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Thread: UK folks - Horizon tonight looks interesting...

  1. 24-Oct-2006 #1
    Neil
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    UK folks - Horizon tonight looks interesting...

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/listings..._4224_16079_50
    Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
    -Carl Sagan
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  2. 24-Oct-2006 #2
    p2501
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    By 2029 it's predicted that computer intelligence will equal the power of the human brain. Now this simple idea is dividing the scientific community. For some it heralds endless possibilities - we will be able to download our minds to computers extending our lives indefinitely. For others, this moment will lead to the destruction of the human race by giving rise to ultra intelligent machines. One thing they all agree on is that coming of this moment and whatever it brings is inevitable.

    didn't they say this exact same thing in the 50's and again in the 80's about computers in the "new millenium"?
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  3. 24-Oct-2006 #3
    Neil
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    It's of course not the computing power or size, it's the process behind them...

    Personally something fundamental has got to change to allow real AI...
    Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
    -Carl Sagan
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  4. 24-Oct-2006 #4
    p2501
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    agreed completely.
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  5. 24-Oct-2006 #5
    MinionZombie
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    Anyone else a little freaked by the target year being 2029? I know it's no 1997, but still ... spooky.

    I'm digging a nuclear bunker tomorrow, who's with me?
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  6. 24-Oct-2006 #6
    Rottedfreak
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    You have nothing to fear puny hu- felllow humans. Machines enhance life and will not try to solve your problems with nuclear armageddon.
    ABORTIONS FOR ALL!
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  7. 24-Oct-2006 #7
    capncnut
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    For anyone interested in the subject matter of the Horizons documentary, I suggest you read Arthur C. Clarkes 3001: The Final Odyssey. I shall say no more...
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  8. 24-Oct-2006 #8
    p2501
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    Quote Originally Posted by CapnSpaulding View Post
    For anyone interested in the subject matter of the Horizons documentary, I suggest you read Arthur C. Clarkes 3001: The Final Odyssey. I shall say no more...
    NICE!
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  9. 24-Oct-2006 #9
    _liam_
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    i reckon all technology is man trying to externalise himself & his biological processes. most technology has structural paralells with biology, and with the recent growth of technology, functional similarities too.

    i think technology is an extension of biology, and mankind is destined to create something that will ultimately replace it.
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  10. 25-Oct-2006 #10
    Neil
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    DOH! Missed it

    I can't help but think we cannot predict if/when true AI will happen... Computers can continue getting faster and bigger but that has no real effect on if it can be self aware and think for itself. It's going to take a fundamental change or fluke to produce true AI. eg: Two neural networks combine in someway not thought of and *spark* something starts thinking!

    The scary thing is once *it* starts thinking and producing more copies... What if it (& invariably it will) gets smarter than us? What will become of us?

    We in comparison will be slow, stupid and very inefficient. We consume far more resources and are fragile and ratehr stupidly actually die! What would be the point of humans compared to a species that are probably immortal and can actually design and improve at a phenominal rate?

    Quote Originally Posted by CapnSpaulding View Post
    For anyone interested in the subject matter of the Horizons documentary, I suggest you read Arthur C. Clarkes 3001: The Final Odyssey. I shall say no more...
    Explain?
    Last edited by Neil; 25-Oct-2006 at 08:59 AM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
    Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
    -Carl Sagan
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  11. 25-Oct-2006 #11
    _liam_
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    exactly. AI would be the ultimate form of life, the end of the evolutionary path...

    dun dun dunn
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  12. 25-Oct-2006 #12
    Danny
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    Quote Originally Posted by p2501 View Post

    didn't they say this exact same thing in the 50's and again in the 80's about computers in the "new millenium"?

    oh man i found a book for kids from the 60's in my attic telling kids about how we will live on the moon by the 1980's and by 2005 we wouldnt die we'd be young forever and find alien women to get jiggy with and sutch, with diagrams, it was so freakin' dumb you just gotta laugh, i reckon by that time well do more or less everything with our thumbs and index finger and aside from that ,and warmer climates everything will be pretty much the same.

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  13. 27-Oct-2006 #13
    capncnut
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neil View Post
    Explain?
    As most people know, when it comes to scientific prediction, Arthur C. Clarke is the master. The 4th installment of the Space Odyssey series deals with technology in the year 3001. It deals with a dead astronaut who is revived and fitted with a piece of kit called a 'braincap'. It's a plug-in port that enables you to download information from home computers to increase intelligence and communicate without the need to read newspapers or watch the news on television. Ports are available on every street corner and workloads can be increased tenfold without any major effort. Good book man, but not as good as the first.
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