Pretty But Bad

Last time I talked some about what I think it means to be human. Now that we have established that the primary facet of humanity is our intelligence and use of that intellect to interact with each other; we can begin to address what paths may lead to the creation of thinking machines, human or monster.

Human Transcendence

The only avenue to thinking machines I see as completely inevitable is the enhancement of human intelligence through brain interfaces and implants. Unless some other means to singularity happens first, we will eventually leave our bodies by expanding and upgrading the human mind.

Not too long from now we should begin to see simple brain enhancement devices. These will rise from one of two possible sources: medical prosthetics, or pornography. The first of these is well established as a vehicle of transcendence in literature, film, and video games; so I will only gloss over it.

We are already seeing the first of 'better-than-human' prosthetic devices for running and strength of grip. Soon, these devices will have finesse in addition to power, and will become better than human in all aspects. Around this time, some people will begin removing limbs for cosmetic reasons. The same will be true for mental enhancement. Devices are already in testing to deal with epilepsy and spine injury; eventually you'll be able to treat savantism and retardation with enhancements based on perceptrons or creativity engines.

These brain enhancing implants will eventually increase the capacity for human knowledge (wisdom), speed (cleverness, quickness), and processing power (intelligence). Eventually, the capabilities of the implants will rival, then vastly surpass the host intellect. At this point, most of a person's mental processes will happen within the computer parts, and they could survive the death of their body, much like a person can survive the death of even an entire hemisphere of their brain.

However, I see these kinds of brain enhancement avenues as a more-or-less primative concept of machine intelligence, and human immortality avenues. I think porn has more potential.

Why Pornography?

Pornography, unlike 'legit' forms of scientific research have two major advantages; endless funds, and a lack of impeding morals. This may sound like a bad thing, and perhaps it is. However, it will allow some of the first human-to-human brain communication devices to be built. They will start, obviously enough, with connecting the pleasure and sensation centers of two people. Imagine being able to feel what your partner feels? Or feel a recording of what a porn star feels?

This sensation-based interface will grow into other sensory fields, such as visual and audio connections, to give people a true virtual reality experience. It is here that other legit markets will begin to realize the potential of these systems and shared intelligence will arise. It is my expectation that people will join hive minds, and they will do so for pleasure and nessesity. If your competition is using collectives to design new cars, you will too.

The applications of this kind of interconnectivity extend from the corporate (there is a new ironic sense to this kind of business entity, now) to the private. Users of sometimes-on devices will begin to use them at home. Imagine being able to help a spouse shop, while you watch the kids. Imagine being able to watch the kids from 100 miles away, for that matter, just by being able to see through their eyes. These connections will strengthen and it won't be long before some people decide to take it to a new level; They will permanently meld minds with their lovers on deeper and deeper levels until they are essentially one mind.

Somewhere along that chain of events, it would be trivial to hook people into the future of wikipedia and other resources to enhance their wisdom. Crowd-source software for ideas will have arisen as well, to increase cleverness. Hive minds will be more intelligent than a single mind, and there is no reason that the future of wolfram alpha won't further increase simple math skills.

This path to human enhancement and immortality is more borg-like than people tend to be comfortable with. But people we were once frightened that technology would allow anyone to see where you are at all times; to spy on you and that this would make you vulnerable. Today, you are considered strange for fearing facebook, google, or twitter; When each of these knows who you are and what you do on a level once completely impossible.

We will get over the fear of losing ourselves to a collective too, because we won't really notice it happening. It will just be, one day.

What about pure machine intelligence? Could it be born and usurp us? Tune in next time.

The Singularity, while a controversial concept, is still very interesting from a Futurist's stand point. Should machine intelligence replace human intellect, or enhance it beyond recognition; what are some of the things we might expect to see? How might society change? How might humanity survive?

What does it mean to be human?

To answer these questions we must first decide what it really means to be human. It is here that I tend to diverge from philosophers of the past, and it is important for me to be clear. I don't think the question is valid. Evolutionary biology teaches us that all species, including humans, are constantly evolving. To pin down one detail that makes our species pure human is like trying to point to some fossil in the record and saying that this one fossil is the very first human, all others are mere apes.

Once you realize that nothing explicitly marks a human from a non-human, you are forced to ask why we have the perception that something separates us. And this question is answerable. We perceive something as human because it acts with reason and intellect, and it shares some common directives, such as self-value, group-value and interpersonal awareness. More to the point, we find another human to be inhuman when it acts out of character with these values. A mass-murderer is inhuman because he lacks an understanding of the value of others.

It is important to understand that being inhuman is not the same as being a jerk. And being human doesn't just mean being intelligent.

In addition to this, a major portion of what makes something seem human is where it gets its knowledge. Handing down information is very human. Reproducing your parent's actions, sharing their views, learning from society; these all are part of what makes us feel human to others. A person raised by wolves will seem wolf-like. They may be just as kind and intelligent as anyone else, but they seem less human because they did not learn from humans.

Would intelligent machines be human?

Perhaps, yes. Especially if those machines were seeded from a human. A machine that thinks, reasons, and most importantly has empathy for other entities is by my definition as human as any flesh-and-blood. A mind is a mind.

So should synthetic brains replace corporeal ones, they are human; so long as there was some cross over with humanity that allowed the machines to learn from humans, continue the legacy of human knowledge, show empathy towards other minds, and value themselves as living entities.

To be continued...