03-12-2024, 04:04 AM
(03-10-2024, 04:56 PM)Maxmars Wrote: Very true, I think.
We even imagined "artificial beings" back in Homeric Times (Hephaestus' "Golden Maidens.")
“In their hearts there is intelligence, and they have voice and vigor, and from the immortal gods they have learned skills. These bustled about supporting their master.”
So, it's no wonder that people have been "thinking about" AI, especially the logicians, and system designing types. In more "modern times" even by the 1920's (with the Ising Model) the groundwork for the framework was being set (mathematically speaking.)
Now I would be remiss if I didn't wonder about how far we must have come since then. That's another question entirely. What passes for AI in the media is not "appropriate" to the reality... but they are relentless... almost like they're "selling" something, no?
Humans are curious. creative critters.
What is more worthy of curiosity than intelligence? What is that spark that allows us to imagine, analyze, and predict? We can comprehend mathematics and explain many of the workings of the world around us in great technical detail, but at the same time we struggle to comprehend all of the world around us. Then we see animals, acting solely on instinct often, and realize that the thing that allows us to comprehend their actions must be incomprehensible to them. So we know intelligence has a range, and we know that despite our intellectual superiority on this planet, we are not as intelligent as we could be.
Indeed, in my early years, things which seemed so simple to me seemed to be beyond the comprehension of others, Things that I could not fathom seemed to be simple, almost instinctual, to others.
Is it any wonder that we then imagine beings that are superior to us intellectually? And, seeing the irrational acts of humanity all around us, is it any wonder that we would yearn to learn from those intellectually superior to us? This is the basis of religion, belief in alien visitation, universal karma, etc. With the advent of the information age and the advances in computing, it seems to me to be completely reasonable for the uneducated masses to imagine machines that can help teach us how to be a better society. After all, we can create/control machines whereas we cannot create/control a god or visiting aliens.
And that's another aspect of human nature: we want to control our environment.
The media knows this. The media uses this tendency to control us, following the orders of the politicians and elite in society. They, in turn, know that a people will trust a machine that is regarded as infallible more than another person. So AI is used as a means to that control. After al, our computers can help us with anything from finding the best gas prices to learning a hobby to finding the permeability of free space. If it is so omnipotent with information, why can it not also be intelligent? Is not intelligence akin to unlimited knowledge?
It's not... but many have come to believe it is.
Therein lies the true danger of AI. As a servant, it is useful to help us collate vast amounts of information, but as a master it is unfeeling, uncaring, and quite likely the greatest existential threat mankind has ever faced... moreso than even religion, because religion requires faith. Machines obviously exist... no faith required.
TheRedneck
