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Future technology predictions essay
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This research paper will discuss the hypothetical technological explosion of infinite knowledge in the near future or The Singularity, and how it contrasts with the metanarratives of Christianity and Islam, as well as how it could affect our society as a whole.
Imagine a time in the future where you get out of bed, tell your television to turn on, pour a cup of coffee, and have the daily news read to you aloud. Afterwards, you walk toward your car, which unlocks and opens for you and starts when you sit in, and drive off to work. As your driving and listening to the radio, which knows exactly what you want to hear, everything starts to become unclear. Your radio cuts off, as well as your car, and your cellphone isn’t working either. You then start to realize that everyone around you is experiencing this inconvenience as well, and even the streetlights are out of order. Now, in this moment a lot of things could be happening, such as the end of the world, alien invasion, the zombie apocalypse, or perhaps even the rapture. One thing that might not come to mind is something called The Singularity.
What is The Singularity you might ask? It is something quite peculiar, and I think computer scientist Irvin John Good gives a perspective on it. “Let an ultra intelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man, however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultra intelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an “intelligence explosion,” and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultra intelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make” (Cole-Turner 790). In...
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...h the soul of a person. Christians will continue to believe that Jesus will still come back and bring his judgment. There is a verse in the book of Matthew that I found interesting and relates to the topic, “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Matthew 24:22). This verse can be interpreted to mean that the Second Coming of Jesus will arrive just before the human race manages to destroy itself. However, it could also mean that "no flesh will be saved" because the human race will transform or renew itself into a race of post-biological humans or cyborgs with the intent on reshaping the universe according their own desires. Regardless of the religious perspectives, scientists believe that the time left for the people who have faith or believe in religion is numbered.
The official foundations for "artificial intelligence" were set forth by A. M. Turing, in his 1950 paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" wherein he also coined the term and made predictions about the field. He claimed that by 1960, a computer would be able to formulate and prove complex mathematical theorems, write music and poetry, become world chess champion, and pass his test of artificial intelligences. In his test, a computer is required to carry on a compelling conversation with humans, fooling them into believing they are speaking with another human. All of his predictions require a computer to think and reason in the same manner as a human. Despite 50 years of effort, only the chess championship has come true. By refocusing artificial intelligence research to a more humanlike, cognitive model, the field will create machines that are truly intelligent, capable of meet Turing's goals. Currently, the only "intelligent" programs and computers are not really intelligent at all, but rather they are clever applications of different algorithms lacking expandability and versatility. The human intellect has only been used in limited ways in the artificial intelligence field, however it is the ideal model upon which to base research. Concentrating research on a more cognitive model will allow the artificial intelligence (AI) field to create more intelligent entities and ultimately, once appropriate hardware exists, a true AI.
This Singularity would raise all people from poverty, destroy any possibility of war, and bring a new era of harmony to the world. It may also be our downfall if AI is
Knowledge is a fundamental component of being human. The ability to comprehend information, apply it to the future as well as understand the past, is remarkable. Without knowledge, there could be no critical thinking, empathy, or technological progress. This is an incredible ingredient of our makeup that touches every aspect of human life, and arguably the ingredient that makes us human. The great scholars and philosophers have understood this for thousands of years and have documented as such in their works. From the Biblical Genesis, which is said to represent the first humans, to popular fables, Homer’s Odyssey, and Dante’s Inferno, this message is made clear. Knowledge is the key construct that defines man
Cobb, Kurt. "The Singularity: The Fantasy and Its Effect." Resource Insights. Blogspot, 4 Dec. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2011.
Since the beginning of time, religion has played one of the most significant roles within human existence and has been believed to be the source whereby our governing laws have been derived. However, dating back to as early as the 3rd to 6th century, Greek philosophers inclusive of Diagoras of Melos, Euhemerus, alongside the schools of Hindu philosophy, Samkhya and the Greek Cyrenaic School were all amongst some of the first who did not accept the idea of God (Friedrich, 1942, 25). In the 7th century and during the Early Middle Ages, undergoing the Golden Age, the idea of knowledge was emphasised amongst the Muslim world, translating and collaborating knowledge from all over the world, giving rise to a group of people known as the Dahriyya who were the ‘holders of materialistic opinions of vari...
In the 11th century, a prominent Muslim theologian Al-Ghazali published ‘The Incoherence of philosophers’ to argue against Avicenna, an early Islamic philosopher. He organized his arguments by giving them each their own chapter, twenty in total. His purpose was to point out the several contradictions that Aristotelian philosophers have made, especially about God and the universe. He also accused these philosophers of going against their own religion by criticizing and discrediting the word of God and the Quran itself in his last three points. Surprisingly, he didn’t find natural science to be problematic, except for metaphysics because the thinking process behind it lacked the same kind of logic found in natural sciences.
On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy gives us insight to the philosophical views of a certain sect of Islam, and how it influenced it 's followers to view the world around them. Although it is helpful, this is written from a very biased position and it cannot be said that the views of the author are the views of Muslim culture as a whole. There is a constant attack on another religious group throughout the article that helps us to understand what this specific sect deems right and wrong through comparison of the groups.
This will put an end to our scientific research and advancement because we will be relying on answers provided from religious books to answer our questions. If we don’t argue wither these answers are right or wrong, we would never have studied space stars or the universe or even our environment and earthly animals. These studies always provided us with breakthroughs, inventions and discoveries that made our lives
The two largest religions in the world, Christianity and Islam, were implemented by two of religions most powerful leaders, Jesus and Muhammad. Without question, both Jesus and Muhammad have affected humanity powerfully. As religious leaders both men laid down the principles upon which Christianity and Islam are founded yet today. However, while Jesus performed miracles and arose from the dead, thus proving to his followers he was God, Muhammad performed no such feats, and made no such claims. In fact, Muhammad’s only claim was that he was the last prophet sent from God.
Would it be the start of a new era for humanity? Or extinction? It’s on this issue that Transcendence is based. The idea is not new. The transfer of a human being into a computer is often reflected on in science fiction theory or even its expansion via the Internet and its worldwide takeover, which is the basis of the plot in Terminator. But Transcendence is not about machines uprising. It’s about the human identity and the limit we want to give it. The movie elaborates and reflects on a situation that it wants to make us believe is possible in today’s world. Are we still far? Artificial intelligence is increasingly present in our lives. We all have a form of it in our cell phones, Siri and other programs, transformed the simple machine in something that we talk to, ask questions, and have a sort of conversation with. In a way it gave life to the machine, it gave it a voice. Transcendence is a cautionary tale about the perils of artificial intelligence and is full of philosophical and ethical questions regarding the advent of artificial
"The human aspiration to create intelligent machines has appeared in myth and literature for thousands of years, from stories of Pygmalion to the tales of the Jewish Golem." Anat Treister-Goren, Ph.D. (http://www.a-i.com/)
Medieval philosophy is the synthesis of philosophy and religion, or revelation. In Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, Hayy is a perfect example of how reason and revelation are used to determine the ways of the world. While trying to determine if the world was created or eternal, Hayy reasons that he cannot resolve this question. Reason cannot prove that the universe was created or eternal. However, he determines that no matter what the origin of the world, “the world must have a non-corporeal Cause” (Tufayl, 2009, pg. 131). Hayy supports this conclusion by first stating that if the world was created in time, then a creator that is not created must be the Cause. Next, he supports his conclusion by stating if the world is eternal, then the universe must have an infinite force that causes the motion of the universe. Lastly, Hayy supports his conclusion by establishing characteristics of the first Cause that is behind either the creation or infinite motion of the universe. These characteristics include a non-physical body, eternal being, infinite perfection, knowledge, and goodness. In this paper, I will first discuss Hayy’s conclusion of why there must be a first Cause if the world was created. I will then discuss Hayy’s conclusion of why there must be a first Cause if the world is eternal. Lastly, I will discuss Hayy’s conclusion of the characteristics that this first Cause must contain.
Pop culture has explored this idea and gave fictional tales of what can happen if artificial intelligence “goes bad”. While it may not be a credible source, it still has room for interpretation. Allowing robotics what is arguably the most influential trait today, a mind, is a frightening thought. Researching the human mind is still a field of study today and is not fully understood. How can scientists and researchers behind artificial intelligence accurately come up with how the human mind interacts with itself and its surroundings? Yes, they can start with the ability to learn, such as a path of an infant absorbing knowledge through its adolescence, but what if the expansion of information becomes exponential? The artificial intelligence may gain full control and depth of their mind and comprehend the world differently as humans do. This brings the artificial intelligence to a cognitive and spiritual level beyond that of the human mind. If this were to happen humans cannot be able to understand the artificial intelligence. They have programmed it to learn itself, its mind, and how to operate. What level is that beyond a human mind, a god? At one point researchers that developed the artificial intelligence had a grasp and outlook for their technology’s lifespan. What they thought the artificial intelligence may derive from its programming, has transformed into something completely dissimilar. The artificial
From the first imaginative thought to manipulate nature to the development of complex astronomical concepts of space exploration, man continues to this day to innovate and invent products or methods that improve and enhance humankind. Though it has taken 150 million years to reach the present day, the intellectual journey was not gradual in a linear sense. If one were to plot significant events occurring throughout human existence, Mankind’s ability to construct new ideas follows a logarithmic path, and is rapidly approaching an asymptote, or technological singularity. This singularity event has scientists both supporting and rejecting the concept of an imaginative plateau; the largest topic discussed is Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). When this technological singularity is reached, it is hypothesized that man’s greatest creation, an artificial sapient being, will supersede human brain capacity.
Artificial intelligence is an idea of if the human thought process can be mechanized. It was around the 1940’s – 50’s that a group of people came together to discuss the possibility of creating an artificial brain and its uses. These people were a variety of scientists from different fields such as mathematics, economics, engineering, and etc. This was the birth of the field of artificial intelligence. While artificial intelligence would prove to be technologically revolutionary by introducing new ideas such as quantum computers or robots, said new ideas could result in the downfall of mankind. The result could range to being the plummet of the economy, the end of the human race, or even the corruption of the next generation and onwards. All of these problems resulting in the possibility of the end of the earth. The more we need to learn more about technology and further advance it, the closer we are getting to the extinction of the human race. These are the reasons why the advancement of artificial intelligent should be halted or banned so no harm can be done even without the intentions.