Robots could outnumber Humans in just 15 years and will feel ‘genuine emotions’ by 2028
BOT TO THE FUTURE Robots could outnumber HUMANS in just
15 years and will feel ‘genuine emotions’ by 2028
Are we just a few years away from a droid doomsday? One
expert on the future of humanity says it's a real possibility...
By Sean Keach, Digital Technology and Science Editor
23rd April 2018, 10:12 am j8Updated: 23rd April 2018,
3:39 pm
THERE could be more robots than humans on Earth by 2033,
according to a leading futurologist.
Dr Ian Pearson says the risks of a robot takeover are
very real, and that we're only a few years away from robots having
"genuine emotions".
According to Dr Pearson, Earth's robot population will
grow to 9.4 billion in the next 30 years, and will overtake humanity by the
year 2048.
But it could happen even sooner.
"Today the global robot population is probably
around 57 million.
"That will grow quickly in the foreseeable future,
and by 2048 robots will overtake humans.
"If we allow for likely market acceleration, that
could happen as early as 2033.
"By 2028, some of those robots will already be
starting to feel genuine emotions and to respond to us emotionally," he
added.
A study of 2,000 Brits revealed that 71 per cent of us
"fear the rise of artificially intelligent robots".
And the survey, commissioned by Sky's Now TV, found that
six in ten Brits believe that "robots are a threat to the future of
humanity".
It also showed how more than half of us believe
scientists won't be able to control the rise of sentient robots.
Back in February, Dr Pearson told The Sun that robots may
eventually "treat humans like guinea pigs".
"We'll have trained [artificial intelligence] to be
like us, trained it to feel emotions like us, but it won't be like us. It will
be a bit like aliens off Star Trek – smarter and more calculated in its
actions.
"It will be insensitive to humans, viewing us as
barbaric. So when it decides to carry out its own experiments, with viruses
that it's created, it will treat us like guinea pigs."
Here are the five main reasons why Brits are scared of
robots:
·
43% fear robots will take control of society
·
37% worry that robots could become more
intelligent than humans
·
34% are concerned that robots could reduce their
chances of getting a new job
·
25% are scared that they won't be able to tell
robots and humans apart
·
16% think there's a risk humans could one day
have relationships with robots
But it's entirely possible that humans will eventually
become robots, rather than living at loggerheads with them.
In February, Dr Pearson told The Sun that humans are
close to achieving "immortality" – the ability to never die – thanks
to robot tech.
"There are quite a lot of people interested in
living forever," he explained.
"There always has been, but the difference now is
tech is improving so quickly, lots of people believe they can actually do it."
He revealed that one way to extend life would be to use
bio-technologies and medicine to "keep renewing the body, and rejuvenating
it".
"No one wants to live forever at 95 years old, but
if you could rejuvenate the body to 29 or 30, you might want to do that."
But rather than simply augmenting our bodies with machine
parts, we're more likely – so says Dr Pearson – to actually inhabit robot
bodies with digital versions of our brains.
"A long time before we get to fix our bodies and
rejuvenate it every time we feel like, we'll be able to link our minds to the
machine world so well, we'll effectively be living in the cloud," he told
The Sun.
"The mind will basically be in the cloud, and be
able to use any android that you feel like to inhabit the real world."
He says that in 50 years time, we might be able to hire
an android anywhere in the world "just like a hire car", and upload
your consciousness into it.
"If you wanted to spend the evening in Australia,
going to the Sydney opera house, you could use an android."
Are you scared of the robot revolution? Let us know in
the comments!
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