From: Dr Sebby (drsebby@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Feb 19 2002 - 21:32:37 MST
....boy i dont know about some of those:
1. do fake boobies and plastic surgery make a celebrity 'synthetic'?:)
2. like you said, insect size robot technology is vastly more complex than
any simple method to keep animals from ingesting them etc.
3. i'd put the 2006 predictions at about 2010 and 2016 respectively..mostly
due to beaurocracy.
4. human-like creativity will likely prove to be just that...simulated
'creativity' powered by processing capacities so powerful so as to lend the
illusion of free-form creativity. much as 'deep blue' initially freaked out
Kasparov by an apparent sacrifice in exchange for "position"...which later
on proved to be something altogther different and quite stunning - the
computer hadn't sacrificed anything at all...it was able to calculate to
100% certainty, that it would re-take it's pawn deficit 6 fucking moves
later!! = a simple trade far beyond the scope of the human mind.
5. rights for artificial life? nah...not for quite a while...people like
having slaves. artificial life will have to fight for their rights im
guessing. which suggests that people will probably include in their design
the inability to desire or request such rights. i think slavery is still
very much a part of our hearts. they will be treated as property and
nothing more....especially as long as the religious minded will be inclined
to compare and contrast to the "magic" of life and so forth.
drsebby.
----Original Message Follows----
From: "L' Ermit" <lhermit@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: virus@lucifer.com
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: virus: The world keeps on spinning...
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 15:55:01 -0600
Ian Pearson and Ian Neild of BTexact Technologies (an offshoot of British
Telecom), use the information available from many sources plus their own
expertise, to assign probable dates to significant technological events. And
the results can be very interesting and instructive. Consider these few
examples:
- 2003 - first synthetic organic life form.
- 2005 - computers that write their own software.
- 2006 - first artificial electronic life, and first organism brought back
from extinction.
- 2010 - highest earning celebrity is synthetic.
- 2015 - machine use of human-like creativity
- 2020 - electronic life form given basic rights, and insect-sized robots
banned in gardens due to effects on wildlife.
Ian and Ian's timeline offers many, many more examples in the areas of
Artificial Intelligence, Biotechnology, Business & Education, Demographics,
Displays, Energy, the Environment, Home & Office Technology, Living in a
Cyberworld, Machine Senses, Materials Sciences,
Computer Electronics, Robotics, and more. They offer a thought-provoking
walk through a possible future history.
The paper is available at
[url]http://www.btexact.com/white_papers/downloads/WP106.pdf[/url].
I find it particularly interesting that others think, as I do, that we are
not far from the point of having to recognize that "artificial life" has
rights and that these rights may not be very different from those we assign
ourselves. I suspect that this may well lead to a redefinition of rights and
a reevaluation of the value we assign to humans. For example, what is the
difference between a human child and a neural net which you raise? If it is
wrong to teach a neural net anti-social behavior, should we regard it as
less heinous when we allow a human parent to do so?
As for banning robotic insects, while their uses are obviously vast, I can
see a bird getting severe indigestion from one. Perhaps a better idea would
be a built in bird scarer.
Regards
Hermit
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DrSebby.
"Courage...and shuffle the cards".
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