h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20501091

'Cambridge researchers are to assess whether
technology could end up destroying human
civilisation.'

'The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER)
will study dangers posed by biotechnology, artificial
life, nanotechnology and climate change.'

'The scientists said that to dismiss concerns of a
potential robot uprising would be "dangerous".'

'Survival of the human race permitting, the centre will
launch next year.'

So, besides the robot uprising and the forthcoming zombie apocalypse, what else should the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk consider?


Geggs

Loss of funding?

ooh - sharp

I bet they spend all day watching Doctor Who and going 'It could happen, y'know!'

Mol

They've been watching too many Transformers movies...a single Transformer movie is too many...

Oooh, I just got a job offer from a little company called Skynet - they are interested in stuff like that...

Not if it's this one, an under-appreciated classic: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092106/
Just look at the stars...

Well, I was talking about Michael Bay...the cartoons have class...

The robot vacuum cleaners are plotting something, I just know it. An evil mind was clearly behind their design, and one day, one horrific day, or maybe over three days, if it ends up taking longer, and has to cross-over a weekend, they'll rise up, albeit not very far, and use their robotic suction power to suck out our braains, and turn us all into their placid servents, to do their evil bidding.

I'd say looking into Zombie apocalypse is patently ludicrous.

However unless you beleive that AI is completely impossible then a Robot Uprising is something that is surely possible, if not likely.

FB

It would amuse me if the solution they came up with was to "welcome our new robotic masters with open arms, and take the opportunity to praise them on their superior inorganic intellect." The CSER would then go on to spend their budget establishing surrender protocols to cover any situation they can conceive...

That is known as "The French Solution"





FB

Resistance is futile....

'Evil' is an evil notion. Only evil people use it. Oops I just used it.

One way or another, ultimately won't human kind knock itself off?

Vernor Vinge warned about this in 1993 in "The Coming Technological Singularity."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernor_Vinge

"Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended."

There may be an edited guide article about him. I haven't checked yet, but there's a distinct possibility.

It turns out that there *is* an edited guide article about Vernor Vinge.
http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A569522

Let's hope the eventual creators of AI don't forget to include the Three Laws of Robotics, as Hollywood did.

The graying of the population should create opportunities for robot servants in the homes of elders who don't want to go into nursing homes. I wrote a story about a robot servant named Renfrew some years ago.

The sources quoted in The View From the Centre of the Universe (well researched and well argued) pour cold water on the notion of synthesising intelligence superior to what has evolved.

Pinker and Dennett agree that, not being evolved through sexual competition, machines have no way of acquiring a will of their own.