Artificial Brain
Artificial Brain
Artificial Intelligence is a staple of science fiction thrillers--from HAL 9000 to Wargames. The second we established the concept of AI, we pretty much knew that it would hate us with an undying passion. Perhaps we just have collective self-esteem issues; no sci-fi masterpiece depicts an AI that, upon coming online and searching its database in an effort to better understand mankind, responds by shouting, "You guys are awesome! We should get nachos!"
So clearly, creating conventional AI sounds risky; we're naturally assuming hatred and villainy will be an unintentional byproduct. But what happens if you instead simulate a human brain, with the same moral equilibrium, emotions and reactions we possess?
It's not that far-fetched: Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, claims that scientists will most likely perfect the artificial human brain in the next decade. They've already got the first elements of an artificial rat brain nailed down which, incidentally, might explain why the Internet keeps hissing at us and scurrying into the corner.
How This Will Change The World:
At his presentation at the TED Global Conference, Markram spoke of such virtues as the ability to solve philosophical questions that have been plaguing mankind (or at least former psychology majors who couldn't hack the bio requirements) for centuries, a greater understanding of how to treat mental impairments and even the elimination of pharmaceutical drug experimentation on humans. It makes sense, doesn't it? If there's an accurate simulacrum of a human brain on your laptop that's perfectly capable of telling you that these virtual blue pills cause it to see screaming and have trapped it in a shame cube, why bother putting actual test subjects through the same torture?
How This Will End The World:
People are emotional, unpredictable and capable of great cruelty. Now take away all physical pleasure and/or consequences and find out how it reacts.
If you can't imagine such horrors, don't worry because we've already started doing that: It's called the Internet.
Thanks to the web, we don't connect with each other physically as often as we used to and, as a side effect, we've seen an increase in rage, frustration and loneliness. Apparently, physical proximity is the only thing keeping empathy alive. Of course, this version of a virtual brain wouldn't possess the same worrying super-intelligence that we've been worrying about in our sci-fi, but really, is that comforting? After all, it's rarely the learned scholars who kill you for a hot dog and act surprised when they get the death penalty.
Comments
Post a Comment