptake of social networking sites and the creation of sites like Wikipedia.
We have seen the advent of powerful computers that fit into the palm of your hand and that can access the internet and all the information contained on it. When I look at all that has happened in the last 10 or 15 years, I can't wait to see what will happen in the next 40.
"We get it! Technology is changing at an increasingly fast pace", an exasperated Erasmus says. "But what does the singularity represent in terms of the human race? Perhaps "
Unfortunately it is hard to know what society, or the world, will look like once artificial intelligences come into being. I do not know what a society that can create intelligences that operate far in excess of our own mental capacities would look like. For all we know it could be the beginning of a post-scarcity world.
I'm sure hyper-intelligent machines would be far more adept at any job than a lowly human would be. Perhaps we would ourselves become the hyper-intelligent machines by fusing ourselves with nanotech and computers.
Who is to say we couldn't integrate the internet with our minds developing a form of global consciousness where everyone in society shares a link with all others.
Well regardless of what happens, I’m sure Skynet will take care of us”, Erasmus says jokingly.
Kinkajou: Probably the biggest problem I see with the definition of the singularity, is whether the human definition of intelligence is the correct and the only definition of intelligence.
We believe we understand intelligence because we look at ourselves in the mirror believing we are intelligent and believe that we understand what facets of brain processing are important in the definition of intelligence.
I suppose the most basic definition of intelligence is the ability to solve problems.
Perhaps one day we may look back and see that much of our definition of intelligence simply highlights our bias for analog signal processing (our brains) as opposed to digital signal processing (CPU chips perhaps with Memristors ).
IQ tests at one time were reputed to favour specific social classes with specific cultural backgrounds.
All humans have a certain innate intelligence. However it is without doubt that some are more intelligent than others. Some forms of genetic human brain programming are perhaps not conducive to complex problem solving. Note the slow development of civilisation in the Indus Valley as opposed to the explosive development of civilisation in the Tigris Euphrates river valleys constituting Sumeria.
Egyptian civilisation also developed rapidly but with a different flavour.
In our personality website we make the point, that the genetic endowment of the people who make civilisation substantially influences the rate at which civilisation develops. Sumeria would appear to correspond with enneagram “ seven” genetic types.
Egyptian civilisation would appear to correspond with the enneagram “eight” genetic type. And the Indus Valley civilisations would appear to correspond with the enneagram “one” genetic type.
Our author makes the point that civilisation on earth would develop substantially more slowly and in a very different fashion if the population were predominantly and enneagram “nine” genetic base. This site also suggests that the rise and fall of nations may reflect the altered genetic mix of its citizens following waves of conquest and colonisation by refugees.
Intelligence even within the human definition of intelligence, would seem to have many aspects and to be very dependent on our genetic brain programming.
Perhaps in terms of “civilisation”, some human types are less” intelligent” than others.
In reality, it is more realistic to say that the different human types approach intelligence in different fashions. Some of these are more conducive to rapid development. Some are more conducive to simply maintaining a civilisation. Intelligence is a hallmark of humanity, but it is more likely that factors such as Paill determines intelligence, than simple genetics.
.....
Intelligence in computer terms may simply reflect our expertise in programming or our ability to use complex hardware components such as Memristors. To suggest an example, the biggest problem for computer circuitry is that it is required to give the same answer with every computation of the same problem. How can you intelligently adapt to a new situation, if the same question always gives the same answer.
But imagine if you had a “bendy” CPU chip, which gives a different answer with each computation of the same problem. But, if the same question asked to a computer gives a different answer, by human definition the computer is erratic and unreliable. To bypass this issue the computer requires quality control.
A solution: At the extreme, 2 additional CPU chips may be required to compute the problem to confirm that the traditional answer has been generated and that this is different to the answer from the “bendy” CPU chip.
The program may then look at this different answer and apply to the problem to see if this answer is a better answer than the standard “correct” answer.
There is another possible software solution to this issue as well. Heuristic learning programming and Bayesian problem solving may well teach the computer that the “bendy” answer works best.
The computer then needs to be able to incorporate this answer into its standard computational modes, perhaps by memory much the same as in human beings. Perhaps it is the discrepancies that are generated by computation which form the basis of intelligence. Different answers that work better than the correct answers may underlie a path to new problem-solving.
And from our Science fiction examples, maybe these software proposals are too technical. Maybe all the computing software program requires is a little virus, saying: when there is no answer, take a chance”.
(Space Above and Beyond : the Silicoids).
Examples from Science Fiction include:
Kinkajou:
Examples in science fiction movies and literature abound: Skynet, the robot of lost in space, Daneel in Isaac Asimov’s robot series of books, Cortana in the Halo series of books/games.
I think the most interesting examples are Skynet – an evil intelligence attempting to replace humanity. I cannot help but wonder why a machine supposedly with so much intelligence would not simply take the path of least resistance and opt to work with humanity for the future. Everybody wins, nobody loses. Skynet instead chose a path of conflict with winners and losers – and a good chance of it itself being the loser.
In Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, the students in the library of Trantor fought to maintain the life of their AI. Humanity and machines together, not apart.
Hober Mallow
Freya Nakamachi 47 in Charles Stross’s book “Saturn’s Children” builds a picture of a world whereby machines with CPUs have supplanted humanity. It is machine intelligence that is building a future and the civilisation.
Freya Nakamachi- 47
Another interesting example is in Alan Dean Foster’s book “ The Mocking Program.” A program is intelligent when it can replace human functions and its activities are indistinguishable from those of a real human being. I think perhaps the closest facsimile to this type of intelligence of the soft AI intelligences of the Virtual Assistants available online.
I personally would love to have a “Mocking Program” to run the mundane aspects of my life.
Another solution to fulfilling mundane tasks in life while reserving one’s time for “quality time”, exists in the book David Brin: Kiln people. In this book, “ Dittos” are created from a special type of memory clay, exist for short periods of time fulfilling ordinary tasks such as house work – with the memory of events being recombined with the original at the end of the day – a sort of update.
Peter Hamilton: The Naked God. This author makes the point that perhaps intelligence is carried by a soul or life force which may exist in another dimension. In his civilisation, mechanisms can be built capable of carrying the computational capacity necessary to simulate a human being.
These “serjeants” are used as disposable soldiers but can also be used to house a returning human soul. Life can transcend death. You can have a body and choose to live or you can choose to die.
2 North
Donald Kingsbury: Psychohistorical Crisis. In this book, perhaps the pinnacle of artificial intelligence is not a collection of silicon on a chip. It is perhaps an extension of silicon onto a human being. The “FAMs” allow human beings to transcend their biological limitations and to acquire computer-like processing abilities. What is the point of a computerised artificial intelligence when you can have a computerised human one, and with a plethora of potential adaptations.
Eron Osa
Frank Herbert: Dune. Many people who can perform amazing skills of memory using their “human” brain, have perhaps shown us that it is our “understanding” of the way that the human brain works, which limits the exploitation of the potential of the human brain.
In this book, human beings can be trained to perform computational feats that rival those of modern day computers. The human “mentat” is the answer to a society which cannot accept even a hint of the existence of artificial intelligence.
In reading about the feats of these human “ memorising” machines, the key skill which these people promote is the “picturising” of lists. It would appear that the brain is genetically engineered to remember lists of pictures, not lists of verbal symbols. So by imagining a bizarre picture next to every item on a list that needs to be remembered, many more items can be recalled from memory that originated from a list.
One human “mentat” in our current era suggested picking a word or sequence of words and creating a bizarre picture in our mind for this. Once we concentrate on this picture, the word sequence is encoded. He was able to memorise an entire book by this method.
Duncan Idaho
Joan Slonczewski: Brain Plague. A common theme emerges from this book that intelligence may be related to speed. Also to collaboration or interconnectivity. Humanity demands quick solutions and complex ones.
The biological entities inhabiting the brain of the main character of this book, work in “QuickTime” to give quick solutions. Being a civilisation of such entities, every solution becomes a group solution with a coalescence of individual thoughts and individual paths.
My own opinion runs a little contrary to this. The suggestion above implies intelligence by committee. No great insight, great work of literature or great work of art has ever been done by committee. It is the individual who makes the breakthrough, which then sublimes into the greater consciousness of humanity.
Chrys
There are several authors who have suggested the example of “slow intelligence”. Joseph Green: Conscience Interplanetary, gives the example of “Crier”: a biological treelike intelligence with individual growths combining to form an intelligence.
In Neil Archer’s novel: The Spinner, the author showcases a group of wasps who possess a slow intelligence and who eventually learn to communicate with the human race.
To kill such a wasp then becomes an act of murder, which must be protected by law. The computational power of the wasps is distributed through its individuals who are capable of coordinating their intelligent attention.
Crier
The Final example exists in Christopher Rowley: The Black Ship – the ants communicate chemically, coordinated by a worker class called the “ Vizier”. It is slow intelligence but a very effective one, one which had allowed the ants to achieve star flight and to escape their world.
Lady Fundan
Neil Archer: Grid Linked gives the example of a human being artificially connected to computer intelligence assets. The book contains numerous examples of other humans connected to artificial enhancements. It perhaps gives a natural description of the growth of a species to “Cyborg” status.
As enhancements become more powerful and more able to be interfaced with biology, they are sought by increasingly larger numbers of people for increasingly larger numbers of reasons. The race escapes its biological roots to become a machine – biological coalescence: Cyborgs.
The author also showcases how artificial intelligences can become citizens within their own right and are capable of holding jobs and of ensuring their own existence. It is the AI which runs a planet or operates a runcible, operational feats beyond the capacities of any single human being, even enhanced ones.
AIs can certainly capable of operating mobile mechanicals to do their errands for them. Being a computing box does not have to mean that you cannot move, if you wish to.
Cormac
David Brin: Star Tide Rising. This author demonstrates how artificial intelligences can be given directions and problems which they work at solving over long periods of time. Complex problems can demand a systematic process covering many points of attack and a consideration many points of solution.
This is a process better adapted to a computer than to a human being. The “ Niss” machine has been designed by the alien Tymbrini to probe the programming of the galactic library, to discover how the library has been used to limit the potential of many species.
Tom Orley
Ian Douglas: Luna Marine. AI’s would appear to be a collection of programs / software which as a cluster are capable of simulating “intelligence”. This is the Java path to AI. By combining the right applets, something greater than any individual part can be born.
Computer software design has begun to default to this model. Programs are more often designed to be modularised. Each module can then be updated or changed it necessary.
This reduces the redevelopment and maintenance costs. If the program is designed to be modularised, the new modules can also be grafted onto the main program more easily – adding new abilities.
There is a final model of intelligence which deserves some attention. While we value intelligence, perhaps intelligence is not to be valued. We see zombies threatening civilisation recurrently.
John Wyndham: The Day of the Triffids shows how a marginally intelligent plant with little concern for its own personal survival can force humanity to the brink of extermination. The plants have some memory and are capable of learning from experience. A situation akin to that of the hunter learning to hunt its prey.
Jack (John Charles Ramsey)
Kinkajou: What does this technology
remind me of in Brisbane? :
Visit Brisbane’s City Hall. Perhaps one day our “City Fathers” will await you. (The concept of the City Fathers was first mooted in the “Cities in Flight” series of books by James Blish. As the cities use their spin dizzy drives to leave the Earth, it was the computer intelligences of the City Fathers who are responsible for much of the day-to-day operations of the city.)
Comment on Intelligence
Face it: wasps are intelligent too
Nice antennae.
Humans believe that they are the pinnacle of intelligence upon this planet, yet many species with far fewer neurones match our achievements.
A recent paper in the journal Science showed that one species of wasps can recognise the faces of its fellow insects. It would appear that this ability is not exclusive to humans and primates, and in fact does not even require the presence of a large brain.
Facial recognition is useful in species whether females fight each of the dominance of their shared nest. Facial recognition saves them having to repeat dominance battles with “allies”. The surprising aspect of the process is that facial recognition actually requires very little neural processing power.
Perhaps the advantages of a big brain relate more to higher memory storage capacity (i.e. big hard disk drive on the computer) than to advantages in processing power.
Crows are renowned for being able to count people entering or leaving or building, (adding and subtracting). They can identify people as individuals and can even work out that another bird may be hiding its food, so that other birds may not steal it. A bird’s brain is far more compact than that of a human being.
Intelligence may well be a “situation specific” achievement. It may be a way of solving problems important to an individual species – enough to keep the individuals of the species alive. Specialised cognition may well be able to be shaped by genetic and environmental pressures.
They may allow the insects to function in societies, to deal with external threats, and solve problems of everyday survival relevant to individual of the species. Inserts in fact have very complex social setups with very complicated hierarchies. And all that with a very small brain.
The whole concept of intelligence isn’t an easy one to define. There’s that urban myth about how immigrants to America who had never had the benefit of electricity were marked down in early intelligence tests because they couldn’t recognise a diagram of a light bulb.
Intelligence is relative – if an animal can’t solve a problem it will never encounter, does that make it less intelligent? Or just well adapted to its environment?
Clever New Applications:
The computer sector is the most actively driven sector of technological development today. And finance is the engine which drives this development. Because the sale of computer technology is so profitable, substantial intellectual and other resources are available for development of new ideas.
Consequently, I think is very hard to suggest clever new applications that have not already been thought of.
My picks from everyone else’s clever new applications –
-
Bayesian/heuristic programming
-
AI software
-
The Sprite – alluded to originally by Microsoft as the “Web of Embedded Devices” or the “ Web of Things”. I think though that sometimes a clever new name can drive as much development as a good idea. The name “Sprite” engages the attention and imagination to my mind, far more than “embedded devices” and “web of things”.
SpriteExponential Technology and the Singularity
Kinkajou:
The singularity is something I find absolutely fascinating", says Kinkajou. Less of a technology, and more of an idea stemming from the implications of certain technologies, namely artificial intelligence, the singularity is based on exponentially accelerating returns in technology.
It follows the thought that because technological development is exponential in nature once we develop artificial intelligence. They will able to improve themselves and other technology far faster than humans can or could ever comprehend.
"Although there is much truth to the idea of exponential technology, Moore's Law is proof of that, I still think there must be some sort of upper limit on technologies", Erasmus replies. After all, there are only so many transistors you can fit on a chip.
Kinkajou agrees however, after reading books like Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near, you can see that once a technology starts to 'flatten out' on the exponential curve another technology will take its place. For example once cathode ray tubes were no longer able to be improved for their use in computing, the transistor took over and continued on the exponential curve. Perhaps next will be optical or quantum computing.
The key is not to look at a single technologies potential for exponential returns but rather a whole host of technologies that, when combined, continue the trend
Furthermore it should be noted that no technology is isolated in its own development.
For example, once a faster computer chip is developed this can then be used for further development and research in unrelated fields such as medical research or engineering. In many cases the improvements that yield from this continuing process can then be fed back into the pipeline, so to speak, and assist in the development of even more powerful computer processors.
The idea of exponential technology has always been the most clear and interesting when looking to the past. From 1900 to 2000, a mere 100 years in human development, there have been many gargantuan leaps in technology; the dominance of the automobile, the advent of aeroplanes, the moon landing, penicillin, computers, television and the internet.
In terms of exponential technology these developments will be comparable to the next 50 years of development.
In only ten years we have already seen the internet become involved in almost every aspect of society with the creation and widespread uptake of social networking sites and the creation of sites like Wikipedia.
We have seen the advent of powerful computers that fit into the palm of your hand and that can access the internet and all the information contained on it. When I look at all that has happened in the last 10 or 15 years, I can't wait to see what will happen in the next 40.
"We get it! Technology is changing at an increasingly fast pace", an exasperated Erasmus says. "But what does the singularity represent in terms of the human race? Perhaps "
Unfortunately it is hard to know what society, or the world, will look like once artificial intelligences come into being. I do not know what a society that can create intelligences that operate far in excess of our own mental capacities would look like. For all we know it could be the beginning of a post-scarcity world.
I'm sure hyper-intelligent machines would be far more adept at any job than a lowly human would be. Perhaps we would ourselves become the hyper-intelligent machines by fusing ourselves with nanotech and computers.
Who is to say we couldn't integrate the internet with our minds developing a form of global consciousness where everyone in society shares a link with all others.
Well regardless of what happens, I’m sure Skynet will take care of us”, Erasmus says jokingly.