Tag Archives: Kurzweil’s Singularity

AI: Hype, Reality, The End of the Human Race – and Poetry

I thought I’d put a few words together this month, as the AI discussion has quickly become very grim and very confused in equal measure. The last post may have been a little flippant (although it had a serious core). This isn’t really – although the language may suggest so in places.

For TL:DR, it’s this:

  1. Yes, there’s a significant possibility that AI could be catastrophic for us.
  2. Much of this was foreseen many years ago.
  3. Strange that we couldn’t do anything about it?
  4. There’s still a chance of avoiding the disaster.
  5. We probably won’t take it.

As such, there’s an obvious parallel with the environment, to which all the above apply equally.

Continue reading

How Singular is the Singularity?

If recent headlines are anything to go by, opinion on the likelihood – and impact – of the ‘Technological Singularity’ is diverging rapidly. Is this largely because we don’t even agree on what it is?

‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI) is certainly in the news at lot at the moment.  But so are robots; and Kurzweil’s Singularity; and machine evolution; and transhumanism.  Are these the same thing?  Are they even related?  If so, how?  What exactly should we be arguing about?  Are we worried precisely because we don’t know this stuff?

Well, perhaps to make a start, we should point out that intelligence isn’t the same thing as evolution (in any sense).  That’s obvious and accepted for ‘conventional’ life-on-earth but we seem to be getting a bit confused between the two when it comes to machines.  Developments in both may proceed in parallel and one may eventually lead to the other (although which way round is debatable) but they’re not the same thing.

Continue reading