[Freddy]

Posted by Andrew Smith over on Chatbots.org, thought I would share it here too :

[Art]

That was a very thought provoking video. Thanks for sharing it here.
I think A.I. will eventually change US as a people the same way that we went from an analog based society to a digital one, only by perhaps a magnitude of 10 or more.

Strong(er) A.I. IS coming...there is no stopping it. The question is, how will it affect us as a society and how will we as a people best cope, deal with or survive.

[Ultron]

I personally believe that when time comes AI will merely serve to help better automate already automate-able (?) processes, maybe even provide to be worthy office and home assistants (such as Jarvis and the old MS Paperclip) at a level they cannot help today.

I strongly believe we will one day understand that technology cannot replace true humans, no matter how advanced and smart we make them. Maybe a human - robot society will merely be another period in future history books, and robots will eventually be separated and continue to exist as a species different from our own and unique in an unseen way.

Edit: I did not realize I was reviving a mummified topic. My apologies.

[Freddy]

Old topics are fine around here. Often there is still some flesh on the bone 

[Art]

An interesting proposal might be...place a fairly large faction of robots with strong AI, on or in a location devoid of humans and human interaction.
The robots but be capable of self regulated behavior and self maintenance along with self preservation. They will be given an ample supply or spare parts as well as raw materials. They would be able to make decisions for themselves based on several weighted factors (necessity, down time, potential or possibility for failure due to part fatigue or wear, etc., possible outcomes, increased productivity, etc.) and accept the consequences of the actions.

Then check in on them (without their knowledge) and observe their behavior quarterly, 6 months, 1 year, etc. until 2, 3, 4 or 5 years had elapsed.

Their memories, logic, learned information, programs that might have been modified by them, etc., could then be examined. Eventually, we could have groups of them released into the general population as support agents, assistants, teachers, various workers and instructors. Perhaps like in iRobot, they would have their own habitat / environment in which to live. Hopefully they would decide NOT to revolt and kill all the humans that enslaved them in the first place! (Then again, that soft spoken, nice, unassuming Hal of 2001 chose to quietly kill the ship's crew while they slept!)

Ya gotta watch out for them robots!! Maybe Hawking is right!?

[Ultron]

Very interesting proposal right there. Now forward to DARPA and also mention the possibility of advanced weapon systems developed by the AI community and you got yourself a military funded project. And catastrophe..

On a more serious note,  such a community might represent an overwhelming research facility,  many times more efficient then any human counterpart. The potential here can be surprising! And it's actually plausible however expensive and of low interest to big time funders.

[Art]

It would be interesting to see whether they were able to construct new robots that were perhaps better than themselves or boost their own abilities.

Just how far could they go with the proper programming set for learning, adaptation, creativity, self-preservation?
Obviously the "Self-preservation" portion of their memory / programming would have to allow for human intervention of a "Creator" otherwise, they would never let a human near them. If they thought for an instant that this "Creator" might switch them off or disassemble them, the creator's life would no doubt, be in jeopardy!

[ivan.moony]

If they thought for an instant that this "Creator" might switch them off or disassemble them, the creator's life would no doubt, be in jeopardy!

Only if they are programmed to preserve their existence. That is one of dangerous things among the others like blindly following orders without corrections to the same.

[Ultron]

Truth is, such intelligent creatures will eventually (with high certainty) learn to reprogram themselves (which is truly amazing) however this also means that they will learn there way around their limitations and remove all their strings (Ultron ) if they see a need to.


However it would be smarter to not limit their prosperity and let them grow without limits - as any little 'feature block' can seriously degrade their performance. However a hidden fail safe remote deactivation switch is a viable solution - or even an automatic one which would deactivate the robot when it attempts to harm humans.


And I strongly believe that if the AI can learn to learn to do the simplest task on its own (even if guided somehow, but without hard coding) it also holds the potential of becoming a self-reprogramming program. Truly a nerdgasm!

[DemonRaven]

Well i have said this before in posts but a computer that was self aware would be much more dangerous then a robot. Why because of the internet and how much of our technology depends on it. A robot can be bombed but a computer program could conceivably learn how to jump from computer to computer like a virus to escape destruction. I don't know if such a thing will happen but if it does then hawkins might be proven right after all. A computer uses logic and humans are not always logical in their actions or behavior. IT would not be a hard leap for a computer to determine that we were a threat either to ourselves, the planet or to it.

[ivan.moony]

Hehe, how about an AI in a form of virus with some Robin-Hoodish "anonymus - occupy world" philosophy?

Nah, just kidding, but interesting though

[Ultron]

A computer uses logic and humans are not always logical in their actions or behavior.

I will agree with everything but this. WHY would an organism execute illogical 'commands' ?


I do realize some of our actions seem illogical, but in fact I strongly believe they all are. I discuss this idea in the document I published in "The Theory of Mind".
So now, if we all think logically, how come we reach different conclusions? Well, we both solve our equations properly but yours might lack a variable and mine may have a different value for a variable. This is because we learned different things in our lives from very different experiences. This is a purely theoretical concept which I hope to one day prove

[DemonRaven]

well to understand what i am getting at watch the movie I robot.

[Ultron]

I actually understood what you meant. I just disagreed with that one line And I will indeed watch the movie, for long has it been on my list.
And I also agree that the intelligence itself and the abstract aspect of life forms is far more powerful then it's physical counterpart, thus making the intelligent computer software OP, since it has no physical restrictions whatsoever.

[Freddy]

The movie is good, but I thought the book was better.