Why do we need to know?

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Larry Burford</i>
<br />[Iaminexistance] "A computer is a computer and can only do what you program it to do..."

I suggest a slight rewording: "A computer is a computer and can only do what it has been programmed to do ... "

As we push the envelope in the world of programming we add the ability to modify itself to some programs. PhilJ mentioned genetic algorithms as an example of this, but there have been/are other ways to give a program the power to modify itself and/or other programs. Human programmers are no longer the only programmers involved in the process of creating programs.

The parallels with biological evolution are startling. As in the case of biological evolution, most mutations are fatal to the individual program. But even within the population of non-fatally-mutated programs most are not well suited to the *current* environmental conditions. So they don't crash, but they don't thrive either. Until some change in the environment occurrs that just happens to be a good match to the programs characteristics.

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Like all very powerful tools, this has enormous potential for both good and bad outcomes. This is likely to be the answer to the Fermi Paradox.

LB
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Just a little tidbit........According to the laws governing the periodic table, elements in the same column exhibit similar physical and chemical properties. Intelligence on earth is carbon based, artificial intelligences are based on silicon. Silicon resides right beneath carbon on the Periodic Table, a coincidence? I think not. Mark

Some other elements used to build solid state electronics (including computers) ...

Germanium is 2 rows below carbon, 1 below silicon.

Gallium and arsenic are also 2 rows down, on either side of germanium.

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But these things really are just a coincidence.

Why? Where do relays and vacuum tubes fit on the periodic table? Camshafts, rods, levers? These are also used to build computers. The first detailed design for a nano computer used rods and cams. Totally mechanical.

Food for thought,
LB

You said that Cyborgs will look at things more realistically. This to me indicates a lack of imagination which, as previously stated is necessary. Whether it is sufficient or not doesn't matter in this case since we know that it is at least necessary. Our lofty and abstract thinking is what allows us to come up with new solutions to problems and be able to figure out anything in a real world application. Until cyborgs are given that extra dimension of thinking, they will never be at our level, and we will always be able to trump them. I have confidence in the human race that if our computers were to turn against us then we would be able to survive. The simplest computers can only do simple calculations... 1 + 1 = 2. Even the simplest human can have an idea... a dream for the future, and an idea of how to get there.

US AIR FORCE - Korean Linguist for life

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Iaminexistance</i>
<br />The thing about computers controlling the internet is that it can only control however much we choose for it to control because while it may be able to get around ALL of our puny security measures for all the sites and such, the simple solution remains that we could simply ditch the "internet" and create a new "internet"....<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">We are already too dependent on the internet to simply ditch it, and we make ourselves more dependent on it every day.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">The internet is virtual, but it requires physical space for anything to be stored still.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">The humans who control that physical space can be bought; everyone has his price. A superintelligent computer program, capable of generating $billions thru the stock market, etc., could easily win the loyalty of humans who don't even know their boss is not human. By placing those human lackies in key positions, the program can gain control of all our security measures.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">The military itself is switching to a completely different networking system, so I've heard over the past few years. This means that while it is a vast network spanning the world, and it is virtual, it cannot be accessed by the conventional "internet".<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">"Military intelligence" is an oxymoron. They'll be the first to put AI in charge.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">A computer is a computer and can only do what you program it to do... Much as we are encoded the same way through DNA.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">A decade or two ago, I read about a genetic algorithm which was programmed into a population of virtual insects in a computer. The programmer simply seeded the virtual world with a few very rudimentary insects, gave them an environment, goals and a system of rewards. After the program had run for a while, a diverse ecosystem of insects developed. Some of them invented behaviors and tactics which had never occurred to the programmer---like laying their eggs in other insects nests. You may believe that God planned every step in the course of evolution thru DNA. I believe He simply provided an environment; the goal of survival arose spontaneously; DNA, having a peculiar ability to survive, did so; all the diversity on Earth resulted. The next stage of that evolution is probably AI.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">...It can only be as smart as that which created it.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">We are on the virge of creating a "brain" many times more powerful than our own---which evolved from the amoeba. We are programming that new brain to evolve by the same type of process that created us. The result will be, not a creation of our own, but a continuation of that process.

Happy Birthday PhilJ! You were doing well to be on the Internet so close to midnight . . .

I have not defined what I mean by cyborg . . . I¡¯ve never Googled for a definition and so on . . . I have long thought of cyborgs as the lifeforms that will inevitably radiate from a technology of getting neuronal extensions to grow towards microchip terminals, eventually micro-electronic telephony chip terminals, and attach and operate such chips in an electronic world, eventually to their full potential: Googling on the Internet and so on.

Evolution of combination cyborg lifeforms would proceed rapidly once that critical first step happened, which may be quite soon. Indeed, I have been wondering why it has not already happened, given its simplicity AND obvious economic importance AND what we already know about how nerves grow, nerve growth biochemistry, bio-material interfaces, how bone cells love to attach to titanium and so on.


Peter Nielsen

Email: uusi@hotkey.net.au
Post: 12 View St, Sandy Bay 7005, Australia