FutureTech: Donovan's Brain or Borg? MIT assesses the coming IQ Singularity

[ahhaa]

Everybody knows smart people, and we also prob'ly know smart people with power. But that's not all it takes to make a worthwhile or even successful human being.

MIT is gearing up for what is called the Singularity- the change in human culture that will happen when technology and the brain actually combine to give us vastly increased IQs. It is predicted in the next couple decades, and will change everything.

Here's some of what they said at the MIT Singularity Summit last weekend:
An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense "intuitive linear" view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate). The "returns," such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There's even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth.
Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity — technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3029

Sound like SciFi? this's from the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence:

What is the Singularity? Sometime in the next few years or decades, humanity will become capable of surpassing the upper limit on intelligence that has held since the rise of the human species. We will become capable of technologically creating smarter-than-human intelligence, perhaps through enhancement of the human brain, direct links between computers and the brain, or Artificial Intelligence. This event is called the "Singularity" by analogy with the singularity at the center of a black hole - just as our current model of physics breaks down when it attempts to describe the center of a black hole, our model of the future breaks down once the future contains smarter-than-human minds. Since technology is the product of cognition, the Singularity is an effect that snowballs once it occurs - the first smart minds can create smarter minds, and smarter minds can produce still smarter minds.

Why does the Singularity matter? The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence was created in the belief that the Singularity represents a tremendous opportunity to accomplish good. The Singularity may offer a new opportunity to solve fundamental problems, not just by creating new technologies, but by increasing the intelligence with which we solve problems. For the first time, there is the possibility of humans using technology to become, not only healthier and wealthier and longer-lived, but smarter. At last it will be possible for our intelligence to grow along with our technology. We believe a world that realizes these possibilities is a better world, one of the best possible futures for humanity.
more at: http://www.singinst.org/

Michael Coney once wrote a short story, 'Friends come in Boxes' about all the spare human brains needing to earn their keep, and being used as traffic signal controllers & the like...

what do you think is the Shape of Things to Come?
& if it does happen would you rather be installed, or have it installed in you?

[jagabo]

Yes, but we are not smart enough to realise the true consequences of the singularity. So there's no point.