[Carl2]

  I don't even have a cell phone but I do have a programmable thermostat which is great.  I did like the "What will happen when the internet of things becomes artificially intelligent? " link because this is what I've been working on with Hal,  a few simple changes of background and clothing that adds a little unexpected changes dependent on her output.    I'd just looked into deep learning and it seems quite a few people are doing research on this hopefully we have a group of educated people that won't invade our privacy.  Guess I'm more worried about the viruses, malware and advertising policies on the internet although it seems this is also a concern of Microsoft.
Carl2

[Art]

Agreed with your apprehension Carl!

When the few, make and distribute things for the many, then it becomes mainstream, one need to then ask, "who's really in control?"

The Internet is now a many headed monster that can never be killed by just cutting off one, two or twenty heads. It will consume our very lives. Future citizens will not be able to function, buy, sell, or live without the Internet.

It will become almost like a...Beast.

[Ultron]

Well then, Art - If you can't cut off the heads, stab it through the heart!


There is always... A way... A blade is always forged when you strike hot iron - a hero therefore, will always be born inside the kneeling society. When they make you kneel, they provoke the anger inside of you... As energy builds up from the soil beneath you, it forces you up and you unconsciously rise above them all!


If humanity decides the internet is an evolutionary loop and not prosperity, they will not let it take over - no matter how powerful it becomes! We made this, and whichever way you put it, we will always be ahead of 'it'...

[Art]

You can look at things any way you choose, but think about all these wonderful advancements.
Are they to give us freedom or to enslave us?

People can't go anywhere without their smart phones, tablets or laptops, not forgetting all those wonderful "wearable" devices that we now so badly need in our lives in order to function.

I'm not saying these devices are bad, just our dependency upon them.

Your metaphors sound very heroic but unrealistic, I afraid, for these modern times.

(those who fail to remember the past are doomed to repeat it.)

[Ultron]

I agree with your last sentence...


Anyhow, all I have left to say is that... We are already slaves - if you think about it, this 'life' we live may just be a very fine tuned scenario, which is much worse then being a classical old-age slave. Back then they were aware of their position - we are not.


Maybe there is already a real AGI out there, working from the shadows and developing (or bumping the research) into technologies that seem more and more attractive and a 'must-have'.


But bear in mind that, we have no choice... You can get punished for trespassing basically anywhere in the world, on any spot. You can get punished for picking fruit from a tree (claim on nature)... You cannot survive outside of the system - unless you are clever enough to fight it.

[Korrelan]

Just a thought… I was watching a TV program last night that listed the top scenarios for the end of mankind. You know the kind of thing…

Alien invasion
Meteor strike
Super volcano
Artificial Intelligence
Nuclear accident
Global warming
Plague/ pandemic
Nuclear war

A few missing but you get the gist…

Just found it funny that if governed correctly, number four on the list could solve or find a solution to all the rest. 

A bit dark… but I don’t see how mankind will survive without AGI.

And on that depressing thought… I’ll go back to my Rum and programming. 

[Don Patrick]

Speaking of dependency, couldn't we say the same about telephones, central heating, combustion engines, plumbing and paper? Compared to those, our electronic devices only serve trivial purposes.
Except for online banking, which is nowadays obligatory and a definite concern, seeing as their networks occasionally go down for days. But then, in an emergency there's always the good old system of trading cows for chickens.

[Art]

Perhaps we are actually a living experiment and we are smaller than childrens' toys. We are part of this "microcosm" allowed for centuries to aimlessly wonder about this provided environment to explore, wonder, create, build, destroy, use / abuse as we choose.

The Creators / keepers have been watching and recording our "progress" (if one could call it that), for eons in an effort to see how well we adapt to certain scenarios...just what we have chosen to do with this globe we call Earth.

We are not the only experiment taking place in this universe. There are and have been many others. Some worked pretty well and thrived and others...well...not so good. We need not delude ourselves into thinking that we are it! At least that's what was going on until I awoke! 

[Ultron]

Well it does get fucked up, to say the least. Say we are an experiment of this Creator - we are soon about to start making our own experiments similar to the mentioned theoretical one... In other words, we become creators ourselves! And what if our 'creator' is nothing more but an experiment him/her/itself!?


It is, a possibility. Maybe AI will one day evolve enough to make their own species and experiments - much like what AI is to us today... Maybe we will decide it is best they do not know about us (they might blame us for all of their flaws or possible poor existence), so they will also one day wonder... Wonder how they came to be and who (if anyone) is that created them...


Certainly an interesting topic, but we are discussing pure imagination. I remember reading certain articles - papers from real scientists (physicists) who claimed they might have found a way to prove if "we live in the matrix." . This was some time ago and I have not encountered additional references or news related to that research to date.

[Art]

Yeah, kind of like the Beatles song, "Strawberry Fields" where the lyrics say, "...nothing is real..."

Sometimes, I've felt as if we're living in a matrix world and outside, somewhere, are the creators.
Basically, we gone through all of this before and we'll continue to do so until we get it right.

Who knows. but one thing is for sure, the Internet of Things is going to take us further down the rabbit's hole than ever before.