Visions of the Singualrity 1

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...