As a person who would like to live forever, I am very interested in the concept of The Singularity, which some serious scientists have predicted could come as early as 2045. The Singularity will occur when we can download our minds – all our memories, all our likes and dislikes, all our knowledge and all our personality – into a computer, essentially becoming a super genius group mind that lives forever, although not in its original body.
They Can Respond to Stimuli
I don’t know if I’ll make it, I’ll be in my 90s by then, but its a better shot than freezing your dead head and hoping somebody in the future can bring you back.
There were two stories today about significant developments on the path to The Singularity.
One was this one, about a robot whose facial expressions are controlled by a slimy glob. That is, as the glob approaches food, the robot smiles, as the glob is blasted with light, the robot frowns. It’s a step forward because the robot is not responding to a code, to a prearranged signal, but to real world stimuli. Sort of like people. We smile if we see something good to eat, we might flinch a bit if blasted with harsh light. Of course, as humans, a lot of other factors might figure in. Smiling when we see food depends on whether or not we are hungry and whether or not it’s something we like and whether or not we are in a good mood. But, it’s a fairly major development, nonetheless.
Then, there is the brain in a box project. The idea is basically to build a computer which functions like a human brain. This is a very worthwhile project, if we are talking about the evolution of homo mechanicus, and I am. As far as just computer development is concerned, in some ways they are already better than a human mind, and getting more efficient all the time.
For centuries, man dreamed of flying like the birds. But, no bird ever broke the speed of sound and no bird could ever carry hundreds of passengers across an ocean in its belly, feeding them and showing them movies on the way.
Computers will soon be as far ahead of human minds as an airplanes wings are superior to a bird’s wings. But, still, these two steps bring us much closer to The Singularity so I see room for optimism.
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