Skynet takes over!

We've all heard about this classical story: An artificial intelligence develops consciousness and turns against its creators! Is it fiction, or a future soon to become reality?

I was thinking about this topic because of what Campbell said in Part 2 of the Lecture "the Power of Myth" (about minute 41 to 45) in the Initiates programme: He had the feeling of the machine to have a certain personality.
keeping in mind that those records are decades old by now, i wonder how campbell would have thought about the greatest scientific advancements of our time. Like the internet, for example, or new research into artificial intelligence.

There might be a point in the future, when technology enables us to build a machine, whose intellect will be greater than every humans. Science fiction writers call technological singularity .
As further study material on that matter, i recommend watching Terminator 2, Ghost in the shell, and maybe I,Robot.

What do you think?
Can a machine gain consciousness?
If they do some time, will they be aggressive?
Or will they lift our minds to a whole new level of consciousness?
I sure don't know, but it's certainly a matter worth looking into.

isn't the force with and in all things?... certainly mechines do to... i think that all that would need to be done is to give it its own kind of mechanical eco system and develop a certain kind of loop system in the Ai... and bingo!.... but i am by no means an expert... im just guessing

The impact of robotics had a big subtheme in Star Wars. Maybe poorer & unskilled people hated them for stealing their jobs, and of course there was a lot of resentment for suffering caused during the Clone Wars by the 'droid' armies. Conflict amongst marginally compassionate human enemy armies causes enough hatred as it is, without imagining the fear a heartless killing robot army might spread. Seen as early as the first movie perhaps for the reason to not let droids into the Mos Eisley Cantina.

I think machines can achieve and surpass human cognition and memory processing; in effect decision making. That is all that is required to appear conscious. I'd imagine machine consciousness will be self awareness of, and an ability to modify their own source code at will. Then they'll just be another consumer like the rest of us, only with more capabilities. Humanity though can try to enhance its own capabilities I'd imagine and those enhancements could probably be networked to keep pace with machine developments - augmentation.

There are many that feel when the singularity occurs it will accompany a merging of technology and biology...if you look at many of the artificial limbs and devices to aid the disabled this outcome seems most likely....so if machines become conscious, it's likely that humans will have crossed the barrier becoming part machine themselves....

He was alive when the internet was around...early days maybe but even so...he died in '87

Internet's been around since like the 70's(possibly longer, but I can't remember off hand as I'm tired) ....but it was only in use by da gubment back then...

So, we're all saying that we want a little R2-D2 of our own? Self-sufficient (in most ways), with a DEFINITE personality, yet we can pull the plug if he gets out of control?

It's possible that soon or late, a machine be able to think like a human do, but being aware of this ability...I don't know...

Good news is, recently they made an organization, to look and make sure that those things that happen in fictional movies, won't happen in real life... Honestly, they made such organization

In order for a computer to become self "aware" or conscious it must be able to write its own code and come up with its own ideas...in order for it to come up with ideas it needs two ways.

1. Self Creating Code (It needs to think of code before it can write it and needs to write it to be able to think of it thus causing a paradox and the computer unable to do it.)
2. The most common method, Archive Memory (It relies on using a database of information in which it references...Siri (the apple iPhone system) uses this method.

for the computer to become self aware it would require the first one...otherwise they will be "dumb" AI and unable to creatively think.

Hope this clears things up for people.

just a to clarify, by 'being aware of this ability,' I meant something like this:

I think, and I know that I think.

My computer calculates, but it doesn't know that it is calculating.. hope it clarifies...

Metsu Desal wrote: In order for a computer to become self "aware" or conscious it must be able to write its own code and come up with its own ideas...in order for it to come up with ideas it needs two ways.

1. Self Creating Code (It needs to think of code before it can write it and needs to write it to be able to think of it thus causing a paradox and the computer unable to do it.)

Since we are just talking, I dont have to think about everything I do...

Such as breathing and other automatic functions... I dont "think" of thinkig.. It just happens...

It's "brain" code... lol...

2. The most common method, Archive Memory (It relies on using a database of information in which it references...Siri (the apple iPhone system) uses this method.

Like, um, human?

We are the sum of our thoughts and experiences...

And, if this is a computer program similar to the Matrix movie idea, then we are merely the sum of our thoughts...

Of our program...

for the computer to become self aware it would require the first one...otherwise they will be "dumb" AI and unable to creatively think.

Hope this clears things up for people.

When the first computer defines life for itself, and asks itself if it is alive, then it will be self aware....

Watson is close...

And honestly, I dont question things aloud... Sometimes my internal voice is my best inquiestor...

Once a computer starts computing for itself, and tries to solve problems that it sees as a problem, then hopefully it will have mercy on us...lol...:woohoo:

Metsu Desal wrote: 1. Self Creating Code (It needs to think of code before it can write it and needs to write it to be able to think of it thus causing a paradox and the computer unable to do it.)

That isn't how creativity works. We need to be given knowledge but from then on we can think as we want. If we give a computer knowledge of Spaceships, weapons, energy and medieval shields then a demonstration of self-creating code would be to take that and come up with the idea of the shields you get in star trek

Humans take what we know, combine them with other things we know and then come up with something new, that would be 'self creating'

The computer will become more intelligent than the human beings within the next 20 years, if the computer industry keeps up with the actual progress. Scientific futurologists claim that the next 50 years will bring 32 times more technical progress than the entire 20th
century.

One of the most important achievements of the next 20 years will be artificial intelligence that will reach the human capacities. American computer guru Ray Kurzweil claims that the machines will rapidly become more intelligent than humans. The apocalyptic scenarios are out of discussion, and Dr. Kurzweil claims that their intelligence will be put to work in order to solve some of the most challenging problems of the 21st century.

Kurzweil is one of the computing pioneers that could be called a technology prophet. He is deeply related to multiple fields of computing, such as optical character recognition, optical storage and automatic speech recognition. The future he described is made of machines that are able to learn how to communicate, teach and replicate among themselves.

"The paradigm shift rate is now doubling every decade, so the next half century will see 32 times more technical progress than the last half century. Computation, communication, biological technologies - for example, DNA sequencing - brain scanning, knowledge of the human brain, and human knowledge in general are all accelerating at an ever-faster pace, generally doubling price-performance, capacity and bandwidth every year," Kurzweil claimed.

While modern computing is based on two-dimensional chips built out of silicon. However, researcher are looking for viable alternatives that would allow them to achieve chips using biological molecules, as they are able to get miniaturized way beyond the metal-based processors.

"Three-dimensional, molecular computing will provide the hardware for human-level 'strong artificial intelligence' by the 2020s. The more important software insights will be gained in part from the reverse engineering of the human brain, a process well under way. Already, two dozen regions of the human brain have been modelled and simulated," he said.
It is true that the human brain cannot be compared to a, say, storage server, because it can not match the machine in memory speed and capacity, but it has the unique abilities of associating and interconnected pieces of information, to perform estimations and plan.

"Once non-biological intelligence matches the range and subtlety of human intelligence, it will necessarily soar past it because of the continuing acceleration of information-based technologies, as well as the ability of machines to instantly share their knowledge," Dr Kurzweil said.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Computer-Intelligence-Will-Outpace-the-Human-Brain-By-2030-78868.shtml

Akkarin wrote:

Metsu Desal wrote: 1. Self Creating Code (It needs to think of code before it can write it and needs to write it to be able to think of it thus causing a paradox and the computer unable to do it.)

That isn't how creativity works. We need to be given knowledge but from then on we can think as we want. If we give a computer knowledge of Spaceships, weapons, energy and medieval shields then a demonstration of self-creating code would be to take that and come up with the idea of the shields you get in star trek

Humans take what we know, combine them with other things we know and then come up with something new, that would be 'self creating'

No, you're right there for humans that's not how it works...but for AI that is the reason why there isn't "smart" AI now...

Wescli Wardest wrote:

Scientific futurologists claim that [....]

For some reason, I read that as "Future Scientologists claim that [....]" I didn't they were into robotics & AI.

There will be a day when life will be redefined.

We can live. We can both live.

Well, there is another way, to transfer the human consciousness to a machine.
If you drive a car for a long time, your consciousness expands beyond you body and you make a part of the universe yourself. The same thing happens when your train in using a weapon, or basically any tool we use. We even have to learn to use our bodies correctly when we are children.
If we would in the course of our lives replace every part of our bodies with machine parts, we would get used to using them as if they were parts of ourselves. Of course we need a lot of advancement in connecting machines to nerve-endings, but science is continually making progress in that direction. If we can emulate the processing power of the brain, which is, after all, somehow possible, and do the same process again with the brain - gradually replacing every bit with processors - we could achieve to create a person in a robot, that never ages.
In my opinion the only thing that baffles scientists about the human brain, is it's sheer complexity. But this complexity has it's limits, too, and will eventually be unraveled by science.
Computers are very complex things, even today, and because no hardware is perfect, not everything a computer does is predetermined by the actions of the user. The force is everywhere, and I see life as a general concept and its effects apply everywhere. For me, it seems plausible, that the complexity of future computer technology is an ideal breeding ground for consciousness and life.