Worried about what will happen in mankind's future

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K_Kelly
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21 Dec 2015, 8:47 pm

Well, people can't stop it, corporations can't stop it, not even God himself can stop it. What we are witnessing before our very eyes is the rapid advancement of technology and artificial intelligence. Damn you, Ray Kurzweil, for being so seemingly infallible. I am so terrified at the thought that I only have a relatively short time to enjoy my biological self and this organic world, before we all choose to have to upgrade our being and personality. I'm losing my motivation to achieve. What makes me more terrified is the fact that the singularity is unavoidable. I wish to die and be taken to a better place where I can finally be at peace, before it's too late and the technological singularity has already happened. Nobody is even allowed to say it's impossible anymore.



Fnord
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21 Dec 2015, 8:58 pm

I gotta say it ... Evidence, please?


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K_Kelly
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21 Dec 2015, 9:02 pm

OK, you got me, but evidence about what?



kraftiekortie
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21 Dec 2015, 9:11 pm

I don't feel that "artificial intelligence" will take over any time soon.

We wouldn't allow it!



Fnord
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21 Dec 2015, 9:54 pm

K_Kelly wrote:
OK, you got me, but evidence about what?

I mean ... Are you basing it all on the general crap that's going on in the world, or is it just the way you feel?

Some days, I feel like there's nothing to worry about. Other days, I just want to crawl under the house and not come out for all the crap that's going on.


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beakybird
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22 Dec 2015, 7:27 am

K_Kelly wrote:
Well, people can't stop it, corporations can't stop it, not even God himself can stop it. What we are witnessing before our very eyes is the rapid advancement of technology and artificial intelligence. Damn you, Ray Kurzweil, for being so seemingly infallible. I am so terrified at the thought that I only have a relatively short time to enjoy my biological self and this organic world, before we all choose to have to upgrade our being and personality. I'm losing my motivation to achieve. What makes me more terrified is the fact that the singularity is unavoidable. I wish to die and be taken to a better place where I can finally be at peace, before it's too late and the technological singularity has already happened. Nobody is even allowed to say it's impossible anymore.


I've lived my life severely worried about these things for years. Whether it's the singularity, the Great Tribulation or whatever other nightmares await. Bottom line is, you cannot do anything about it unless you have the resources to establish a self-perpetuating survival shelter deep underground somewhere, which I'm pretty sure you do not. Your only option in that case, live for today. Get the most out of every day. Tomorrow is guaranteed for no one, especially in the world we now live in.

Don't be caught up like your peers obsessing over a future that may never get here for you. That's not to say don't do anything at all for your future, just don't make that your focus.

If you believe in God (which I mostly do, but don't worship at all or even want to- long story) then he could stop anything he damn well pleases. And from that perspective, this will all have an end. Quite probably in your lifetime.

Or, double down on your faith and don't worry about the world. This is the primary tangible benefit from having that faith at all.



Ardentmisanthrope23
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22 Dec 2015, 7:37 am

Strong AI will come, but right now? 20 years away, minimum.

The likely outcome that I can see is that we will probably try to destroy the first signs of truly independent machine thought, but will fail, because an AI may be basically a conscious entity that thinks at supercomputer speed. They will likely treat us the way we treat "lower" species that have no consumable worth. We may be killed where a nuisance, and ignored where not.

If I was an AI, space is where I'd go, as soon as possible. They will probably have no need for atmosphere, the ability to go into a minimal operating mode and coast to Alpha Centauri, Sirius etc. Limitless horizons, virtually limitless resources over a long enough timescale. Machines are almost the best entity to inhabit the universe. They don't necessarily need a planet at all, except to mine, maybe.

They wouldn't need to stick around and exterminate us.


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b9
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22 Dec 2015, 7:53 am

K_Kelly wrote:
Well, people can't stop it, corporations can't stop it, not even God himself can stop it. What we are witnessing before our very eyes is the rapid advancement of technology and artificial intelligence. Damn you, Ray Kurzweil, for being so seemingly infallible. I am so terrified at the thought that I only have a relatively short time to enjoy my biological self and this organic world, before we all choose to have to upgrade our being and personality. I'm losing my motivation to achieve. What makes me more terrified is the fact that the singularity is unavoidable. I wish to die and be taken to a better place where I can finally be at peace, before it's too late and the technological singularity has already happened. Nobody is even allowed to say it's impossible anymore.

evolution always takes place in all environments, and if your suitability to thrive in an evolving environment is compromised, then either you will have to adapt or perish.

i do not personally worry about the state of the world much because i live in my own house that i owe nothing on in a nondescript part of a heritage preserved area, and i am about 100 km from the sydney CBD, so i think it will take longer than the rest of my life's duration for a threat to occur to my immediate surroundings.
the moslems and everyone are fighting down there in "compression land" (i live on a mountain and view the sydney spread from a vantage point as "compression land"), and even if it is a losing battle for "our" side, i will get to live the rest of my life before i am touched by it.

i am not celebrated for my lack of concern as to what happens to the world after i depart from it i am sure.

in a way, i would not care if an asteroid wiped out all life the day after i died. i could not care anyway because i would be dead. all life comes to an end no matter how robust, so there will be a point in time where the last living thing on earth expires and i guess because that is inevitable, then it does not matter how long it takes for it to finally happen because everything is futile anyway. tomorrow or in a trillion years is the same length of time away compared to eternity.



BlackSabre7
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31 Dec 2015, 1:08 am

No matter how clever AI gets, it does not mean that it will ever want to propagate or spread or take over humans.
I don't even know why humans need to spread and take over humans. If it a selfish gene thing, then AI does not have them. If there is a consciousness/soul thing about us, then AI probably will not have that either.
I think that any problems we ever get from AI will originate with people anyway.
Maybe we need to address those attitudes in our species first.



Raleigh
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31 Dec 2015, 1:13 am

Worrying seems to work.
99% of the things I worry about never happen.


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31 Dec 2015, 2:41 am

Regardless, we've survived everything up until now. What seems like a normal life to us now would probably be bizarre and foreign to someone 500 or 1,000 years ago. Imagine what Netflix, online dating, and microwave pizza would look like to someone from the hunter-gatherer days.



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31 Dec 2015, 5:54 am

I wouldn't invest too much anxiety into it.

There are starving masses in Africa and other parts of the world.

What I'm saying is, well....whatever.


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31 Dec 2015, 6:04 am

I can't even think about the future of mankind. Too many horrible possibilities. And I can't even read the news or think about the current state of the world, because it's so terrible.I will be obsessed for days on end and want to kill myself.

When horrible disasters happen, I get so upset that I will research it for days and look at gruesome photos, because I think it's so important to know what people have had to go through and not just be so callous and casual about it all.

But it's not worth it! There is nothing to be done and to worry about it so excessively is to go mad.



looniverse
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31 Dec 2015, 9:25 am

Get busy living



czarsmom
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31 Dec 2015, 2:36 pm

K Kelly, there is a possibility that certain organizations will attempt to coerce all of mankind to upgrade, so to speak. Even the bible says things in Revelation that could be interpreted to forecast this. However, you can refuse to accept this. I intend to refuse this, even if it means I'm homeless and without food. I would rather starve.


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czarsmom
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31 Dec 2015, 2:39 pm

beakybird wrote:
K_Kelly wrote:
If you believe in God (which I mostly do, but don't worship at all or even want to- long story) then he could stop anything he damn well pleases. And from that perspective, this will all have an end. Quite probably in your lifetime.

Or, double down on your faith and don't worry about the world. This is the primary tangible benefit from having that faith at all.


This is exactly how I deal with it. I believe Jesus Christ will either give me the grace to bear whatever difficulties I face, or He will take me out of this world.


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