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Artificial Intelligence - Pursuing the Technological Singularity With an Agenda to Architect Society
by Bunandi Wun
Much has been written about the future of AI and it's ramifications for society; from it's presence in the software that drives our systems to the impact of a much touted era of intelligent machines which, besides their functional roles as aids to biological humans, would possess cognitive thinking abilities and unique identities. Science fiction movies and novels inspire many speculative, even conspiratorial, discourses, and a large portion of what we perceive to be the models of the future unraveling of mankind's achievements is based on these depictions. They also inspire innovation in many of today's applied sciences from aesthetics to engineering and consumer devices, and reflect the influence of our popular culture on our evolutionary processes as a race.
A popular deliberation is the debate on the "Technological Singularity" (see Singularity.org) -- a theoretical point in the non-distant future when machines first match then exceed human intelligence rendering it impossible to predict the course of technological and human evolution beyond that point. It is also one that merits attention with regards to the role players participating in this debate with their individual visions for how humans and human society should be configured in that epoch.
One such protagonist is inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil (KurzweilAI.net) who presents a compelling argument in his book "The Singularity Is Near" on the inevitability of the various and diverse scientific and technological fields advancing to the levels required to technically support this scenario within a few decades. He illustrates this with his "Law of Accelerating Returns" that extrapolates the exponential growth of information-based technologies over time, and notwithstanding the ongoing philosophical debates on the matter asserts that technological evolution will necessarily orient itself towards this epic event given the natural market-economy forces that drive innovation. Kurzweil posits this as the basis for his articulation for the way in which people will continue to exist through their transition from their current biological forms to an intimate merger with technology via implants and human-computer interfaces, to finally existing completely within a technologically evolved substrate as digital intelligences.
On the other side of the debate are voices advocating for the broad-based relinquishment of the enabling technologies -- biotechnology, nanotechnology, and robotics -- on the basis that humanity would not survive their maturation for the existential threats they ultimately pose.
The argument that technological development will inevitably continue in a market economy that constantly pushes the boundaries in the computing, engineering, and scientific domains or that it would simply move underground if legislated against, if tenable, invites the question: "who does society endorse as the social engineers of its new world?".
Certainly those with an interest in technology development, be it for military or consumer applications, are not idle on the issue. Proposals are made for engineering the human body within the context of information, communication, and other technologies that ultimately operate within the patent and copyright dispensation; developing next-generation weapons and defense systems based on nanotechnology and autonomous intelligence; and perhaps even more critically, moulding the institutions, ethics, culture, and ontological world view of humanity itself.
In today's era, money wields the power for anyone to implement a philosophy for the way they would have the world architected and run. Will the discourse on these propositions, seemingly fictional by today's standards, be democratized? Or due to its obscure nature in the contemporary awareness will it remain the purview of powerful individuals and institutions with the means to embed domination or monopolies profoundly within the social fabric.
The world waits as change is created that alters it. And for better or worse humanity will move towards its destiny either as a self-fulfilling prophesy, or through the decisions that society will be empowered to make on its own behalf.
About the Author
Bunandi Science and Nature
bunandi.info
Kurzweil PC3x Front Panel Overview
Geoff Gee takes us through the navigation on the front panel.
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