[extropy-chat] PR: Lanier trashing >Hism again...

[Mike Lorrey]

https://www.freemarketnews.com/nview.php?nseq=621

FROM COMPUTER TO GOD

Aug 04, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.com

by staff reports

Moore’s Law states, that at the rate of our technological development,
the complexity of an integrated circuit will double about every 24
months. This implies that computers will continue to get faster,
cheaper and more capable at an exponential rate. Jonan Lanier comments
on the belief of “cybernetic totalists” who believe that the
distinction between the human brain and a computer will thus continue
to narrow. “They predict”, Lanier states, “that computers will
eventually turn into brains, and then surpass brains.” In an interview
with The Sun magazine, he continues, “More than that, they predict that
this exponential change in computational speed and miniaturization is
leading toward a ‘singularity’: at some point, the rate of improvement
in computers will become so fast that people won’t even be able to
perceive it. In the blink of an eye, computers will become godlike and
transcend human understanding. Artificial life will inherit the earth.”

These computer designers use the analogy of evolution to show how this
artificial intelligence will come into being – though it could some day
come about in an instant, rather than through a process of natural
selection. This outlook makes it easy to see how programmers, along
with the society at large, could slip over to the other side of
reality. Lanier notes, “Since they’re already living in that future
world in their heads, they tend to design software today to reflect
that imagined destination of tomorrow. This software encourages us to
see the computer as a friend or partner, an entity that we talk to and
treat as an equal, instead of as a tool. “I find this philosophy of
life to be very shallow, nerdy, dull and antihuman,” he says, “and it’s
being spread to other people who are using the software developed in
this narrow scientific community.” 

Lanier doesn’t see technology per se as the problem. He believes that
technology “has enabled new types of cruelty, but, on balance, there is
less.” He notes that the technology of printing books has brought forth
good and bad ones, but on balance, “books have certainly been good for
humanity.” Eschewing an either/or outlook on the computer age he
concludes, “What I’m saying is that technology is of such vital
importance that scientists have a profound moral duty to get it right
and not simply trust that some algorithm will make it all ok.” -DS 



Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


	
		
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