Scientists create Artificial Life

Actually this example doesn't, because they just copied a naturally occurring genome and only stuck in a few 'watermarks' (most of which contain Ventner's name -.-). It's an artificially created genome, but not artificially designed in any way that matters.
 
Scientific research is not cheap, he put a lot of his money into that, why the rest should get their results for free?
 
Also to patent something, you generally need to be the originator of what you're patenting. This proves to be somewhat of a roadblock in patenting genes that have made, and have already been made in, thousands of people.
 
This will be the death of humanity.

Organic machines is next. Then its AI.

Then, we're ***ked ah-la-iRobot-style.
 
The only people who fear the robot revolution and singularity are the ones who don't want to become robots. And that's just racist.
 
Stigmata said:
The only people who fear the robot revolution and singularity are the ones who don't want to become robots. And that's just racist.
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What?

Robots aren't alive. We made them. We should kill them if they do so much as to focus a camera lens funny at us.

I don't like the idea of true AI. Something about 300 million miles of circuitry with every nanoangstrom etched with the word HATE isn't very appealing to me.

Personally, I think the UED in Starcraft had the right idea, I didn't know I shared that quasi-religious belief of human purity with them. Kill the mutant, for they blight our genes. But what of those who would seek to better themselves through weaving inside them mechanical constructs? I mean, a human being hooked up to thousands of microprocessors and used as a supercomputer, a mastercomputer, is way better than an AI. But what if everyone tries to do it? Would that not demean human identity? I mean, all right, I can see how mechanical prosthetic devices, even extra machine limbs would be helpful for humanity, but to enhance their brain capacities as well? Should we really try to transcend our humanity?

So, I came to a conclusion:

Orphaned children, paralytics, or the odd volunteer, they would be transformed into cores for supercomputers. Their emotions would be adjusted according to the needs of the operators through chemicals. They would be completely immobile - forever lost in their thoughts and calculations in a transparent tank filled to the brim with liquid designed to keep them nourished. Thousands of wires and processors hooked to their brains to enhance not the brain but the computer, other pipes force-feeding the host body until it dies of natural causes or degenerates enough to require upgrades. Sometimes they would be aligned to other cores, forming "multicore" human CPUs.

They would be the core for human battleships, research stations, government buildings, civil defense structures, etc. They would be the pinnacle of human biomechanical engineering.

The rest of mankind would not lose their humanity, nor would they be rendered irrelevant and cast aside by AI or transhuman/posthuman entities. No, they will remain pure. They will call the shots. And they will dominate.
 
15357 said:
What?

Robots aren't alive. We made them. We should kill them if they do so much as to focus a camera lens funny at us.

I don't like the idea of true AI. Something about 300 million miles of circuitry with every nanoangstrom etched with the word HATE isn't very appealing to me.

Personally, I think the UED in Starcraft had the right idea, I didn't know I shared that quasi-religious belief of human purity with them. Kill the mutant, for they blight our genes. But what of those who would seek to better themselves through weaving inside them mechanical constructs? I mean, a human being hooked up to thousands of microprocessors and used as a supercomputer, a mastercomputer, is way better than an AI. But what if everyone tries to do it? Would that not demean human identity? I mean, all right, I can see how mechanical prosthetic devices, even extra machine limbs would be helpful for humanity, but to enhance their brain capacities as well? Should we really try to transcend our humanity?

So, I came to a conclusion:

Orphaned children, paralytics, or the odd volunteer, they would be transformed into cores for supercomputers. Their emotions would be adjusted according to the needs of the operators through chemicals. They would be completely immobile - forever lost in their thoughts and calculations in a transparent tank filled to the brim with liquid designed to keep them nourished. Thousands of wires and processors hooked to their brains to enhance not the brain but the computer, other pipes force-feeding the host body until it dies of natural causes or degenerates enough to require upgrades. Sometimes they would be aligned to other cores, forming "multicore" human CPUs.

They would be the core for human battleships, research stations, government buildings, civil defense structures, etc. They would be the pinnacle of human biomechanical engineering.

The rest of mankind would not lose their humanity, nor would they be rendered irrelevant and cast aside by AI or transhuman/posthuman entities. No, they will remain pure. They will call the shots. And they will dominate.
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I'm of the opinion that there isn't much that intrinsically makes the human mind more special than any other kind of mind. For example, some stroke victims describe the onset of a stroke as ego loss, or the loss of boundary between their self and their environment. They are still conscious and thinking, but they perceive their self and their environment as one. This leads me to believe that the "self" is just a figment of consciousness that allows for individualistic pursuits, i.e. evolutionary competition. This further leads me to believe that everything is conscious in some capacity. I'm not sure how deeply I believe this, but it makes me a lot less fearful of the existence of other consciousnesses, since they'd be fundamentally similar.

Anyway, what you've described is kind of poetic. The dregs of society becoming the framework that supports everything.

I'm now thinking of a giant starship being nothing more than a glorified multi-core homeless man, and it's awesome.
 
Stigmata said:
I'm of the opinion that there isn't much that intrinsically makes the human mind more special than any other kind of mind. For example, some stroke victims describe the onset of a stroke as ego loss, or the loss of boundary between their self and their environment. They are still conscious and thinking, but they perceive their self and their environment as one. This leads me to believe that the "self" is just a figment of consciousness that allows for individualistic pursuits, i.e. evolutionary competition. This further leads me to believe that everything is conscious in some capacity. I'm not sure how deeply I believe this, but it makes me a lot less fearful of the existence of other consciousnesses, since they'd be fundamentally similar.
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I agree that if there are other sentient minds out there, our minds wouldn't seem all that special anymore. What it boils down to me is the "Us vs. Them" mindset. I mean, despite our fundamental similarities, as you've described, we still have a hard time understanding or accepting other cultures. Would we understand an AI that we've created? Or some alien lifeform? Would they understand us?

Probably not, and that's why I want the nukes ready.

Anyway, what you've described is kind of poetic. The dregs of society becoming the framework that supports everything.

I'm now thinking of a giant starship being nothing more than a glorified multi-core homeless man, and it's awesome.
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Yes well, starships will have to have girl CPUs, because you know, ships are referred to as "she". :p



Anyway, since we're going off topic, another comment on AI:

I had a dream once, a very vivid dream. Humanity had colonized many systems. We developed an AI in some research facility on one of our core planets, with a population of 2 billion people. When they integrated it into the planetary defense network, it took over the system and made the orbiting battlestations launch their arsenal of anti-ship thermonuclear torpedos at the cities below. When the fleet arrived, they were attacked by the planetary defenses. The civil defense structures were still holding up, and 70% of the population was still alive. But the malevolent AI, sensing that its life and its quest to exterminate all human life was at risk, started to transfer its consciousness onto mobile storage devices and sought to transfer itself off-world, far away where it may bide its time. The board of directors of the united nations of Man made the decision to sterilize the planet, AI, human population and all.

Very interesting dream. I wrote it down as soon as I woke up, and there are still some missing pieces. And yes, this is an argument against AI and artificial life.
 
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