What if?

PBS NewsHour on Man vs. Machine: Will Human Workers Become Obsolete?

by Socrates
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Part of his series on Making Sen$e of financial news, Paul Solman has been showcasing the future of technology from a recent conference run by a California think tank — things such as 3-D printing of prosthetic legs and iPhone heart tests. But the conference also resurfaced an age-old question about the future of human workers. Transcript: JEFFREY BROWN: And now, more on the challenges of creating enough new jobs in an ever more automated and high-tech economy. NewsHour economics correspondent Paul Solman has the story. It’s part of his ongoing reporting Making Sense of financial news. NARRATOR: American labor, management and capital. PAUL SOLMAN: Our favorite economics cartoon is a piece of free market propaganda from decades ago that envisioned a sort of cornucopia machine of the future, manned by the happy and lucky American worker, given the name King [...]

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Top 10 Reasons We Should Fear The Singularity

by Socrates
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Why do we fear the technological singularity? Well, let me give you what I believe are the top 10 most popular reasons: 1. Extinction Extinction is by far the most feared as well as the most commonly predicted consequence of the singularity. The global apocalypse for the human race comes in many flavors but some of the most popular ones are: the supersmart terminator AI’s – a robopocalypse; nanotechnology gone rogue – the so called grey goo scenario, home-made Smart Weapons of Mass Destruction – used by terrorists and nihilists; genetic modifications or mutations – turning us into living-dead zombies; science experiments gone wrong – the Large Hadron Collider creating a black hole that engulfs the planet… In short, the fear is that, as Bill Joy notoriously put it: The Future Doesn’t Need Us. 2. Slavery Perhaps the second most common reason for fearing the singularity is the potential slavery or subjugation of the entire human race. [...]

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An Atheist Who Wears a Cross and a Verb! What About You?!

by Socrates
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The issue of religion is one of the more common questions that I ask most of my guests on Singularity 1 on 1. But this is hardly the most important thing during any conversation. Still, if we are talking about the future of humanity, it may be relevant to know a little more about the person’s past and present religiosity. In this way when we move on to topics such as cosmology, metaphysics, ethics or epistemology, we are more mindful of our own implicit presumptions. The danger in the above approach is that one might embrace the label a bit too tightly and thereby ruin the potential for a genuine conversation and exchange of ideas. Thus we must also be aware of all the religious, intellectual, political or other such shortcuts we are using. While they can be useful in the short term, in the longer term they omit so [...]

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iPads for Apes: Did Arthur C. Clarke Get It Right Again?!

by Socrates
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The very first Arthur C. Clarke book I ever read was a 1963 edition of Dolphin Island. This science fiction novel is about a runaway teenager who gets shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean where he is eventually saved by “the people of the sea”: dolphins. The protagonist – Johnny Clinton, ends up on a mysterious island of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef where a brilliant Professor invents a small handheld device that is used to communicate with dolphins… *** Orangutans at the Jungle Island Zoo in Florida are learning to use iPads to identify object like body parts and food. The hi-tech approach to communication is modeled on a system used successfully with autistic children. The zoo is hoping it will help visitors connect with the apes and promote awareness of their endangered status in the wild. Original story by Ben Gruber for Reuters News:

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When Vernor Vinge Coined the Technological Singularity

by Socrates
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When Vernor Vinge coined the term technological singularity few foresaw it becoming the conceptual watershed that it is now. Today, regardless of whether you are writing about sci fi, futurism, artificial intelligence, technology or the future of humanity, the moment you embrace the longer-term big picture framework of reference is the moment you are writing about the singularity. And if that is not the case, then, you must justify why not. So, in a way, you are still writing about the singularity. Thanks to Josh Calder, who made the effort to dig out and scan the original article, I can now show you a copy of the actual page where the term was used for the very first time in its contemporary technological context: the January 1983 issue of Omni magazine. Hope you enjoy this little digital piece of history as much as I do! Related articles 17 [...]

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How To Survive A Robot Uprising (aka Robopocalypse)

by Socrates
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Forget the zombie apocalypse – the real threat is an imminent Robopocalypse, a robot uprising! That’s why Epipheo interviewed Daniel H. Wilson - to find out exactly how to survive a robot uprising. Daniel is the world’s foremost authority on the subject and NY Times bestselling author of the book Robopocalypse. Related articles The Technological Singularity Goes Mainstream (Again) Funny Or Serious: Are We Giving Robots Too Much Power? The Perils of Voice Recognition Technology Ray Kurzweil at the Daily Show with John Stewart

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The Debate of the Ages: This House Wants to Defeat Ageing Entirely

by Socrates
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This house wants to defeat ageing entirely was a fantastic public debate held last Wednesday (April 25th, 2012) at Oxford University. The two interlocutors were Dr. Aubrey de Grey and Prof. Colin Blakemore, who is a high-profile neuroscientist and science communicator as well as the ex-head of the Medical Research Council, UK’s largest funding body for biomedical research. This house wants to defeat ageing entirely addressed both the feasibility and the desirability of bringing aging under comprehensive medical control. Moreover, one can claim it was quite a watershed event, since it was the first time that a bona fide grandee of the British biomedical establishment has risen to the challenge of describing publicly, in a forum where he can be challenged, why intervention against aging is not in fact medicine’s most pressing priority. Now, I am not a scientist or a medical expert so I [...]

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Peter Diamandis on Which Way Next?

by Socrates
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  This April 11, Singularity University‘s Live Webcast series, Which Way Next?, featured Dr. Peter H Diamandis, co-founder and chairman of Singularity U, in discussion with Salim Ismail about his new best-selling book, Abundance — The Future Is Better Than you Think. Diamandis presented the case that the world is getting better at an accelerating rate through the convergence of four powerful forces: the exponential advancement of technology, DIY (Do It Yourself) innovators, Techno-philanthropists, and the Rising Billion, which, acting together, will create abundance in the areas of clean water, nutritious food, affordable housing, personalized education, top-tier global health care, and ubiquitous energy — helping to solve humanity’s biggest challenges. Peter co-authored Abundance with award-winning technology writer Steven Kotler, bringing together decades of data and extensive interviews with hundreds of innovators and entrepreneurs, including Larry Page, Steven Hawking, Dean Kamen, [...]

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