Lifeboat Foundation

In the last few years, the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has been thrust into the mainstream. No longer just the domain of sci-fi fans, nerds or Google engineers, I hear people discussing AI at parties, coffee shops and even at the dinner table: My five-year-old daughter brought it up the other night over taco lasagna. When I asked her if anything interesting had happened in school, she replied that her teacher discussed smart robots.

The exploration of intelligence — be it human or artificial — is ultimately the domain of epistemology, the study of knowledge. Since the first musings of creating AI back in antiquity, epistemology seems to have led the debate on how to do it. The question I hear most in this field from the public is: How can humans develop another intelligent consciousness if we can’t even understand our own?

It’s a prudent question. The human brain, despite being only about 3 pounds in weight, is the least understood organ in the body. And with a billion neurons — with 100 trillion connections — it’s safe to say it’s going to be a long time before we end up figuring out the brain.

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My new and first article for The Daily Dot. It’s about transhumanism and the Immortality Bus tour:

Continue reading “Why I’m running for president—and got a chip implanted in my hand” »

Hanson would be unimpressed by my use of the word “it” to describe his robots, though. His latest creations, Han and Sophia, are “he” and “she” respectively. And Hanson believes that the latter model will become the “first sentient robot, the first one to achieve human-like consciousness.”

This is because Sophia is smaller in size – all of her mechanisms fit inside a smaller chassis. This is beneficial for two reasons: she costs less to make in terms of materials and it takes her less energy to make facial expressions and move around.

“Because of this, she can make more of a difference in the world,” Hanson explains. He adds:

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My latest article for Vice Motherboard. It’s about consciousness and a so-called ‘Turing Test’ that superintelligence might one day use on humans:

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Hutan Ashrafian — nature.com

There is a strong possibility that in the not-too-distant future, artificial intelligences (AIs), perhaps in the form of robots, will become capable of sentient thought. Whatever form it takes, this dawning of machine consciousness is likely to have a substantial impact on human society.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and physicist Stephen Hawking have in recent months warned of the dangers of intelligent robots becoming too powerful for humans to control. The ethical conundrum of intelligent machines and how they relate to humans has long been a theme of science fiction, and has been vividly portrayed in films such as 1982’s Blade Runner and this year’s Ex Machina.Read more

By Levi Sumagaysay — siliconbeat

“When I am successful in realizing this mega-project, then I will finally have 10,000 years for numerous hobbies.”

— Dmitry Itskov, founder of the 2045 Initiative, which aims to transfer our brains and human consciousness to robot avatars instead of bodies that weaken and die. Itskov is a billionaire who’s known as the godfather of the Russian Internet. He also apparently has plenty of hobbies.

Think tech isn’t working on big problems? Newsweek checks on the progress of the 2045 Initiative and other efforts — including in Silicon Valley — to cheat death. The efforts are funded by other deep-pocketed titans of tech: Peter Thiel of PayPal fame has given money to the Methuselah Foundation, which is working to find drugs that cure age-related damage to the body’s cells. Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s Ellison Medical Foundation distributes grants to those who are researching aging. As we’ve written, Google spinoff Calico‘s stated mission is to “harness advanced technologies to increase our understanding of the biology that controls lifespan.” Google’s Larry Page has also backed Singularity University; co-founders Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis are big fans of immortality — or at least living till 700.

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By Jason Dorrier — Singularity Hub

The desolate reaches of deep space figure heavily in today’s sci-fi short film double feature. Space, as it turns out, is really big and empty. Until we get warp drive or discover a local wormhole—getting anywhere will be a long, lonely slog. The other thread tying the films together? They’re both by director Eli Sasich.

First up is HENRi. The film is like an episode of Life After People in space. What happens to a ship’s artificially intelligent computer after its crew dies? It gets melancholy, begins missing its human friends something terrible, and builds itself a robot body out of the ship’s rusty scrap and spare parts.

“My particular interest for this film was memory and its intrinsic relationship with consciousness,” Sasich writes in an article about the film’s making. “I also wanted a robot of my very own.”

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Sam Chaltain — NEPC

Whenever I want to get a feel for the national mood, I look to Hollywood – and the films it thinks we’ll pay to see. In the post-911 malaise, there was the dystopian world of The Dark Knight. In the era of extended male adolescence, there’s just about anything from Judd Apatow. And now, in the shadow of the Technological Singularity, there are a slew of movies about humankind’s desire to transcend the biological limits of body and brain.

Continue reading “Sam Chaltain: The Singularity is Coming. What Should Schools Be Doing About It?” »

FUTURISM UPDATE (October 01, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon, LinkedIn

THE PROBLEM IS NO TECHNOLOGY BUT UNIVERSAL CORRUPTION. WIRED: Sorry, But Technology Alone Can’t Help Us Build a Better World http://lnkd.in/eEsg_zU

ATTENTION! I am not unconditionally in favor of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation. This Civilization is NOT PREPARED AT ALL and it is putrefied with abject universal corruption. Ergo, this Civilization will have a chance of 3% to ever make it!

BBC News: China blocks British MPs’ visit to Hong Kong http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-30267026

Continue reading “FUTURISM UPDATE (October 01, 2014) — Mr. Andres Agostini, Amazon, LinkedIn” »