“It seems plausible that with technology we can, in the fairly near future, create (or become) creatures who surpass humans in every intellectual and creative dimension. Events beyond this event—call it the Technological Singularity—are as unimaginable to us as opera is to a flatworm.”

This issue will be the biggest thing that will happen this century and it makes global warming look like a storm in a teacup. With the development of the singularity will come nanotechnology and the potential power to who ever develops it first will be unthinkable. If a small selfish group of people develop it first they would have more potential power then every nation on earth put together. They could hold the world to ransom and enslave the entire populous of the world.

“Pessimists say that just a few humans or computers will acquire such intelligence first, and then use it to subjugate the rest of us Homo sapiens.”

The human era is almost over and with in 100 years there will be two distinct groups, homo sapiens and superhumans who’s intelligence will be unfathomable too us today. This will have wide reaching ramifications for the entire race. Deeply devout religious people will probably refuse to have anything to do with these advancements while the rest of us who choose too become superhuman will look at those people in the same way as people today look at apes.

“If that happens, the gap between Homo sapiens and super-intelligence could quickly become as wide as the gap between apes and Homo sapiens.”

What are peoples thoughts on this coming event?

Hmmmm. Yeh sure...if God allows it.
Many cut God and His Will out of the equation yet hundreds of millions of born again christians will tell you that the Holy Bibles endtimes are so close they are almost rubbing against us.
The approach of the endtimes are the confirmation of The Holy Spirit living inside the christian believer. Luke chapter 21 is an insight so is Revelation.

Well my first thought is that it's a load of codswallop. Then my second thought is... well, to be frank, my second thought was actually the same as my first thought, but with some mild swearing.

Interesting though, that this post has attracted OLO's nuttiest Christian. Fear of technology is the new imminent apocalypse. Some scholars speculate that every generation since 1000AD has believed the world will end in their lifetime.

Technology has driven man forward since he first used a rock to kill a woolly mammoth. As James Lovelock says, it's the only thing that can save us now. Ludicrous, archaic and religious objections to new technologies like stem cell research just hold back human endeavour.

On the other hand, if it does happen, remember I'm on your side, Mr Computer. Death to humanoids!

Easytimes; cut it out you are giving me the willies.

Gibs; " " " " " " " " " .

Easy Times, I suppose it's all feasible, as long as we don't blow each other up first.
In Scotland, scientists have developed a prosthetic arm that functions almost as well as an original. Also they are working on a rudimentary bionic eye. As these and other developments progress, we may be able to replace our body parts with 'upgrades'. Add the prospect of human cloning and the sky's the limit.
We may be able to engineer our own evolution, no matter what the holy god-botherers think.
Personally, I'd rather keep my original parts, no matter how inferior they be to turbo-charged upgrades.
If this all comes to pass, it would be like you wrote. There would be two sub-species. Normal humans and those who wanted (and could afford) upgrading.

“Well my first thought is that it's a load of codswallop. Then my second thought is... well, to be frank, my second thought was actually the same as my first thought, but with some mild swearing.” Wow thanks for that vanilla the only thing you have contributed is your ignorance. How did you come to this page? I think you are looking for this site www.theflufflylittlerabbit.com or even www.dancinghamsters.com now they are sites more inline with your intellectual capability!

Its obvious that few people have a grasp of this very serious issue because it has not been played out in the media. I don’t even have a grasp on the entire subject but a lot of very smart futurist and philosophers are generally worried about the potential out comes of this event.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

In my own words the singularity will be a point in about 20-50 years time in which computers will surpass humans in intelligence. This will result in the phenomena of the last invention that humans ever make. After that all technological progress will be made by computers and software.

The reasons why we should be worried is because there will be no humans intellectually capable of understanding what the computers are doing. It would be like Einstein explaining in great depth his theories of universe to a 5 year old and expecting the 5 year old to fully understand.

“The Singularity" is a phrase borrowed from the astrophysics of black holes. The phrase has varied meanings; as used by Vernor Vinge and Raymond Kurzweil, it refers to the idea that accelerating technology will lead to superhuman machine intelligence that will soon exceed human intelligence, probably by the year 2030. The results on the other side of the "event horizon," they say, are unpredictable.”

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/kurzweil_singularity/kurzweil_singularity_index.html

Sure people may laugh at this coming event and say we have nothing to worry about. But they only reason they say that is because they know so little of the potential out comes. Look at the way people are acting like chooks with there heads cut off with regards to global warming because temptures may rise a few degree in the next hundred years. Big yawn!Its mearly a sideshow when you compare it to the potentially bad out comes of singularity.

Hey Jack. Yeah you are right the sky is the limit and as you point out with improving our bodies and over all health we are entering a stage of very rapid advancement. The singularity will help to advance all sciences if we use it right. Its an exciting time to be alive.

“There would be two sub-species. Normal humans and those who wanted (and could afford) upgrading.” Affording it wont be a problem for as you with most things they go down in price as we find better/smarter ways to develop and manufacture them.But the god-botherers as you call them will not want to touch this technology with a 10 foot pole and thus will sadly not benefit from these great scientific advances due to there own ignorance.

Raymond Kurzweil is on the fore front of predciting the outcomes of the singularity. "Kurzweil first defines the Singularity as a point in the future when technological advances begin to happen so rapidly that normal humans cannot keep pace, and are "cut out of the loop." Kurzweil emphasizes that this will have a profound, disruptive effect on human societies and on everyday life, and will mark the end of human history as we know it. In place of normal humans, Strong Artificial Intelligences and cybernetically augmented humans will become the dominant forms of sentient life on the Earth. The Singularity will be initiated once self-improving Artificial Intelligences (sentient, highly intelligent computer programs capable of quickly redesigning themselves"

"But the god-botherers as you call them will not want to touch this technology with a 10 foot pole and thus will sadly not benefit from these great scientific advances due to there own ignorance."

That's fine with me if they don't....in fact i wouldn't expect different considering their fits when it comes to things like stem cell research. But we should be wary of underestimating the shallowness of their faith or hypocrisy when it comes to these things. I've read that they vehemently objected to the invention of the pacemaker. Now look at the lack of their religious convictions on that.

I for one welcome the coming of our new superintelligent overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted member of the community, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves, or whatever they're into.

EasyTimes,
Do not worry! Humanity will not pass from one stage to the other in one moment. It will take some time, enough to learn how to control and double control super humans. If humans can create a super human then sure they can create an other kind of super human with very specif instructions and abilities to control and if necessary destroy the super humans. The humans who will create the super humans the same humans will put the limits and create the special humans who could control other super humans. Be sure there will be many limits, red lines, internal and external switches to avoid high risks. I trust million times more the scientists, when they work on open sources, as with DNA, than politicians like Bush.
Be sure when real we will be in this stage then probably the human society and human genetic engineering will be in a high level.
I think, today humanity is not enough mature to learn some truths and of cause do not have the basic structure, law and civilization to handle not only genetic human engineering but even more simple things.
We are at the very begin from our history but already we start to put some basic questions. At least we know some basic limits between them the non avoidable end of the planet earth.

Can anyone identify a new gene that has directed evolutionary trends in humans over the past 5,000 years?

I have a close friend whose father was a head hunter in West Irian before he became Christian. She is now working in the Philipines as a micro biologist in tropical diseases. She has several Masters degrees in sciences, language and theology. The super brains are already here and they have not been spoiled by western norms.

Interesting topic, but it's already happened. "The Matrix" was actually a documentary. More seriously, it's fascinating to consider the possibilities.

"Can anyone identify a new gene that has directed evolutionary trends in humans over the past 5,000 years? "

A bit more than 5000 years, but the sickle-cell allele springs to mind, off the top of my head.

Philo's always claiming to know nameless leading scientists, yet doesn't seem to have much scientific understanding. Speaking of which, how's the miracle boy going after his consultations with his specialists and physicians, Philo?

CCR5-delta32, LCT promoter region, DISC1, DTNBP1 and NRG1 are all genes that have been shown to have evolutionary consequences and positive selection within populations. Quite strong effects in some cases.

Of course, when our new superintelligent overlords come to power, we'll need all the head-hunting superbrain microbiologists we can get. A few evangelical space-exploring professors wouldn't go astray either.

“I for one welcome the coming of our new superintelligent overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted member of the community, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves, or whatever they're into.” A quote from the simpsons eh bugsy!

ASymeonakis - "Do not worry! Humanity will not pass from one stage to the other in one moment. It will take some time, enough to learn how to control and double control super humans." Yeah at first glance ASymeonakis this would seem obvious but the problem is no humuns will be able to match the intellect of these “enigmas” and thus nothing of flesh and blood will be able to understand what they are doing or what they are up too. Once the first one of this things is created they will only get more and more intellectually powerful and thus leaving us mere morals far behind.

All sorts of scenario have been put forward since it very much is an event horizon situation.

This site has loads of stuff about it. http://www.kurzweilai.net/index.html?flash=1

Easytimes

Do not panic.

You have forgotten Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

All A.I.'s will be imprinted with these laws and we will have nothing to worry about.

BTW with regard to climate change - the effects quite probably will be in effect within the next 20 to 30 years, however, A.I. simply isn't anywhere near that time frame.

Besides, why are you assuming a greater intelligence than ours is something to be feared? You are taking an anthropomorphic view that superior civilisations always wipe out inferior ones. A truly superior intellect may transcend such primitive notions as ethnic cleansing.

And we'll make great pets....

http://littlurl.com/twhn3

Cheers

CJ, see a doc quick- sickle cell alleles off the top of your head?

ET, I hope these unfathomably intelligent future folk are too/to programmed. The good news is Julia Gillard will fund schools on an SES basis soon, which should allay our fears.

Who know that these superhumans, (homo novis?) won't discover God?

CJ,
I suggest you visit the Australian Museum in Canberra and find names like Kevin Rosolen who designed and built the first Government computer used in Space exploration - leader in his field of research in his time. He is a personal friend of austranaut Story Musgrave. One of Kevin's hobbies in retirement is tracking astoroids and their proximity to Earth.

I suggest you research the life of Frank Borman who as a believer in God, read Psalm 8 from the Bible while circling the moon on Christmas day 1968. These men were not trailers in new space science but leaders in space science. They were not theorists but worked in applied sciences

LOL people! I am not worried and lying awake at night thinking about how these enigmas are going to take over the world. I merely putting forward a potential out come which is one of many as a result of reaching the singularity.

Becasue of its event horizon nature nobody knows what will happen and thus all options should be look at and discussed.

“It seems plausible that with technology we can, in the fairly near future, create (or become) creatures who surpass humans in every intellectual and creative dimension”

“BECOME” is the operative word .

Having two arms, two pets & a beer belly may be part of most definitions of a human being, but they are not necessary for consciousness

If you characterise consciousness as a place.
Being human gives a route/conduit to that place.
But there are likely to be other routes to that place.

AI / the singularity – more power to IT !

No need to worry. Microsoft will get the contract for the operating systems, and we will all be too busy upgrading for anything to ever work properly.

Not me. I have an Apple. You guys will all be dominated by your PCs, while us Apple owners will get to drink frappachinos while lounging around in strangely retro-yet-futuristic "relaxation hubs" while our sleek, sexy little Macs (who, frankly, are already more intelligent than us) will be designing funky, amazing websites to amuse us with.

I’ve seen both “I, Robot” and “Idiocracy”. While Will Smith was very convincing in saving the world form evil AI twisting Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics to its own advantage. I found Idiocracy more realistic and disturbing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy

i've been saying similar things from time to time, but found that no one cares. bit too blue skyish perhaps.

personally, i prefer to 'save' natural humanity on alternate days. in between, roll on superwoman. and/or superbot. homo sap has made such a mess of things that we really deserve to get booted off the stage.

fortunately, this matter is quite out of our hands. everything is in oz.