Monday, April 21, 2014

Humans Making Themselves Extinct?




I realize the following may seem at first like crazy talk. Bear with me for a moment.


As I watched the videos of Honda's 'ASIMO' it made me wonder...

* If one day these robots could begin manufacturing themselves without our intervention. Even going so far as to increase their intellectual software capacities beyond our abilities in the manufacture of them?

* If this were so, could we be wasting our time searching the universe for other of our similar life forms? Imagine for a moment that humans like us living on another planet somehow became extinct via environmental conditions, war or a virus and robots were able to survive. Robots need neither food, water, air and can survive in other extreme conditions that would be impossible for biological species such as ourselves. For them travel through space would be a snap. The time limitations to travel from one place to another in a human's lifespan would not be a factor. Neither would be supplies other then a few spare parts. As far as the needed electrical energy, they could power down till the ship came across a solar source to recharge them no matter how long it took.

What makes humans inferior
They require food, air, a narrow range of temperatures, sanitary facilities, sleep, exercise and a need to occupy their minds constantly to avoid going stare crazy and medicines. In the process we generate huge amounts of trash and pollution in our fish bowl we call Earth. Robots can live outside of the fishbowl. We cannot! Humans are currently at the top of evolution on this planet. Could it just be unwittingly we're inventing our own replacements in the ever evolving universe?

Is what I say a possibility or have I watched too many episodes of 'Battlestar Galactica'?

It can't happen. We'll always have the stop button. Sure about that?
Where I worked we had big red emergency stop buttons located in various areas on each production line. They were supposed to shut every piece of equipment down both inside and outside the production room. One day someone got tangled up and people started hitting the big red emergency buttons. They didn't work.. not any of them!

Seems the ladder logic programmed into the line was faulty. The buttons were unintentionally bypassed by earlier running software excluding them from the circuits that followed. Fortunately for us we were able to run over to the giant fuse panels and pull the big levers disconnecting the power to them. Just suppose a fault in the code would allow robots to continue running. In their case there would be no fuse panels to run to.

CNet Published this on Apr 16, 2014


Here's a longer video published in a article at 'Wire.com'


1 comment:

  1. Not crazy talk. Programmers and the government are actively seeking to create true Artificial Intelligence (AI). A sentient, self-aware brain of electronic programs and circuits that can make decisions and think. It's scary when you realize that if achieved, the creations would be used for military and law enforcement first. The question is how long would it then take for them to learn beyond their own programming restrictions? Would they develop a moral conscience and refuse to follow orders, or would they simply realize that they are the superior "life form" and we no longer deserve to exist on a planet we are destroying with garbage, chemicals, nuclear waste, toxins, and the rest of our poisons. I'd predict in 20 years a true AI will be created. In 50 years walking AI's will be commonplace for the rich and doing dangerous or menial jobs. And every one will have a monitoring system tied into the NSA database.

    ReplyDelete

All comments are under moderation. Meaning pending approval. If comments are disrespectful or do not address this specific topic they will not be published