I was reading through this national geographics book on the brain and it mentioned that the biggest political concern these days is the talk between machine and man and scientific advancements on the brain. Some scientists such as Hans Moravec believe that machines will evolve as complex as people. He believes machines and humans will be two seperate species with machines being the more dominant. Raymond Kurzweil believes by 2050 that $1000 of computing will equal one billion human brains...Some of these scientists even believe that humans could evolve into in a way a type of machine that we perceive as robots...Does anybody have an educated opinion or know anything else on the matter?

i don't really see robots, but more like skynet from terminator 3... once to gets into the net, thats when we are screwed... how would you stop it then?

That's true and i know this seems unreal because it's about 3 or 4 decades into the future but Raymond Kurzweil even expects computers of performing tricks in the matrix. Data could be downloaded by wireless connections or through work of nanobots to download information into our brains. Think about it, martial arts skills or learning to fly a helicopter by downloading it.

just having the knowledge is not enough... we have to train our bodies to use this knowledge... no one can become an expert in a second, it will still take training to understand and use the programs downloaded

We could use the laws of robotics to prevent the robots from dominating humans...just like Isaac Isimov wrote in his books.
Have you ever read him? he has great work about the interaction robots/humans.

that's true...it's just a leading issue that's been on my mind...i don't know wheather to accept the fact that machines will take over humanity...So much things are being discovered over the brain though that just seem crazy...the enhancements and new connections that are replacing neurons...it's leading to enhanced memory, hearing, eye sight, even to the point where the brain can sustain transplants...silicon and microchips are predicted to help with some of the enhancers too...Joel Garreau says that if these enhancements become common, humanity will split into three sections: those who can afford it, those that can afford it but choose not to for moral reasons, and those that can't afford it...this will bring a stir up if true...people will be able to be in their prime until age 100.

I think the smartest computer today is about as smart as an adult cat, and I think that an adult cat is about as smart as a five year old child? We have come a long way with technology, but robots will always need people to survive, people have lived a long time without robots, and we can manage without them, though they do make life much easier, whent they work properly, their existence still depends on us.

There's definitely a possibility that it can happen.

The only reason why it wouldn't happen is because we've seen movies such as the terminator and I, Robot that have made these machines "evil".

The general public will not be accepting of robots because of this fear. It'll make it that much more difficult to implement robots into human lives.

I myself share this fear. If firewalls can be hacked, operating systems can become infected and codes can be broken, what's there to ensure a robot will not share these faults?

that could happen...but someone could abuse it kind of like hackers on the web...and if you have seen Irobot the officer asks with a sneer whether a robot could compose a beautiful symphony or paint a masterpiece. The robot replies can you?
They will be 100 billion times smarter than a human...i don't know what to say to something like that

how do you "teach" a robot this?... how would it understand?
i always wondered this after watching "I, Robot"

i think faster would be a better term than smarter... if it can't tie a shoe, how is that smarter?

I don't know that smarter is the right term to use, but robots have been created to do more than just tie a shoe lace.

http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/special/robot/

Creepy

they are only as smart as their programing... when they have independent thought, as to understand why it needs to tie a shoelace, that's when it is time to start worrying

15 years ago, we existed without cell phones; 30 years ago, we existed without the internet or computers; 60 years ago, we existed without TV's... whats are we gunna have in the next 60 years?

Whatever it is will only be as smart as whatever we put into it.

They are definitely working on connecting computers to human brains. The result will be, in the future, something called androids. Part computer, part human.

The reason for doing this, from the human standpoint, is to improve human function, and yet later the joining of Robot to human, will be done to improve robot function simply because the biological computer is a better and more efficient machine.


I'm thinking the Borg.

resistance is futile...we are the borg... i think i saw one at sears the other day... it was looking at lawn mowers

i thought this was interesting, about a possible end of earth scenario...


As technology progresses it gets smaller and smaller. Pretty soon we are going to enter the realms of Nano technology. In a simple way we are already there. IBM for instance placed single atoms to spell out the IBM logo. For this scenario we have to go a little bit into the future, not long, say 10 years. Nanobots are what I’m talking about. They will be microscopic robots designed to do all sorts of tasks, mostly in the medical field where they can seek out and eradicate bacterial infections, repair tissue damage, mend blood vessels. Lots of things that would be very helpful to everyone. They will be able to rearrange single atoms and for instance, make water out of sand. They will be able to take carbon atoms and turn them in diamonds. They will pick up raw materials and rearrange them into what they need. Well, obviously they will be extremely difficult to make, being microscopic and everything. And herein lies the problem. Scientists realize the only way to make them would be to use the Nanobots themselves. To make them self replicating. So each one is a microscopic Nanobot factory.

Here’s the scary bit. What would happen if just one of them were accidentally thrown away? Well it would pretty much go around changing atoms into robots. Then those robots would make more, and more, and more, at an exponential rate until the horror has unfolded. Scientists believe within 72 hours every single atom on earth will be turned into a Nanobot. All buildings, cars, plants, rocks, the water, animals and yes, even us humans… are now Nanobots. There it is, an endless sea of grey goo. And if ever some extra terrestrial were to land on the planet, then they too would be turned into Nanobots. What’s even more scary is that scientist are really working on creating Nanobots and are very close to achieving it.

What is teaching a child to tie his shoes but an advanced application of programing?

When I am studying, I am programing my brain with patterns of ideas. My brain is much more sophisticated then my PC I am typing on and so my brain is able to continue the cycle over and over, where as my PC needs my interaction.

Currently the main difference between a brain and a computer is that a brain instead of storing all the data discreetly, the brain uses a context mapping fuzzy logic for memory, this allows for a greater storage capacity and faster (most times) recall. However you never remember anything exactly, lots of details are lost as unimportant to the concept.