[What2DO]

I recently spoke with a co-worker about A.I. he doesnt believe it will pose a danger to mankind.
Basically his point was computers won't have any emotions.
I would like to hear any of your thoughts about this topic.
I believe that once a computer has A.I. it will stop being a computer and start to turn into a living thing and will slowly start to have wants and from that emotions. But my co-worker thinks they will just delete that kind of information because its not logical. But once its self aware will a computer be able to control certain types of thought.

[I_Like_Plants]

Yep I was an A.I. nut until I learned about it - then when I learned about the obscene amounts of energy that go into anything modern, I realized there is really no reason to worry about, or hope for, A.I. to come and save/destroy us.

[Geko45]

Computers will never be self-aware. It is a physical impossibility. It will never happen with current technology. Digital computers condense everything down to simple numbers and basic operations. There is a reason it is called AI, it stands for "artificial intelligence" (as in not authentic). We may one day create a convincing simulation of a self-aware entity, but it will be no more conscious than the laptop I’m using today.

As for presenting a danger, well maybe. It all depends on how stupid we are. If we entrust an AI for critical tasks and remove human checks and balances then it won't matter that its artificial. It will still have the ability to mess things up. However, I can not imagine anyone entrusting such critical tasks to an AI that has been engineered to simulate emotion. Those AI will be designed for their intended purpose and if we don’t engineer them to simulate emotion then they won't just develop it all of a sudden.

The only real danger in implementing AIs is the same as it is today, human hackers. AI opens a whole new realm of mischief in this regard. An enemy that can hack an AI that is running an essential task can simply transplant a malicious purpose into the AI and allow the simulation to best determine the time and way to strike. A malicious AI has much greater potential for harm than any current virus.

In short, computers are tools and they always will be. It's not the tool that is the danger, it is what a human can do with it that is the real threat.

[cynicalheretic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')Each nerve cell in the human mind has up to 1,000 address, data and control paths (dendrites) compared to an intel processor limited to what? 64 plus a few.

[gw]

Artificial intelligence is not a danger to mankind. In fact, artificial intelligence is far better than no intelligence at all.

Take most of our leaders for example. Do they appear to possess signs of intelligence? They are responsible for making strategic decisions involving matters of life and death, but none of them can come even remotely close to beating a computer at a game of chess.

[crossthread]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'J')ust so you don't think the above is merely an anti-techie rant. Understand this.

Each nerve cell in the human mind has up to 1,000 address, data and control paths (dendrites) compared to an intel processor limited to what? 64 plus a few.

Each nerve cell contains inside it's nucleus it's own DNA, the program for the entire human body. Every nerve cell is a supercomputer.

Our brain and body contain billions of nerve cells.

A fly can land upside down on a ceiling.

[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('What2DO', 'I') recently spoke with a co-worker about A.I. he doesnt believe it will pose a danger to mankind.
Basically his point was computers won't have any emotions.
I would like to hear any of your thoughts about this topic.
I believe that once a computer has A.I. it will stop being a computer and start to turn into a living thing and will slowly start to have wants and from that emotions. But my co-worker thinks they will just delete that kind of information because its not logical. But once its self aware will a computer be able to control certain types of thought.

[Baldwin]

Assuming the future isn't 40 acres and a mule, the tremendous amounts of energy poured into the computer industry can, should, and probably will be diverted to agriculture, water supply, and trucking.

In a powerdown scenario, anything without immediate or tremendous potential benefit will be abandoned or dramatically scaled back. A computer that can feel happy or sad if it loses solitaire isn't on the top list of priorities for a world struggling to sustain our super-agriculture.

[Geko45]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Baldwin', 'A') computer that can feel happy or sad if it loses solitaire isn't on the top list of priorities for a world struggling to sustain our super-agriculture.

[TheDude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gw', 'A')rtificial intelligence is not a danger to mankind. In fact, artificial intelligence is far better than no intelligence at all.

Take most of our leaders for example. Do they appear to possess signs of intelligence? They are responsible for making strategic decisions involving matters of life and death, but none of them can come even remotely close to beating a computer at a game of chess.

[128shot]

The real trick is when computers and robotics merge with humanity itself-creating the ever loved "Borg". Really, that is the ultimate future

because humans don't want to be outdone by their own creations-AI will never rule in any sense.

[eric_b]

No I'm not worried because there is no such thing as AI at this point. Computers are able to solve limited constrained problems but they are not close to anything approaching a general 'intelligence'. We can't even define what intelligence is let alone how to go about recreating it on a computer.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Gecko45', '
')Computers will never be self-aware. It is a physical impossibility. It will never happen with current technology. Digital computers condense everything down to simple numbers and basic operations. There is a reason it is called AI, it stands for "artificial intelligence" (as in not authentic). We may one day create a convincing simulation of a self-aware entity, but it will be no more conscious than the laptop I’m using today.
(...)
In short, computers are tools and they always will be. It's not the tool that is the danger, it is what a human can do with it that is the real threat.

[entropyfails]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('What2DO', 'I') recently spoke with a co-worker about A.I. he doesnt believe it will pose a danger to mankind.
Basically his point was computers won't have any emotions.

[Narz]

link
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]A 'Frankenrobot' with a biological brain Aug 13 03:25 PM US/Eastern


Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue. Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday.

Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers told AFP.

"The purpose is to figure out how memories are actually stored in a biological brain," said Kevin Warwick, a professor at the University of Reading and one of the robot's principle architects.

Observing how the nerve cells cohere into a network as they fire off electrical impulses, he said, may also help scientists combat neurodegenerative diseases that attack the brain such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. "If we can understand some of the basics of what is going on in our little model brain, it could have enormous medical spinoffs," he said.

Looking a bit like the garbage-compacting hero of the blockbuster animation "Wall-E", Gordon has a brain composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurons. Once removed from rat foetuses and disentangled from each other with an enzyme bath, the specialised nerve cells are laid out in a nutrient-rich medium across an eight-by-eight centimetre (five-by-five inch) array of 60 electrodes.

This "multi-electrode array" (MEA) serves as the interface between living tissue and machine, with the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment.

Because the brain is living tissue, it must be housed in a special temperature-controlled unit -- it communicates with its "body" via a Bluetooth radio link.

The robot has no additional control from a human or computer.

From the very start, the neurons get busy. "Within about 24 hours, they start sending out feelers to each other and making connections," said Warwick.

"Within a week we get some spontaneous firings and brain-like activity" similar to what happens in a normal rat -- or human -- brain, he added. But without external stimulation, the brain will wither and die within a couple of months.

"Now we are looking at how best to teach it to behave in certain ways," explained Warwick. To some extent, Gordon learns by itself. When it hits a wall, for example, it gets an electrical stimulation from the robot's sensors. As it confronts similar situations, it learns by habit.

To help this process along, the researchers also use different chemicals to reinforce or inhibit the neural pathways that light up during particular actions. Gordon, in fact, has multiple personalities -- several MEA "brains" that the scientists can dock into the robot. "It's quite funny -- you get differences between the brains," said Warwick. "This one is a bit boisterous and active, while we know another is not going to do what we want it to."

Mainly for ethical reasons, it is unlikely that researchers at Reading or the handful of laboratories around the world exploring the same terrain will be using human neurons any time soon in the same kind of experiments.

But rats brain cells are not a bad stand-in: much of the difference between rodent and human intelligence, speculates Warwick, could be attributed to quantity not quality.

Rats brains are composed of about one million neurons, the specialised cells that relay information across the brain via chemicals called neurotransmitters. Humans have 100 billion. "This is a simplified version of what goes on in the human brain where we can look -- and control -- the basic features in the way that we want. In a human brain, you can't really do that," he said.

For colleague Ben Whalley, one of the fundamental questions facing scientists today is how to link the activity of individual neurons with the overwhelmingly complex behaviour of whole organisms.

"The project gives us a unique opportunity to look at something which may exhibit complex behaviours, but still remain closely tied to the activity of individual neurons," he said.

[Narz]

Here's a video link

[TheDude]

Bee dee bee dee bee dee...nice link, Buck.

"Rat brain," that was John Travolta's usual insult in the cinematic classic Battlefield Earth.

[miles392]

That's pretty scary, really don't like them using animals like that. Think it's pretty immoral and gross.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Narz', '[')url=http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080813192458.ud84hj9h&show_article=1]link[/url]
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]A 'Frankenrobot' with a biological brain Aug 13 03:25 PM US/Eastern


Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue. Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday.

Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers told AFP.

"The purpose is to figure out how memories are actually stored in a biological brain," said Kevin Warwick, a professor at the University of Reading and one of the robot's principle architects.

Observing how the nerve cells cohere into a network as they fire off electrical impulses, he said, may also help scientists combat neurodegenerative diseases that attack the brain such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. "If we can understand some of the basics of what is going on in our little model brain, it could have enormous medical spinoffs," he said.

Looking a bit like the garbage-compacting hero of the blockbuster animation "Wall-E", Gordon has a brain composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurons. Once removed from rat foetuses and disentangled from each other with an enzyme bath, the specialised nerve cells are laid out in a nutrient-rich medium across an eight-by-eight centimetre (five-by-five inch) array of 60 electrodes.

This "multi-electrode array" (MEA) serves as the interface between living tissue and machine, with the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment.

Because the brain is living tissue, it must be housed in a special temperature-controlled unit -- it communicates with its "body" via a Bluetooth radio link.

The robot has no additional control from a human or computer.

From the very start, the neurons get busy. "Within about 24 hours, they start sending out feelers to each other and making connections," said Warwick.

"Within a week we get some spontaneous firings and brain-like activity" similar to what happens in a normal rat -- or human -- brain, he added. But without external stimulation, the brain will wither and die within a couple of months.

"Now we are looking at how best to teach it to behave in certain ways," explained Warwick. To some extent, Gordon learns by itself. When it hits a wall, for example, it gets an electrical stimulation from the robot's sensors. As it confronts similar situations, it learns by habit.

To help this process along, the researchers also use different chemicals to reinforce or inhibit the neural pathways that light up during particular actions. Gordon, in fact, has multiple personalities -- several MEA "brains" that the scientists can dock into the robot. "It's quite funny -- you get differences between the brains," said Warwick. "This one is a bit boisterous and active, while we know another is not going to do what we want it to."

Mainly for ethical reasons, it is unlikely that researchers at Reading or the handful of laboratories around the world exploring the same terrain will be using human neurons any time soon in the same kind of experiments.

But rats brain cells are not a bad stand-in: much of the difference between rodent and human intelligence, speculates Warwick, could be attributed to quantity not quality.

Rats brains are composed of about one million neurons, the specialised cells that relay information across the brain via chemicals called neurotransmitters. Humans have 100 billion. "This is a simplified version of what goes on in the human brain where we can look -- and control -- the basic features in the way that we want. In a human brain, you can't really do that," he said.

For colleague Ben Whalley, one of the fundamental questions facing scientists today is how to link the activity of individual neurons with the overwhelmingly complex behaviour of whole organisms.

"The project gives us a unique opportunity to look at something which may exhibit complex behaviours, but still remain closely tied to the activity of individual neurons," he said.

[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Narz', '[')url=http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080813192458.ud84hj9h&show_article=1]link[/url]
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]A 'Frankenrobot' with a biological brain Aug 13 03:25 PM US/Eastern

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')Soul"? There's not farking "soul"! This is just the cellular machinery of information processing that nature has developed over about a billion years of evolution. There is nothing out there besides Energy, Matter, Space and Time! There is no non-physical universe that is known about or could be known about.