CategoryTechnocracy
If Social Robots Could Cry, They’d Need Plenty of Tissues For This One
The spate of recent failures of social robot firms prompts a question: Are developers listening to markets?It’s safe to say that most human beings alive today would not want a high level of emotional involvement with a robot.
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Can AI make us better human beings?
Helping us believe that is a promising new business area for someTo the extent that compassion is a moral choice (that is, not just a manipulation), a key issue is that there is no universal moral machine.
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Why AI Won’t Replace Your Doctor
Most analysts think that AI can improve medical care but cannot replace human judgement in painful situationsIt’s not so much that electronic systems make errors as that they make errors that health care staff can’t anticipate and correct for—errors that occur in complex machinery, not errors made by experienced professionals.
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Transhumanism, the Lazy Way to Human ‘Improvement’
Transhumanists don’t seem much interested in such real improvements in the human condition. They want quick, easy technological fixesThe transhumanist movement swoons over increasing intelligence. If I had to choose between increasing the intelligence of the human race versus enhancing our capacity to love, the human race would be far better off embracing the latter than the former. There is no brain implant for that.
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I spy AI. And AI spies on me…
The true threat posed by AI is the greatly reduced cost and risk of mass surveillance and manipulationSome people are quite sure that the world would be a better place if they knew more about our business and policed it better. Mass snooping creeps up unnoticed and becomes a way of life. Then it explodes.
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Your Phone Is Selling Your Secrets
You’d be shocked to know what it tells people who want your moneyBig tech companies have an ambiguous relationship with online invasions of privacy. The companies may be able to make much more money selling information about you than you would pay them to use their medium.
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Random Thoughts on Recent AI Headlines
There is usually a story under those layers of hype but not always the one you thoughtWhen Thomas Sowell was writing his syndicated column on economics, I always looked forward to his sporadically appearing “Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene.” Reminding readers that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I offer my own “Random Thoughts on Recent AI Headlines.”
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Tech Fail: Man Told He’s Dying via Video Link
The family, who thought that the robotic video cart was just “making a routine visit,” was outragedThe response statement from Kaiser Permanente, acknowledging failure, recognizes the problem, but only in part
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A Mind Matters Review: Travelers Portrays AI As A Benevolent God
AI can even heal miraculously, but there is a price to be paid…Season 3 seems like a good time to weigh in on the show’s overall audience appeal, level of materialist dogmatism, and vision of the future of AI.
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Will we surrender our free will to screens?
We may be surrendering while we aren’t paying attentionIf “the machines” ever do take over, it will be because we have stopped thinking, not because they have started to.
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A Closer Look at Detroit: Become Human, Part III
The second pillar of the AI religion is reductionism, the reduction of humanity to matter and energyIf the qualities that define being human (so that there is an obvious distinction between what is human and what is not) are not material by nature; then the premise of a compelling story about androids that become and surpass human beings as intelligent life falls flat.
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A Closer Look at Detroit: Become Human, Part II
One pillar, if you like, of the worldview of the “Church of AI” is the belief that our embrace of artificial intelligence is a step on the road to a higher form of life.Looking more closely, we can see that the stupidity and insignificance of human beings is a central dogma in the AI religion.
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Alita: Battle Angel: A Mind Matters Review
If you love anime and felt betrayed by the flop of Ghost, I would highly recommend AlitaAlthough it doesn’t strictly feature AI, Alita invites us to ponder what it means to be human. Are we defined by a human brain? Or are there aspects of being human that are not solely associated with the brain?
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A Closer Look at Detroit: Become Human, Part I
Gaming culture provides a window into our culture’s assumptions about artificial intelligenceIn the game, Detroit has transcended its current economic despair, emerging as the epicenter of the android revolution. Cyberlife, headquartered there, has become the first company to engineer and produce fully autonomous, general purpose AI androids for consumers.
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Could DNA Be Hacked, Like Software?
It’s already been done. As a language, DNA can carry malicious messages
The Idol with Feet of Silicon
Religions based on artificial intelligence (AI) cannot transcend the limits of computersThose proclaiming that exclusive truth lives totally in naturalism are constrained to a sadly narrow view of the world. Some naturalists have put their faith in AI and have founded the AI Church. They may think they are doing something new and cutting edge, but as Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun (1:9).
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AI as an Emergent Religion
Science philosopher Mike Keas’s new book discusses how AI and ET are merging, to create a religion of futurist magicMany Singulatarians hold that their soon-to-be-realized technology will be indistinguishable by the rest of us from magic. Are they serious? Well, in 2005, Kurzweil said that the magical Harry Potter stories “are not unreasonable visions of our world as it will exist only a few decades from now.” when, due to AI, “the entire universe will become saturated with our intelligence.” Keas warns that this type of thing encourages people “to expect the experiential equivalent of occult phenomena.”
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Artificial Intelligence Is Actually Superficial Intelligence
The confusing ways the word “intelligence” is used belie the differences between human intelligence and machine sophisticationWords often have more meaning than we hear at first. Consider colors. We associate green with verdant, healthy life and red with prohibition and danger. But these inferences are not embedded in the basic meaning of “red” or “green.” They are cultural accretions we attach to words that enable the richness of language. That, by the way, is one reason why legal documents and technical papers are so difficult to read. The terms used are stripped clean of such baggage, requiring additional words to fill the gaps. The word “intelligent” is like that. Saying that a computer, or a program, is intelligent can lead us down a rabbit hole of extra meaning. An honest researcher merely means the computer has Read More ›
