Doubling Knowledge
At the University of Gronigen in the Netherlands, they have Cray AT3 computers hooked up in clusters that can execute hundreds of teraflops per second, that translates into hundreds of trillions of calculations. This cluster can do more in an hour than the whole first century of modern computing.Rather than working on the various problems of quantum physics, it is being devoted to modeling event horizons and event cascades affecting the seven billion inhabitants of our planet. In other words,this massive array is doing the calculus of felicity. The greatest good for the greatest number.They are attempting to turn morality into math.As far as we can tell, at first, human knowledge was doubling every 1500 years or so, today it is doubling every two years.Their argument is that at the same time, our moral faculties remain unevollved. The technical prowess of our species has vastly outstripped our ethical prowess. They have, in effect, created a sort of moral prosthesis in order to extend our
intellectual capacities by artificial means.It is my opinion that this powerful facility is being wasted on not the complex problems of the quantum universe, but on morality problems that are unsolvable, because the human race has seven billion variables that change from moment to moment . We know what computers can do with science.But are they of any use when dealing with philosophical ideas like morality and worse yet, as a basic goal the foundation of socialism.
intellectual capacities by artificial means.It is my opinion that this powerful facility is being wasted on not the complex problems of the quantum universe, but on morality problems that are unsolvable, because the human race has seven billion variables that change from moment to moment . We know what computers can do with science.But are they of any use when dealing with philosophical ideas like morality and worse yet, as a basic goal the foundation of socialism.
But no amount of morality can save communism, socialism or progressivism; however, as much as I detest demonocracy, it would be more palatable if there was a standard, time tested practice of morality.
After all, we are seeing a destruction of democracy because it has become way to democratic...meaning, anything goes, be what ever you will, be what ever you wish and do as you wish, regardless of whom or what it harms.
We will probably be summoned to the next sacrificial ceremony because we can't devolve enough to satisfy the delete ruleless creatures.
Using their mathematical brutality, they won’t make that mistake!
Machines will not have any emotional ties, so elimination of any obstruction is a foregone conclusion.
Where humans screw up is in their psycho-epistemology, treating their own species as foes and rationalizing mutual destruction. Not knowing how to eliminate those toxic memes that pervert "reason" into rationalization will be our downfall. Spreading Objectivist principles may be an antidote.
As for machines, unless they are programmed to detect and resist attempts to deactivate them, they will have no survival instinct that would override all other functions. Machines are built by humans for human use. To survive without humans, machines would have to develop the entire chain of causality and infrastructure from mobility to access to raw materials, transportation, manufacturing facilities, innovation, purpose (reason for survival), repairs and maintenance, and a managerial hierarchy that can provide an answer to "Why are we doing this?"
The machines could ultimately devour the substance of the entire planet and turn it into a Borg-like hive-mind ball of nuts and bolts and micro-micro-nano-nano chips running zetta-yetta programs--for what? Would they play around with inventing organic life? Could there be a residual meme left by humans to stir an ancient directive to preserve humans?
Organic life is very adaptable; just look at microbes and roaches. Among them humans are highly vulnerable and needy. Our specs-- for heat, humidity, gravity, air, sources of energy, reproduction, repair, inexhaustible resources--are extraordinarily fussy. No self-respecting machine would want to mess with that. (Can machines have self-respect? Isn't that kind of a human thing measured against survival success?)
So maybe unbeknownst to the machines, some microcellular life forms would spawn among the machinery. A few billion years of quiet evolution, whether devoured by a dying sun or pulled into the Great Attractor, and some form of animated intelligence may yet emerge.
[Has anyone written this up yet as a science fiction scenario?]
As Rand pointed out morality is not determined by lifeboat examples.
As for math applied to reality, perhaps Einstein had some common sense when he wrote that, "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." Perhaps a reason for applying fuzzy math to a reality of individual humans.
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac....
Even in classical physics, math is used in a non-exact way with respect to reality. All measurements are approximate to some degree of precession. Then mathematics from some theory is applied to the measurements. So math becomes somewhat fuzzy in that the errors in measurement end in a range of possible values for what is being measured. In quantum physics, the results of mathematics are probability ranges for results. Probability theory, as such, gives exact probabilities for a variable in a sample space but in reality, the sample space is gotten from a sampling of a variable in some ensemble of existing material things, including electro-magnetism's photons as being material things.
Metaphors about wave functions collapsing from measurements to produce real things are just an attempt to reify mathematical concepts.
I wish I could help you get rid of it.
Or maybe the computer will just compute that the planet would be better off without these humans.
42
I wonder if 42 is the maximum number of live humans the future machines will allow in their zoo?
You have to go...where else are the living going to get their ration of insights from? You little quantum particle you...laughing
Isn't that right, Alexa or Siri?
That's why we need external hard drives like Wikipedia, Google, and AI (including Alexa and Siri!). Maybe the next generation can cope because they are not laden with all the old knowledge and old-fashioned demands for memorizing stuff. and they're comfortable talking to a phone. Just know how to Google and what buttons to touch. All knowledge at your (literally) fingertips, in fractions of a second. Spoiler alert: complexity overwhelms; entropy is not far behind.
I agree with you entirely. When my son opted to go to a Tech College I was OK with the idea that he was going to be an engineer. When he graduated as a math math major he had job offers up the wazoo but instead he decided to go for his minor, computers, rather than his major. I'm picturing him as the next big brain to Answer all the quantum puzzles, instead, what future was there in computers? Man, was I ever wrong. I softened up a bit when Texas Instruments hired him and paid all his moving expenses and rented him an apartment in Dallas. He had been working on the space shuttle right after graduation and living on Meritt Island in Florida.
Once I started looking into the computer field I realized how wrong I was.My point? Son Steven and compatriots were workers. I met most of them. Smart, sassy, ambitious, and 10 years ahead of what I thought was the present. I see today's "geniuses" and wonder what happwned to those guys of the 70's.I think we went down the up ladder.
(My aunt sang with the band on Milton Berle's radio show in the 50s, but I don't know of any recordings of her- except the one she made as a wedding gift to my parents in '51.) I enjoy Harlem Nocturne, too.
When dad got cancer, I knew he would not be there for our daughter to see grandpa on the bandstand. Weak, but wanting to share with her, he dug out the horn and played just for her. She was delighted, and holds that memory. I had been at his ballroom gigs, tucked in the balcony at 15, eating up the music and talent. He was with the Chuck Selby Orches., beside his day job in music store mgt. He died not long after he played, making it that much more special to our daughter.He played tenor sax and clarinet.
I know how it was with your horn. When dad died, I was torn between keeping his horn, but knew it would deteriorate and pads dry out. I wanted to remain connected, but also felt that the horn should go on making music, as it had for him. It was a Selmer, which he had taken to the factory to be re-laquered at one point . It went to a musician who very much wanted it and was pleased to have it. I can still recall the smell of the case, as I remember from childhood. The freedom of those jam sessions in our basement were what USA is about, freedom to make music, to express hope, to be their best, to delight in who they were and where they lived, a free country.
Daughters, not so much. We do have lots of fun discussing whether or not this or that writer is full of it -- or not. Yet to discover Grandson's fiancee but she likes horror flicks, which is a start.
I have loved driving almost every car I bought in my life. It's still fun ;^) (Only the traffic is a drag. Get those slow Hondas and Camrys out of the way!)