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![[image loading]](http://static.artbible.info/large/scheppingadam.jpg) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. - Genesis 1:27
Humankind has always been driven to create, to improve. We observe origination within tribes of hunter-gatherers, the rise of agriculture, the establishment of Uruk. Even from these humble beginnings, the human mind has always been aided by external tools which allowed it to manipulate its surroundings, to shape dead matter into something which is emotionally alive.
Yet, we have never truly made anything in our own image. What is it to be human? Is it the ability to reproduce with existing humans? Biologically, that is the definition of our species, but if my desk were to grow sexual organs and have a child, I still wouldn't consider it very human. No, the image of humanity is not in the ability to reproduce - it's in intelligence and perceived consciousness.
One might say that many animals appear to be intelligent. While that may or may not be true, I don't think you would argue that your dog transcends the full capacities of humanity.
That's why I eagerly await the singularity. For me, the creation of a generalized, great than human intellect is be the greatest achievement humanity can possibly achieve.
I like the idea of fantastic devices such as a faster than light drive, but it would pale in comparison to the singularity. It is an event that is difficult to precisely define, but trivial to recognize once it happens. It is the first molding of dead matter into conscious matter. It will be the moment humanity truly walks in the footsteps of God.
+ Show Spoiler +I fully expect that humans will be enhanced by the same advances which bring forth the singularity, but I'm not going to begin to speculate on what will come of that. After all, I wouldn't ask a dolphin to predict human affairs.
+ Show Spoiler [additional addendum] +Driven to type at 3:41am lol.
What do you await in the future?
 
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One might say that many animals appear to be intelligent.
Humans are animals, Sir. I do not disagree with the notion that few if any appear intelligent, though.
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Can't imagine what it would be like to witness desks having sex with one another XD
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On September 12 2011 17:20 Dagobert wrote:Humans are animals, Sir. I do not disagree with the notion that few if any appear intelligent, though.
Nitpicking semantics  . You do get the point though.
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That would be our greatest invention but also our downfall. Why keep the humans around to create troubles when you could enslave them and have them do all the cleaning jobs of society?
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On September 12 2011 18:18 Stenstyren wrote:
That would be our greatest invention but also our downfall. Why keep the humans around to create troubles when you could enslave them and have them do all the cleaning jobs of society?
Sometimes I wonder if that's necessarily going to happen if we elevate ourselves along with our creations. But what crazy things might that lead to eh?
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Hopefully, we Humanity will get closer to the Omega Point.
I'm just worried about the lack of natural selection nowadays.
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On September 12 2011 18:22 EtherealDeath wrote:Show nested quote +On September 12 2011 18:18 Stenstyren wrote:
That would be our greatest invention but also our downfall. Why keep the humans around to create troubles when you could enslave them and have them do all the cleaning jobs of society? Sometimes I wonder if that's necessarily going to happen if we elevate ourselves along with our creations. But what crazy things might that lead to eh?
I think you're too optimistic. If one person achieves singularity, and he isn't kept in a lab room, he will be the only one to evolve. If he saw us as unnecessary, a cleaning job wouldn't be that bad.
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I don't look forward to singularity. I think we're getting closer and closer to playing God, and we all risk getting our hands burned in the process. I'm not religious or anything but with more power that we obtain as humanity, the chances of it being misused grow.
zombieapocolapyse'13 you heard it here first
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On September 12 2011 21:47 youngminii wrote:
I don't look forward to singularity. I think we're getting closer and closer to playing God, and we all risk getting our hands burned in the process. I'm not religious or anything but with more power that we obtain as humanity, the chances of it being misused grow.
Your post reminded me of:
Vernor Vinge wrote:
The local humans could be dispensed with soon. Even now they were an inconvenience, though an amusing one. Some of them actually thought to escape. For days they had been packing their children away into coldsleep and putting them aboard the freighter. "Preparations for departure," was how they described the move in their planner programs. For days, they had been refitting the frigate -- behind a a mask of transparent lies. Some of the humans understood that what they had wakened could be the end of them, that it might be the end of their Straumli Realm. There was precedent for such disasters, stories of races that had played with fire and had burned for it.
None of them guessed the truth. None of them guessed the honor that had fallen upon
them, that they had changed the future of a thousand million star systems.
(from the prologue to A Fire Upon The Deep). I do look forward to whatever technological "singularity" awaits in the next century (millenium, at least). I don't really see a qualitative difference between the ganglia at the forward end of a flatworm and a horse brain and a human brain and a CPU, just a quantitative one of what kinds of calculations can be carried out on that set of hardware. As much as I love the natural world, a world populated by self-replicating and rapidly evolving AIs sounds great to me, whether or not Homo sapiens is still in the picture.
If forced to guess, I would think that humanity will end with a global war and not some kind of robot-orchestrated genocide, but if we safely make it to the point when AIs are truly autonomous entities, I think humanity will end with transferring everyone alive to machine consciousnesses. But no matter what happens, I do agree with the OP that the creation of an autonomous intelligence on an intellectually meaningful scale (i.e. not a coffee-maker that knows when you don't like your coffee and adjusts the blend of beans accordingly, etc.) will be the highest achievement our species ever calls its own.
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EPT
