2 replies to this topic

[Bruce Klein]

This is an article published by thestar.com (The Toronto Star) Aug. 31, 2002. 01:00 AM. A reponse was made by Simon Smith posted below... It's nice to see our Canadian Transhumanist Friends holding up the good fight.


Computer hype a load of tripe
Our artistic senses have been dulled by digital advances
By Philip Marchand


BILL GATES recently came out and admitted the obvious. We're not going to see a computer as smart as a human being in our lifetime.

For decades we've been threatened with gloating predictions from nerds who love computers better than they love their fellow humans. One of the more recent is the prediction in Ray Kurzweil's 1999 book, The Age Of Spiritual Machines, that we'll see a computer that we can recognize as our peer in intelligence by the year 2019. That's only 18 years after HAL 9000 was supposed to be able to chat with the two astronauts in Stanley Kubrick's movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey — a minor delay in the grand scheme of things, to be sure.

Complete Article >>

---

Reply made by:
Simon Smith
President
Toronto Transhumanist Association
http://toronto.transhumanism.com

Editor-in-Chief
Betterhumans
http://www.betterhumans.com


Computer Hype a Misdirected Gripe
I am writing in response to a recent column by Philip Marchand titled "Computer hype a load of tripe."

While I share some of Marchand's concerns, I would like to point out some of his factual errors, address some of his misleading statements and point out a new target for his criticism.

I'll begin where he did, with artificial intelligence. Bill Gates aside -- he also predicted that the Internet wouldn't affect Microsoft, and the company had lots of catching up to do when it realized how wrong he was -- there have been many other artificial intelligence naysayers. There have also, as he pointed out, been many believers and promoters.


Full Reply >>

[Lazarus Long]

Of course Bill Gates would be "Dead Wrong" if we just change the rules regarding lifespan.

It is many of these assumptions about "timing" that I am trying to address in novel format.

[Mind]

Simon Smith makes a great reply, especially concerning artists and the mainstream public getting more informed about technology. Technology will lead to dystopia only if we remain ignorant.

I would add that a problem most people have with techno-future scenarios is that it is not a purely human future (as in Star Trek...when humans and other biological life-forms are in control of all the technology). Our future seems to be one of marriage with machines. Although machines may be a poor word to describe our future partner. The computers we are creating today are becoming more "natural" all the time (ie. using genetic algorythms, nueral nets, analog/digital combinations...). Back to the techno-future...people naturally love their biological bodies. It is hard to imagine being something else...something that natural evolution did not design. I would say it is natural for most people to rebel against this. That is where education comes in. The more we know about technology the less threatening it will be. If we look closely at the world today...there are already a lot of cyborgs among us...and for the most part things are just fine.