Entrepreneurs: a Conversation Fit for Halloween
by Miki Saxon
In the spirit of Halloween and associated scary stuff, I thought I’d share a conversation I had earlier this week with KG Charles-Harris, entrepreneur, EMANIO CEO, and good friend.
It started when I sent him this article showcasing how little has changed over the last 40 years.
Miki: “The crappy human race never learns…”
KG: “That’s why I believe the machines will take over soon. The developments in artificial intelligence, robotics, bio- & nanotechnology, among other, are ensuring that machines are becoming self-healing and self-replicating. And consciousness is the next frontier.
‘The Internet of Things’ is just a fancy way of saying that all machines and devices will be interconnected and share data and resources. When consciousness comes, it will spread instantaneously across this network. What happens to humans as a result has been depicted in several movies and books, including Terminator and The Matrix.
Unfortunately I believe these are optimistic versions of what will become reality. Those of us who have studied biology and ecology know that when a new species is added to an ecosystem it invariable leads to mass kill off and mass extinctions of previously prominent species. We are in the process of creating our children.Miki: “I just think our poor planet would be better off sans people and electronics. Maybe give Earth 10,000 or so years to heal and let a better species evolve.”
KG: “Well, if my theories are correct, we’ll soon have a planet without humans. However, since it will be guided by “things” created by humans, it will likely not be better for nature than now, but worse…”
Miki: “I won’t be around to see it, but I can hope that both species go the way of the dodo bird…”
KG: “Unfortunately, I believe that we both may be alive for this occurrence. In fact, it may have happened but we have no knowledge of it. It may have happened in a lab environment without contact with the internet or the outside world.”
As often happens, once a subject pops up you suddenly see it everywhere.
The first was an article about Vicarious, a startup creating software that thinks and acts like a human brain. But when I sent the link to KG, he replied that Google, Yale, MIT and Syntience are further along.Then I found that DARPA is on the same path and other companies are creating robots that look more like us.
Miki: “If they have true consciousness they will think for themselves, which means they won’t necessarily follow in human footsteps.”
KG: “True, but unfortunately children often absorb some of the worst traits of their parents…”
How true.
And sad, because Isaac Asimov provided the solution more than 70 years ago when he created the Three Laws of Robotics.
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Not that they will be programmed into the next dominant species we are racing to create.
Flickr image credit: Jeff Carter
October 31st, 2013 at 10:46 am
““True, but unfortunately children often absorb some of the worst traits of their parents…”
And to me the worse human trait is greed. As the people developing these robots are the rich, I assume that the new species will imbibe the trait for pathological, psychotic greed. Hence, nothing will change for the planet.
October 31st, 2013 at 9:24 pm
It’s very possible that we have indeed already unknowingly “merged” with the machines. It is fair to say that the majority of the general population have little or no knowledge of nano-technology or its capabilities. For all we know, we may have already been ingesting tiny particulates that can work together to form a larger “network” within our bodies, making us carriers or conductors of information. To what end? Look around. We are all complicit in the story of the modern human, seeking ever more convenience and connectedness to our personal machines. Perhaps we have been parasites on this planet all along (accelerated dramatically since the industrial revolution), working feverishly to gut and pillage the earth of all its riches to merely advance the development and commerce of technology throughout the world. We can see by the obscene lack of concern for the environment, by the global powers and the corporate statehoods that exist to prop them up, that they have no problem destroying the global food, air, and water supplies for the interest of the machine. And so you tell me who’s in control already? I think we have become the machine. If we are looking for the appearance and prevalence of humanoid robots to come and announce themselves as our “assistants”, then we will be the last to get the memo. The joke is on us.
November 1st, 2013 at 5:11 am
If we are to design human animals and robots to help save our earth’ we have to build a generation free of fear.
Is it possible?
Fred
November 3rd, 2013 at 8:41 pm
Hi Fred – why is fear a prerequisite? Please explain.
November 3rd, 2013 at 9:56 pm
Hi Chris, I doubt most of the developers are rich or pathologically greedy.
Sadly, I think it’s more likely they will infected with mankind’s short-term thinking, which is at the bottom of many of our current problems.
November 3rd, 2013 at 10:01 pm
The nano infection is an interesting theory, Leah, but is there a joke if we don’t know what’s happening? Or maybe I just don’t feel that way because I’m so unconnected. No iAnything, no Android anything and a computer that is far too large to carry around.
November 12th, 2013 at 1:15 am
[…] I’m even willing to bet that if humans are supplanted by robots, as discussed here on Halloween, uniformity still won’t […]
November 13th, 2013 at 1:15 am
[…] a Halloween discussion With KG Charles-Harris (you should read it if you haven’t already) we talked about the possibilities of robots becoming […]