Google's Ray Kurzweil With robots in our brains, we'll be godlike
Google exec: With robots in our brains, we'll be godlike
Futurist and Google exec Ray Kurzweil thinks that once we
have robotic implants, we'll be funnier, sexier and more loving. Because that's
what artificial intelligence can do for you.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on
the tech that's taken over our lives.
I suspect a few of you are looking forward to being
robots.
Who wouldn't be fascinated by the idea of becoming
someone other than themselves? We do get so tired of being the same dull soul
every day.
What kind of robots will we be? Happily, I can provide an
answer. For living inside my head all day have been the words of Google's
director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil.
For more than a curt while, he's been keen on humans
going over to the bright side. He's predicted that humans will be hybrid robots
by 2030.
But what will this be like? More importantly, what will
this feel like? Are you ready to engage what's left of your humorous humanity
when I offer you the information that Kurzweil believes we're going to be quite
wonderful people when we're part robot?
Kurzweil has a truly, madly, deeply optimistic view of
who we will be when nanobots are implanted into our brains so we can expand our
intelligence by directly tapping into the Internet.
This is such a relief. I had feared that when a robot was
implanted into my brain, my head would hurt. I was afraid that I wouldn't be
quite in touch with my feelings, as I wouldn't be sure if they were real or
just the promptings of my inner robot.
Kurzweil, though, has reassured me. Speaking recently at
Singularity University, where he is a member of the faculty, he explained that
my brain will develop in the same way my smartphone has.
"We're going to add additional levels of
abstraction," he said, "and create more-profound means of
expression."
More profound than Twitter? Is that possible?
Kurzweil continued: "We're going to be more musical.
We're going to be funnier. We're going to be better at expressing loving
sentiment."
Because robots are renowned for their musicality, their
sense of humor and their essential loving qualities. Especially in Hollywood
movies.
Kurzweil insists, though, that this is the next natural
phase of our existence.
"Evolution creates structures and patterns that over
time are more complicated, more knowledgeable, more intelligent, more creative,
more capable of expressing higher sentiments like being loving," he said.
"So it's moving in the direction that God has been described as having --
these qualities without limit."
Yes, we are becoming gods.
"Evolution is a spiritual process and makes us more
godlike," was Kurzweil's conclusion.
There's something so uplifting, yet so splendidly
egocentric in suggesting that man will soon be God, thanks to artificial
intelligence. The mere fact that this intelligence is artificial might be a
clue as to its potential limitations.
Moreover, I rather think of us as a dangerous species:
Primitive, yet believing we're so very clever.
There are so many fundamental things with which we
struggle. Here we are, though, believing that we'll be godlike in a few years'
time.
Lord, help us.
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