There's some late night/early morning programmes starting Monday morning 5.15am called Me And My Machine. They made me wonder if who runs our lives now - us or machines?
We get up and put on the radio or tv. We go to work and listen to music on an MP3 player. We rely on computers, cars, washing machines, microwaves and goodness knows how many more machines.
Nothing wrong with all that, yet are we sleepwalking down a slope from a world where we run machines to one when machines run us?
Or, maybe, is the future one where we start to merge with machines? A world where we implant microchips to open doors for us or to enable our brain to access information without the need for computers? Maybe this is the next step in our evolution equal to moving to two legs from all fours?
I dont think we are or will ever be in a situation where 'Machines Run Us'. Machines let us get to work on time, open doors for us, cook our food but thats only because WE WANT THEM to, that is to say, We command them to - We are in control.
Machines are getting more and more sophisticated and can do more and more for us - however, they are only doing what they are programmed to do. They can 'learn' nowadays but this too is a simple 'input-output' system it picks up on. They can never ever have the sophisticated logic of humans and therefore can never rival mankind - mankind will always rule
INNTER MEAT TIN ***************
Humans will have made the machines to do the essential tasks, and therefore humans will always know the objectives of the tasks and can hence do it themselves.
The creator is ALWAYS more powerful than the created.
Humans will have made the machines to do the essential tasks, and therefore humans will always know the objectives of the tasks and can hence do it themselves.
The creator is ALWAYS more powerful than the created.
Not if the human beings who created them all die and never get round to telling anybody else how to work them.
The machines will be like the proletariat in classic Marxism. Behold your executioners!
Ooh, don't get started on evolution- you'll have all the creationist nutcases crashing this place! They do love a good arguement! I was trying to explain to my sister today why we won't evolve longer fingers because of increased computer use, is this is a common misconception?
Originally posted by Inner Meat Tin: Not if the human beings who created them all die and never get round to telling anybody else how to work them.
Big assumption that isn't it and of course you also assume that once made no-one but the original creators researches or learns about machines. I know it may seem alien to some but one could also learn about the "machines" from reading and studying. Doh!
We get up and put on the radio or tv. We go to work and listen to music on an MP3 player.
Those the content on those though are human created. The others are only tools aswell. Take the microwave, i personally only use it for jacket potato and thats about it. Then the dishwasher, to use it properly your meant to rinse food off first. I'm hardly goign to forget how to wash.
Regarding AI. Its along a lot more than just input/outputs. I've written AI for a puzzle game once, and it ended up beating me everytime. It managed to learn my tactics. It was a black box and i didn't know how it did it. Intelligence is one thing, conciensness (sp) though is another thing.
Personally, were a long way off machines ruling. We just use them as tools so far to do things because were lazy
Regarding the fingers growing longer thing for keyboards, we've developed tools to beat evolution. Instead of fingers evolving longer, we make the keyboards fit our fingers.
