After reading chapter 2 and reading some stuff online, I'm a bit more scared of robot computers taking over the world.
Technology is developing so quickly, and there doesn't seem to be much thought going into the effects it could have on the world. Just because we can make something, doesn't mean we should. For example, at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, the Blue Brain Project is attempting to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain. Their goal is medical and scientific: understand the function and dysfunction of the human brain including intelligence and consciousness. Although this project promises medical breakthroughs, it can also inform artificial intelligence. In two years, the Blue Brain Project hopes to have a working model of a rodent brain. (I read about this project here. Also, see a preview of a documentary about it.)
Maybe we are on our way to the Singularity. This blog is convincing.
The roles of person and computer are already blurring. “Playing against the computer” is nothing out of the ordinary now (although I can imagine how people must have felt in 1997 when Deep Blue beat Kasparov). I agree with Lanier's thought about people lowering their standards to make computers seem smart. For example, the expectations of grammar and spell check on word processing programs is ridiculous. People rely so heavily on this function that when they have to hand write even a paragraph on paper, it's almost unreadable. Many people look to computers as smarter than them, and they think computers can read and proofread. Their are many flaws with this software (See! It didn't catch that because computers can't read. And if you don't know... you've lowered your standards... and you should learn how to spell there, their and they're!). People can read. Therefore, only people can properly proofread.
The Turing experiment is interesting as people begin to anthropomorphize computers more and more. Most people assume there is a person typing back to them, but it's not always the case. For example, online dating website scams with auto-responses from templates that certainly were not written by a 25-year-old blond in California.
Maybe people will get to the point where they don't care that it's a computer they're talking to. Maybe robots won't take over, but we'll all get a long. Maybe in the future, people will marry robots?
Technology is developing so quickly, and there doesn't seem to be much thought going into the effects it could have on the world. Just because we can make something, doesn't mean we should. For example, at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, the Blue Brain Project is attempting to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain. Their goal is medical and scientific: understand the function and dysfunction of the human brain including intelligence and consciousness. Although this project promises medical breakthroughs, it can also inform artificial intelligence. In two years, the Blue Brain Project hopes to have a working model of a rodent brain. (I read about this project here. Also, see a preview of a documentary about it.)
Maybe we are on our way to the Singularity. This blog is convincing.
The roles of person and computer are already blurring. “Playing against the computer” is nothing out of the ordinary now (although I can imagine how people must have felt in 1997 when Deep Blue beat Kasparov). I agree with Lanier's thought about people lowering their standards to make computers seem smart. For example, the expectations of grammar and spell check on word processing programs is ridiculous. People rely so heavily on this function that when they have to hand write even a paragraph on paper, it's almost unreadable. Many people look to computers as smarter than them, and they think computers can read and proofread. Their are many flaws with this software (See! It didn't catch that because computers can't read. And if you don't know... you've lowered your standards... and you should learn how to spell there, their and they're!). People can read. Therefore, only people can properly proofread.
The Turing experiment is interesting as people begin to anthropomorphize computers more and more. Most people assume there is a person typing back to them, but it's not always the case. For example, online dating website scams with auto-responses from templates that certainly were not written by a 25-year-old blond in California.
Maybe people will get to the point where they don't care that it's a computer they're talking to. Maybe robots won't take over, but we'll all get a long. Maybe in the future, people will marry robots?
No comments:
Post a Comment