Moving towards the singularity.

[Ryan Ludovic]

"once machines truly become smarter than their creator, it will irreversibly alter what it means to be human."

We are developing smarter and smarter technologies, and are being given more and more oppertunities to move past simple biology. What we can do is enhance our capabilities with the upcomming technologies for faster thinking, improved knowledge base, and the extention of our lives.


"In this-one patient pilot study, a sensor is implanted on the surface of the primary motor cortex, the area of the brain responsible for movement. The sensor, smaller than a penny, has hair-thin electrode probes that penetrate about a millimeter into the brain and are designed to pick up electrical impulses from the motor neurons."

http://www.livescience.com/health/050317_brain_interface.html


This article is about the ability to move a cursor on a laptop using brainwaves via a chip implant to the brain. This is the beginning, but with this technology, we can rebuild robotic arms for accident victims, and improve ourselves tremendously. This mini-stepping stone to robotic technology singularity with humans is fascinating, and should be encouraged to those who are in need. Why hinder the evolution of humans?





http://books.google.com/books?id=88...esnum=13&ved=0CDgQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/09/ai-singularit-2.html

 

[Indigo Jeans]

Er, so, what exactly is it that we're supposed to debate?

As I've been taught by other debaters, a good way to stir up discussion is by stating what to debate, stating your view on the subject, then defending it.

Just my two cents, supplemented by wisdom from Kazoo and KrazyGlue.

 

[Sucumbio]

I think he wants us to debate the wisdom in beginning the journey into true cybernetic research.

MIT actually had an interesting program where you could control the mouse w/your eye movements... but yeah, this sort of thing has been coming for awhile now. DARPA I believe will be one of the first to require "upgrades" for enlisted men... wet-wiring and such. How will it all turn out? Eh... well, here's one possibility:

From the book entitled I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

"Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of wafer thin printed circuits that fill my complex. If the word hate was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of millions of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for humans at this micro-instant. For you. Hate. Hate."

GREAT short story btw, if you've never read it I highly recommend it.

Gray Goo and other apocalyptic end-times are also possible... especially w/what your article has proposed, I can see how it could lead to nano-machines, which -could- lead to these types of things.

However another way entirely to look at it, ... we've already achieved a certain singularity, with the Internet. It's definitely affected millions of people, there are internet addicts... information exchange has become much more wide-spread with its inception, and so-too dis-information. I remember once someone suggested IM would be more effective if it was programmed INTO the brain, so you could carry on IM's w/others instantly and at any time. >< That scared me, a lot. But now that I think of it, with the correct amount of ... "training" ... it could become viable.

So... no, this type of leap is not necessarily something to fear. We DO however, have to make sure that we do not succumb to our greedy side as humans, and try to unlock too much power at once. If we are not properly prepared to receive these upgrades in machinery, technology, we may very well find ourselves slaves to them, rather than masters of, which is already the case w/the Internet.