Singularity IV Section B Will Computers Become Super Human
Downloading your brain to a computer
First, there’s a contingent of computer scientists who are convinced that when computers become many times faster than it is now, and more complex, they will be more intelligent than human beings, and may become conscious, like human beings. They may even take over the world, for better or for worse.
That’s what Ray Kurzweil, inventor of reading machines for the blind, music synthesizers and speech-recognition technology, predicts in his book, The Age of Spiritual Machines, published in 1999. He says that by the second decade of the present century, it will become increasingly difficult to distinguish between human and machine intelligence. And, as computers become more complex, "they, too, will necessarily utilize goals with implicit values and emotions".
Is there really no difference between human and computer intelligence?
"Are computers thinking, or are they just calculating? Conversely, are human beings thinking, or are they just calculating?" he asks, and answers, "The human brain presumably follows the laws of physics, so it must be a machine, albeit a very complex one."
Furthermore, if a person scans his brain through a non-invasive scanning technology like magnetic resonance imaging, and downloads his mind to his personal computer, "Is the "person" who emerges in the machine the same consciousness as the person who was scanned?" Kurzweil doesn’t say yes, but invites his readers to think that may be the case.
Better yet. The downloaded ‘person’ may find herself with a perfect, synthetic, ‘nanoengineered’ non-biodegradable body, thereby achieving immortality. Sounds tempting, doesn’t it, never more to suffer the humiliations of the flesh, like growing old. We could keep on down-loading our ‘person’ to new, better-styled models as the one before goes out of fashion. "We will be software, not hardware." Kurzweil says, reminding us to constantly back ourselves up against a computer crash.
Kurzweil believes that once computers become faster and sufficiently complex, they too, will acquire a personality, if not a soul, rather like the one we downloaded on the computer. But won’t that machine end up with a split personality? One computer-emerged, the other human-derived?
Well, that’s where the ‘spiritual’ machine comes on the stage. "We don’t always need real bodies." Virtual reality proves as much, Kurzweil reminds us. "Virtual reality is not a (virtual) place you need go to alone. You can interact with your friends there (who would be in other virtual reality booths, which may be geographically remote). You will have plenty of simulated companions to choose from as well."
You’ve guessed; virtual sex is next, even virtual nirvana.
First, there’s a contingent of computer scientists who are convinced that when computers become many times faster than it is now, and more complex, they will be more intelligent than human beings, and may become conscious, like human beings. They may even take over the world, for better or for worse.
That’s what Ray Kurzweil, inventor of reading machines for the blind, music synthesizers and speech-recognition technology, predicts in his book, The Age of Spiritual Machines, published in 1999. He says that by the second decade of the present century, it will become increasingly difficult to distinguish between human and machine intelligence. And, as computers become more complex, "they, too, will necessarily utilize goals with implicit values and emotions".
Is there really no difference between human and computer intelligence?
"Are computers thinking, or are they just calculating? Conversely, are human beings thinking, or are they just calculating?" he asks, and answers, "The human brain presumably follows the laws of physics, so it must be a machine, albeit a very complex one."
Furthermore, if a person scans his brain through a non-invasive scanning technology like magnetic resonance imaging, and downloads his mind to his personal computer, "Is the "person" who emerges in the machine the same consciousness as the person who was scanned?" Kurzweil doesn’t say yes, but invites his readers to think that may be the case.
Better yet. The downloaded ‘person’ may find herself with a perfect, synthetic, ‘nanoengineered’ non-biodegradable body, thereby achieving immortality. Sounds tempting, doesn’t it, never more to suffer the humiliations of the flesh, like growing old. We could keep on down-loading our ‘person’ to new, better-styled models as the one before goes out of fashion. "We will be software, not hardware." Kurzweil says, reminding us to constantly back ourselves up against a computer crash.
Kurzweil believes that once computers become faster and sufficiently complex, they too, will acquire a personality, if not a soul, rather like the one we downloaded on the computer. But won’t that machine end up with a split personality? One computer-emerged, the other human-derived?
Well, that’s where the ‘spiritual’ machine comes on the stage. "We don’t always need real bodies." Virtual reality proves as much, Kurzweil reminds us. "Virtual reality is not a (virtual) place you need go to alone. You can interact with your friends there (who would be in other virtual reality booths, which may be geographically remote). You will have plenty of simulated companions to choose from as well."
You’ve guessed; virtual sex is next, even virtual nirvana.
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