One of the courses that humanity could take to enhance our abilities is genetic modification. A procedure which is already in use (there are some law restrictions though). This would allow for gaining resistance to external factors like immunity to diseases, incombustible skin or even make the need for breathing air obsolete. This might sound science fiction to us but we could achieve the same effect if we had told about our current achievements to our ancestors :) . There are ethical problems though that currently cripple any advance in that field also a risk of unintentionally causing irreversible harm like the incidents of genetically modified crops growing out of control and replacing natural ones.
Another course would be the idea of creating something entirely new that would act similarly to us and by that I mean a thinking and intelligent machine. Sometimes its better to build something from its foundations rather than modifying an entity with a faulty design. We already have some progress in that field, there are plans to create a team of robots that would win a match of soccer versus a team consisting of real people by 2050. The main problem here is whether machines could ever gain self-consciousness and act on their free will (perhaps filtered by a set of rules). Another possibility is simply merging our bodies (or recreating them) with synthetic organs and body parts. There already exist artificial mechanical arms and hearts but the most complex organ of our body which is the true obstucle here is our brain. So far scientists were able to recreate or emulate insect brains, nowadays they struggle to achieve a cat's one. But will the person that has an artificial brain still feel human? :)
Additionally to your opinions on the subject I would like you to answer the following questions:
1. What in your opinion is the next evolutionary step of humanity? Is there any at all?
2. Do you believe that in the future parents will be able to decide about their children characteristics?
3. Do you think we will ever create a machine that could function just like a human being? Would it have consciousness?
4. When do we reach technological singularity? This century? This millennium? Later? Never?
5. Do you think machines could entirely replace us some day? What would happen to us? Could we peacefully coexist?
1. There is no next step in the evolution of humanity, because has not human evolution. According to this as the author himself of article pointed out, the theory of evolution has not yet been proven. For several years I have been following research on this topic, so and I personally think that these theory hypotheses are highly questionable and far-fetched and the theory itself by its apologists is treated more as a kind of dogmatic religion than real science.
ReplyDelete2. I believe that already parents can decide (at least they try) about the most important characteristics of their children. Parents shape the characteristics of their children in the educational process, which takes in the family. I will praise each other immodestly, but alone decide (effectively) upon the characteristics of three of my wonderful and already adults (almost) children.
3. I doubt that can be possible ever, this is unlikely. Consciousness in the human sense will not ever.
4. According with point 3 never.
5. On those hilarious question is a lot of answers in different books and movies of the genre sf. The most popular of the series in recent years is probably the movie "The Matrix", this film is one of the answers on those of funny speculations.:))
You are right about the evolution theory not being proven, although it seems pretty weird that all organisms on earth share a huge chunk of their DNA code and mutations to it happen constantly producing offspring that are different than their parents but I am not an expert in this field so I won't be arguing about it. :)
DeleteThat's true, parents can decide about their children moral values but I what i meant is more related to physical appearance and capabilities, although there are claims that genes could be related to i.e. criminal behavior: http://www.utdallas.edu/news/2012/1/24-15201_Criminologists-Research-Shows-Genes-Influence-Crim_article-wide.html
Yeah of course there a lot of science fiction movies that describe the topic namely: The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Terminator, I Robot and many others, but that doesn't necessarily mean they can't come true :)
http://mashable.com/2010/09/25/11-astounding-predictions/
1. You make a good point, the next evolutionary step could be artificial enhancements to the genome rather than waiting for mutations and natural selection to take their natural course. It remains to be seen what we will do with that possibility or if we even decide to go in that direction.
ReplyDelete2. I assume you mean parents will be able to decide their child's genetic characteristics? I guess screening for genetic disorders, which are linked to illnesses, will be popular. Other characteristics might have more to do with bringing up children and influencing them that way rather than encoding something in their genes as Sławomir pointed out.
3. I'm trying to think, why would we attempt to create such a machine? It's not practical to replicate all biological processes of a human being with technology. The machine would be far too complex and not that useful.
Consciousness should emerge spontaneously once there is enough processing power and sensory inputs and outputs available. BTW I'd say a laptop can be considered somewhat conscious, because it knows its battery charge level and acts on it. I know it's a small thing, but that's how it started in living things too - it's all about awareness.
4. Hard to tell when it's going to happen, or will we even notice when it happens? I think it will happen gradually over time in steps rather than in a single invention. Having read about what technological singularity is, one thing I don't understand, is the part about self-design - aren't we already using computers to design more powerful computers? Sure, now there is still a human component in this process, but what's the difference? The final product is beyond anything a single human mind can fully comprehend anyway.
5. Can machines outlive us? Certainly not the kind of machines we are used to which require maintenance and are unable to self-replicate.
The possibility of artificial enhancements is much more possible than waiting for it to occur naturally especially when we look at the past thousands of years and see that there weren't any major differences between modern and prehistoric people.
DeleteBy characteristics I meant both physical (like appearance, enhanced thinking capabilities) and behavioral/psychological (like not being prone to commit criminal activities or easy to get addicted to certain stimuli).
As for creating a human-like machine, I was thinking if we had failed to modify our natural bodies to our will (increased life expectancy, simplification of life supporting processes) maybe we could replace the parts that we naturally posses to more durable alternatives. Consciousness is not really well defined or measurable at this point so we will have to firstly create a better definition and measurement methods.
I think we will achieve technological singularity the time when we totally remove any human control upon replication and enhancement of technology, basically when we stop being needed to take part in any of the design and implementation stages.
That's true for now but I believe future machines will be self-reliant.
I suspect that even when we completely remove ourselves from the process of designing next gen technology, it will not result in hugely accelerated advancements, as predicted by singularity. The reason for that is simple: resources will still be the limiting factor. Same goes for available infrastructure or the acceptable cost of production. I believe these factors are just as important as technical knowledge and intelligence required to build the next gen invention. It's true even today. We could build a giant supercomputer, more powerful than anything we currently have, but the cost can't be justified vs what we could do with it. Furthermore, some inventions are brought to the market too early, we hear about this all the time - someone had a good idea, but the demand or infrastructure wasn't there to make it a success. Singularity does not solve these problems.
DeleteThis post is somehow connected with the “The Poetry of Science: Richard Dawkins and Neil deGrasse Tyson”. I can speculate that human evolution is dictated by ups and downs like wars and great inventions. During the war all the forces are challenged to built, think and invent something that pushes they up to the victory. When sb discovers sth great, than new possibilities push evolution forward. Hmm...
ReplyDelete2. Do you believe that in the future parents will be able to decide about their children characteristics?
The science has no limits. Yes, I think in the future it will be possible but always restricted by the law and immoral.
3. Do you think we will ever create a machine that could function just like a human being? Would it have consciousness?
In my opinion, they will be behaving as being conscious but the will never be. Unless people will create something that is a hybrid of human and machine (like terminator) then we can talk about consciousness. But this breakthrough seems to be very distant.
4. When do we reach technological singularity? This century? This millennium? Later? Never?
I am sorry but I can’t imagine technological singularity. Maybe someone will help me to define this term?
5. Do you think machines could entirely replace us some day? What would happen to us? Could we peacefully coexist?
No, in my opinion machines will be always dependent on people. This is natural – people invent them and always want to control what they invent. In my opinion, the loosing control over the machines is a film fiction.
Yeah my post is one of the many topics that were presented in the Poetry of Science discussion. As you stated wars or periods of tension are usually factors that accelerate technological advancement as an example during WW2 we had so many breakthroughs (ballistic missiles that lead people to space, nuclear fission and many others) all envisioned with the functionality to cause damage to the opponent. Usually technology advances for military purposes like the internet or automated drones.
DeleteTechnological singularity is the point in time when people won't be needed to overlook or take any part in the process of design, replication and further advancement of technology. Basically the time when we create a machine more intelligent than us that can create breakthroughs we would never be able to achieve (because of our thinking limitations). If you hover over the term in my article you will find a link which explains it in more detail.
I believe that we will have to take serious precautions that will diminish the possibility of malfunctions that could be dangerous for us.
1. Artificially tampering with our own DNA in order to improve ourselves in various degree... though I'm not certain if it counts as evolution at this point. It also presents a whole set of issues, both moral and technological. These could range from "we shouldn't interfere with God's creations", through "so it works on animals, but it's still dangerous for humans" to "we shouldn't do this to children." None of those would be easy to solve.
ReplyDelete2. Most likely, though there is a question here. If you can "customize" you child to any degree you like, is this even your child after all that? While it's great to imagine getting a perfect son, without any issues that might trouble his parents, he could also be too different to properly identify with.
There is also that uncomfortable thought about parents having sort of "arms race" when "designing" their children. Somewhat similar to modern day child beauty pageants, but taken much further, to a degree where it stops being merely "weird" and becomes disgusting.
3. Theoretically possible, but, like many of these ideas, presents a set of moral questions. Would it be "right" to create such artifical life? Would they deserve same rights as humans? Would they be equal to use? If there were not, would they tolerate this?
4. I don't think there's a specific point after which research and technology skyrockets at impossible rate and doesn't stop ever. There might be a gradual progress that picks the pace after some crucial discoveries, but nothing to the extent of technological singularity.
5. The machines could only replace us if we allow them to do that by design. They would need to be self-sustainable, capable of repairing themselves and creating new ones without any external input.
Assuming all that eventually happens - which is highly unlikely, any typical sci-fi "robot revolution" scenario would still have to be purely our fault for not putting proper safeguards in place.
I agree there are many moral issues that won't allow for instantaneous approval of genetic modification on humans. You have a point with the identification of customized children, since he would not carry possibly even any of your genes at all, but I think it will be more like adoption is today. We will simply choose our heirs and all genetic aspects will not matter. We will lose the genetic tree from which we could identify our ancestors. But does that really matter?
DeleteWe decide about every species rights so far and I don't think that will ever change as long as we are in charge. Nowadays machines have no specific rights, but maybe in the future when they will have "free will" and will be able to make their own decisions, we will have to create rights in a form of filters that will allow or deny them to perform various actions (an example of this nowadays are firewalls, denying or allowing communication between computers).
So in your opinion we will never achieve singularity? Moore's law states that every 2 years the computational power of processors doubles. Also there is the quantum computer which is the next big step that researchers are working upon in this field.
I agree that we should put proper safeguards in place else the fault will be entirely on our side, but I wouldn't say it is as unlikely as any other currently sci-fi future speculation.
1. I suppose that people will improve their bodies more and more using technological inventions. I am not sure if it is the right direction.
ReplyDelete2. I would like to hope that the will not be able to do it but I worry that such a day will come. In my opinion one of the biggest humanity problems is social stratification. Deciding about children characteristic probably will be accessible for the richest people and it may increase the distance between rich and poor people .
3. I think that we will never create machines functioning like human beings because we do not need such machines. My opinion about machine consciousness is similar – they will not have consciousness because they do not need it.
4. My speculation is that the technological singularity will come in the next century.
5. As Sławomir have already noticed you asked us about “The Matrix” ;-). People continuously are replaced by machines. I think that the bigger problem is that people cannot peacefully coexist with other people – coexistence between people and machines seems to be good.
So far technology does more good than bad to us, I hope this trend keeps up in the future as well.
DeleteThat's true, social stratification is something that was present since ancient times. Unfortunately it's not an easy issue to deal with. After all people tend to need hierarchies, someone to lead them and its natural for those people to have more privileges.
I share your opinion about machines not needing consciousness, but my question was more related to the limits of technology being able to replicate a human being. There are brain diseases or injuries that cannot be cured, maybe we could recreate parts of the brain if not the whole organ to help such people.
If I had to predict the time of the technological singularity I would bet the same. :)
I know my last question may sound very sci-fi especially cause so many movies cover it, but each of the questions were assuming the previous ones were true (would occur for sure). You made a good point here though, first and for most we should think on ways of improving person to person peaceful coexistence. :)
1. What in your opinion is the next evolutionary step of humanity? Is there any at all?
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to say what will be the next step I think that people will use technology to cure all kinds of diseases I don't think so that there will be some kind evolutionary step
2. Do you believe that in the future parents will be able to decide about their children characteristics?
Technically probably it will be possible but I have hope that they won't be do that because it will be disaster. I do not even want to think how the world would look where they lived by themselves perfect and talented people :)
3. Do you think we will ever create a machine that could function just like a human being? Would it have consciousness?
It is hard to say but I think that in the future it can happen:)
4. When do we reach technological singularity? This century? This millennium? Later? Never?
I think that we can reach technological singularity in the next century
5. Do you think machines could entirely replace us some day? What would happen to us? Could we peacefully coexist?
I don't think that machine will ever replays us but I think that coexistence between people and machines can be good:)
If you think of our technological inventions so far, they were all extensions of our natural ways of coping with life. As examples I could point out the car as an extension of our legs, the cellphone as an extension of our mouth, the telescope as an extension of our eyes etc. I find it highly improbable to give up on our dream to miniaturize and customize them so that we can carry them with us anywhere we go, simply by replacing the natural extensions that we already posses.
DeleteI do agree that a world with only geniuses around would be a rather terrifying vision for me too. But maybe if everyone in the future is on the same level, it will be natural for them. :)
As I answered in a previous comment, I also share this estimation about the technological singularity.
We definitely won't allow them to replace us. :)
1. What in your opinion is the next evolutionary step of humanity? Is there any at all?
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that this may be a step back.
2. Do you believe that in the future parents will be able to decide about their children characteristics?
Accualy parents have much impact on many characteristics of their offspring through the appropriate choice of partner. It seems to me that for many years this level of impact will not be able via any type of genetic technology.
3. Do you think we will ever create a machine that could function just like a human being? Would it have consciousness?
In my opinion machine will never have a soul so it will never be just like a human being.
4. When do we reach technological singularity? This century? This millennium? Later? Never?
Never.
5. Do you think machines could entirely replace us some day? What would happen to us? Could we peacefully coexist?
As I mentioned machines have no soul so there can be neither the evil nor good. Without a soul and good or bad intentions is impossible to rule this crazy world.
Do you consider our current stage ideal? I do believe we could become better.
DeleteParents are not always responsible for their offspring characteristics and behavior. Also when a child is conceived it shares genetic elements of both parents as well as their grandparents. It's usually hard to identify recessive genes without interfering with them. I don't have anything against ginger people (in fact I adore some of them) but as an example the gene causing someone to be ginger is a recessive one (meaning you can carry it for generations without knowing it).
Unfortunately I don't believe in the religious term of soul unless you mean the personality and self-awareness / self-consciousness of a living being.
Maybe what we need is a system that would not be biased by good or bad intentions but rather logical implications to achieve balance and make the world less crazy. :)
1. Unfortunately, I don't know what will be the next evolutionary step. Isn't that the natural order of things?
ReplyDelete2. Probably this will be possible but at this moment it's only a sc-fi for me;) Each change involves other changes, so any genetic modification can also be negative (We already know this from modification of plants).
3. Maybe someday it will be possible. At this day neither computer have computational power to do this. For me at this moment is also impossible to create Consciousness outside movie like Transcendence ;)
4. Singularity is still hypothetical moment. We'll see at 2020.
5. Briefly : Never.
You are right, it's hard to define whether anything artificially induced is still considered evolution.
DeleteIt's true that changes can both be negative and positive, that's why I am glad humanity is still restraining with them until we finally have done some proper research in before.
Nowadays we can't properly emulate a PS2 on the PC, so we don't have a chance to do it with the brain. :) But some day in the future, I can imagine us getting there.
What will happen at 2020? :)
I re-watched the video I've posted, it reminded me what according to Ray Kurzweil will occur in 2020 so you don't have to answer that. :)
DeleteStudies around the human body have always been a controversial topic. I recently watched a movie that reminded me how hard it was to be a good doctor back in the days. And although I know that this movie can have a lot of fiction in it, I also believe that religious persecutions were real. So if you are interested you can have a look :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt2101473/
Some people considered studying the human body as a way to improve the quality of life for the future generation but, at the same time, others found it deeply unethical. Research on genetic modification had a similar social context. But despite personal preferences, I believe that progress cannot be stopped and sooner or later humanity will reach the point of being able to completely reproduce organs, cure all diseases and expand the lifespan to hundreds of years... But I would like to withhold on predicting when we will reach this point as in my opinion it's pointless to guess.
As for the topic of machines that could behave like a human, it was also covered by a movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/
And I must say that I would love to have a personal Scarlet Johansson :) But (on a more serious note) personally I think that achieving a human-like level of intelligence is beyond our reach at the moment due to the limitations that the current known technologies present. Maybe I will change my mind after seeing quantum computers in action though...
As for the coexistence of intelligent machines and humans I would also refer to Hollywood as a source of inspiration, but in Matrix it does not end well.
So all in all, most of the answers to your questions have already been answered by Hollywood producers! ;)
Interesting movie suggestions, I will definitely consider them on my "to watch" list. As you have stated, progress cannot be stopped and one day we will not only have the technology but the public acceptance to reproduce most or all organs of our body.
DeleteOh yeah a personal Scarlet Johansson sounds tempting, maybe that's one of the major motivations. :)
*SPOILERS* The movie Matrix had a happy ending after all. Even though the main protagonists died the cause they fought for had been reached and in the end there was peace. :)
1. What in your opinion is the next evolutionary step of humanity? Is there any at all?
ReplyDeleteOf course there must me another step. Evolution had shown us that it is continuous and complex. In my opinion next steps will involve adaptation to our current living conditions because our organisms are designed to work ages ago and world has changed since then.
2. Do you believe that in the future parents will be able to decide about their children characteristics?
I think its unavoidable. Its possible to fo this so its just a matter of.time still it will be legal
3. Do you think we will ever create a machine that could function just like a human being? Would it have consciousness? Maybe one day but not in the nearest future and its hard for me to actually believe that there will be artificial ventures with consciousness
4. When do we reach technological singularity? This century? This millennium? Later? Never?
In my opinion never but i can be wrong
5. Do you think machines could entirely replace us some day? What would happen to us? Could we peacefully coexist?
I think they could replace us because without emotions they can actiona could be more logic and rational.and we could coexist only it they somehow need us
Exactly, I share the opinion that our judgement is too much biased by emotions which I consider sometimes as a flow but which actually define us as human beings. Anger or fear usually tend to produce bad decisions. The decisions made by an intelligent, logically and rational thinking system would be balanced enough to be considered appropriate.
Delete1. What in your opinion is the next evolutionary step of humanity? Is there any at all?
ReplyDeleteFor me it's obviouse that there are next steps, but I completly don't have any idea what it will be. Propably less physical power more brain power (hopefully:).
2. Do you believe that in the future parents will be able to decide about their children characteristics?
I'm quite sure that, yes. Is it good or ethical, hard to say. If the purpouse of genetic modification is to prevent from diseases - then ok. If we can choose eye or hair color, I think it's not a big deal, but anything more than that... I would be suspiciouse of..
3. Do you think we will ever create a machine that could function just like a human being? Would it have consciousness?
I'm pretty sure we will, I believe that, but my opinion is based only on my "internal belive" than any known facts.
The definition of consciousness is so fuzzy and ambiguous that is very hard to say. But my guess is - yes, it will.
4. When do we reach technological singularity? This century? This millennium? Later? Never?
Ha! It's a very good question with no answer. I hope that it will become real earlier than later.
5. Do you think machines could entirely replace us some day? What would happen to us? Could we peacefully coexist?
I guess they/it could and I don't see any problem with that, but I consider that machines will replace us in our jobs :) but they will not give birth. I believe we can coexists just like with our current technology - we can live with it.
Less physical power since we won't need to do all the hard labor we have to do right now, since we already create and will continue developing machines that free us from that duty. Basically all of the questions I asked have no definite and sure answer, I just wanted to hear your opinions on the topic. :)
DeleteMachines already replace us in our jobs, but again if we let them do everything for us what will there be for us to do?
First of all thank Michail Mokkas you very much for this subject :) I like very much Ray Kurzweil. Few times I mention his works on many occasions. It is a large topic and I would rather discuss it sometime over the coffe :)
ReplyDeleteI agree the topic is gigantic, you could write thousand of articles on it and its subtopics.I would be glad to discuss them with you, maybe some day we will have the opportunity. :)
DeleteI think it's hard to determine the next step in human evolution. Are still the studies on this fact. Machine to act as a human is a robot. Is ongoing research into the development of robots. At the given moment are already very advanced work and learning about robots is constantly expanding. I do not want to allow parents decide about the characteristics of their child. I want that this issue has been a natural and research in this end have ceased to be conducted.
ReplyDeleteWhat in your opinion is the next evolutionary step of humanity? Is there any at all?
ReplyDeleteToday, perhaps the fastest evolving brains and social behavior. Physical changes take place extremely slowly because the environment does not change.
2. Do you believe that in the future parents will be able to decide about their children characteristics?
Most of the children of celebrities in holywood is tested and planned genetically. it does not proceed in the future is happening now.
3. Do you think we will ever create a machine that could function just like a human being? Would it have consciousness?
Currently made are the first implementations of the human brain to computers quantum computer D-Wave One.
4. When do we reach technological singularity? This century? This millennium? Later? Never?
Unfortunately I can not speculate on such a high level for mee.
5. Do you think machines could entirely replace us some day? What would happen to us? Could we peacefully coexist?
It would be nice to unnecessary machines have replaced our hard work. Somewhere certainly in our history we will coexist peacefully with machines. For how long I do not know.
1. What in your opinion is the next evolutionary step of humanity? Is there any at all?
ReplyDeleteI do not believe in the pure evolution. We all emerged from the big bang, then bacteria transformed into apes to evolve into humans … no way.
I think that we are intentionally placed in the universe and the funny thing is that it is fully self-contained and closed so there is no way to spoil it using things that are available within it. Even the atomic blast of the planet Earth size would not spoil the universe and only the full human genocide would be a side effect of one :)
2. Do you believe that in the future parents will be able to decide about their children characteristics?
That is very likely. The genetics is quite advanced and too attracting to see this going away any time soon.
3. Do you think we will ever create a machine that could function just like a human being? Would it have consciousness?
‘Just like’ is the good depiction. We are capable of creating very complex mechanism that would be ready to perform complex tasks but there is not going to be something equivalent to self-aware human. We’ve been given the free will gift but we are not entitled to hand it down.
4. When do we reach technological singularity? This century? This millennium? Later? Never?
Never I believe.
5. Do you think machines could entirely replace us some day? What would happen to us? Could we peacefully coexist?
We will all die eventually and there is a chance that some machines would be still on while the last human will pass away. Then the energy supply for that machines would end up and there would be no one to recharge :)