Humanity Keeps Getting Underestimated...

[Ultima22689]

Despite the fact that we're slowly but surely turning ourselves into gods..

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10 ... ewall=true

Singularity this and that, bla bla bla, yeah. I can't wait to get me a cybernetic body. It seems that the concept is becoming more mainstream what with the rise of Ray Kurzweil as a scientific celebrity. This stuff was mentioned today, briefly on CNN. There is even a incredibly long interview by Glenn Beck with Ray himself,it's a little dated but it's a good interview, some how Ray's awesomeness cancels out the fail of Glenn Beck although Beck was showing his good side. It's really going mainstream with youth with the upcoming release of Deus Ex:Human Revolution which has Transhumanism at it's very core.

[youtube:y4kv30zl]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1o5yB2oLyo[/youtube:y4kv30zl]

[youtube:y4kv30zl]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfWB51ZUFqg[/youtube:y4kv30zl]




This isn't my first thread talking about the singularity but it seems like it's coming together with all these emerging technologies, the advent of memristors(which will also greatly affect nanotechnology), how they seem to be using nanotechnology in the article I linked and all the other things in there, how scientists continue to advance robotics and A.I it really seems like this stuff is hardly science fiction, just infantile at the moment however, considering how fast technology advances it won't be much time at all before they mature. Imagine what memristors will do for computers in ten years, they could be using synaptic logic by then and who knows what else. I know this is sort of ironic, I sound like one of those annoying Jehova Witnesses trying to convince people of BS but the technology is there for people to see, I can't help but be excited, what you guys think? I know there are new members on the board since the last time I said singularity.

[The Magic Pudding]

Singularity this and that, bla bla bla, yeah. I can't wait to get me a cybernetic body.

Well why limit yourself to one?

I wouldn't mind being leopard shape sometimes.
When I go to the beach I want something more buoyant.
I wouldn't mind going for a fly occasionally either.

[Ultima22689]

Oh yeah, i'm going to have a few but they have to be capable of operating like a normal person unless I have a lot of money to throw around which I doubt i'll have before this tech is out to the masses, then again, realistically, we won't be seeing cyborgs for 20 years so then again I probably will be able to afford this stuff, I hope.

[lonelyxmas]

Soliders use Dazzlers Laser named the 'Ultimate Non-Lethal - Less Violent)' weapons serving humanity ?

[Inevitable Droid]

I know this is sort of ironic, I sound like one of those annoying Jehova Witnesses trying to convince people of BS but the technology is there for people to see, I can't help but be excited, what you guys think? I know there are new members on the board since the last time I said singularity.

I am excited by such prospects.  I get the impression you follow developments in these areas.  If you turned this thread into a repository for links to cool articles, you would at least have me as a perpetual reader.

I am doing what I can to stay alive long enough to see sci-fi become reality.  I want to be a cyborg.  I want robots as friends.  Bring it all on.  I'm eager!  

[Dretlin]

I know this is sort of ironic, I sound like one of those annoying Jehova Witnesses trying to convince people of BS but the technology is there for people to see, I can't help but be excited, what you guys think? I know there are new members on the board since the last time I said singularity.

I am excited by such prospects.  I get the impression you follow developments in these areas.  If you turned this thread into a repository for links to cool articles, you would at least have me as a perpetual reader.

I am doing what I can to stay alive long enough to see sci-fi become reality.  I want to be a cyborg.  I want robots as friends.  Bring it all on.  I'm eager!  

I do hold some transhumanist opinions. Yes I am excited about the what the future holds for our own evolution, that is in our hands.

Though some issues must be addressed. As a society, we need to be culturally ready to accept such changes or they could fail. The ones that can afford such advantages may be seen as an elite.

If society is willing to evolve with this new technology, then it will be safer.

[Ultima22689]

@Inevitable Droid, so be it, i'll keep my links here.

@Dretlin, unless there is manipulation of the market you have to remember, this is basically computer hardware we're talking about, this stuff may be expensive when it first comes out but the prices are going to be slashed every year it gets better. I don't think this tech will be something reserved for the rich for very long, maybe a few years but the way our tech advances and how fast it will be advancing during that time, it won't be an issue I think.

[Dretlin]

@Dretlin, unless there is manipulation of the market you have to remember, this is basically computer hardware we're talking about, this stuff may be expensive when it first comes out but the prices are going to be slashed every year it gets better. I don't think this tech will be something reserved for the rich for very long, maybe a few years but the way our tech advances and how fast it will be advancing during that time, it won't be an issue I think.

I agree that tech is quite universal. And what starts as quite inaccessible to only a few, soon becomes freely available to the masses. Considering Moore's law suggests processing power doubles about ever 18 months, perhaps the pricing of body enhancing tech will drop, as you say. I still propose that society and technological advances must go hand in hand, to create a safer society.

[The Magic Pudding]

I am doing what I can to stay alive long enough to see sci-fi become reality.  I want to be a cyborg.  I want robots as friends.  Bring it all on.  I'm eager!  

Do you think your brain will measure up, even with augmentation?
Will you be worth preserving?
Wouldn't the robots be better off giving up on dead end wet wear technology and starting afresh?
I hope I will be able to find a niche in robot society, perhaps as a vacuum cleaner, I've had experience.

[Inevitable Droid]

Wouldn't the robots be better off giving up on dead end wet wear technology and starting afresh?
I hope I will be able to find a niche in robot society, perhaps as a vacuum cleaner, I've had experience.

The robots may keep us around as objects of study, out of scientific curiosity.  Hopefully they won't experiment on us.

[Ultima22689]

Bah, as the name of the thread suggests, STOP UNDERESTIMATING US DAMMIT! You think we'll have all these cybernetics and not have built a better brain for ourselves? Humans may not think in the same manner as a being born from technology but will we be able to keep up as we use similar hardware to build the positronic brains we will dump our consciousness into. Also, I know folks like to point out that when you move or transfer a file you actually just copy the previous file. Yeah, sure, one hundred percent true but that's how computers operate now, I doubt any of the software we will be using then will even remotely resemble our computer languages and such now. If that actually turns out to be the case, there are other options, like using nanotech to simply re-engineer our brains inside out, upgrading and converting into bio-mechanical super computers and ultimately phasing out the biology altogether.

[Inevitable Droid]

You think we'll have all these cybernetics and not have built a better brain for ourselves?

Eventually, if humanity doesn't annihilate itself first, technology will so far outstrip biology that a machine with no biological components will far outstrip a machine that has any biological components at all; I.e., robots will be mightier than cyborgs, because robots won't have any meat in them.  Meat is a liability, not an asset.  But your next key statement allows for the topic to be discussed differently.

Humans may not think in the same manner as a being born from technology but will we be able to keep up as we use similar hardware to build the positronic brains we will dump our consciousness into.

It may one day be possible to download human brain patterns into a machine that has no meat in it.  But given the absence of meat, it won't be a cyborg, so I think we'd consider it a robot.  We'd probably coin new terms to denote, on the one hand, robots that have human brain patterns running inside them, and, on the other hand, robots that don't.  I'll coin the term h-robot for the first category and nh-robot for the second.  I deem it plausible that h-robots will be every bit as intellectually mighty as nh-robots.  I would love to be presented with both kinds, and the opportunity to discover in what fundamental ways their minds differ, assuming they do, as I think they would.

As a kid I was a fan of this h-robot:

[youtube:2dzkaqgj]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUKBUm_g_rY[/youtube:2dzkaqgj]

But I was also a fan of this nh-robot:

[youtube:2dzkaqgj]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1QYxgF5_I8[/youtube:2dzkaqgj]

[Ultima22689]

Wow, that's so old school. As far as h-bots are concerned, if the origin of those brain patterns were biological, would it not still count as a cyborg? IN the Ghost in the Shell series, one can cyberize their brain to the point of that 97.5% of brain tissue is replaced by technology. If that small bit of brain matter is there yet that is the only remnant of their biology and then you have someone who lost that last 2.5%. Would that mean they can no longer be classified as human? I don't think biology is necessary to qualify as human, if you have organic origins then you're human, if not then you're an AI, simple enough IMHO.

[Inevitable Droid]

As far as h-bots are concerned, if the origin of those brain patterns were biological, would it not still count as a cyborg?

Not to me it wouldn't.  Brain patterns are software.  I view the "org" in cyborg as having to do with hardware, or, in the case of humans, wetware.  But terminology is always just a matter of opinion.  I at least think h-bots are worth designating as such, to differentiate them from n-bots.  Notice how we've already shortened the original terms.  This is how language evolves!  It's doing it right before our eyes!

[Ultima22689]

As far as h-bots are concerned, if the origin of those brain patterns were biological, would it not still count as a cyborg?

Not to me it wouldn't.  Brain patterns are software.  I view the "org" in cyborg as having to do with hardware, or, in the case of humans, wetware.  But terminology is always just a matter of opinion.  I at least think h-bots are worth designating as such, to differentiate them from n-bots.  Notice how we've already shortened the original terms.  This is how language evolves!  It's doing it right before our eyes!

Ha indeed. I think I misinterpreted the meaning of h-bot, getting too caught up in what is human and what isn't. Something I feel the urge to argue for in favor of being rational. Alot of people automatically assume a negative ideal of AI and the inevitable merging of humanity and technology.