By 2049

[stopharian]

a $1000 computer will exceed the combined computational abilities of the entire human race.


Information overload (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWTLA8WecI)

[Rincon]

That's pretty insane.. I'm too lazy at the moment to cross-check the stats presented, but I'm curious of others' opinions about the propaganda-to-fact ratio...

[C.J.Woolf]

That's pretty insane.. I'm too lazy at the moment to cross-check the stats presented, but I'm curious of others' opinions about the propaganda-to-fact ratio...
Perhaps there is an assumption that the computational ability of the human race will decline.

[dunee]

BG/AG

Huh.
As Christians looked to Christ for information (bible), society (church), and salvation (from evil),
Do we look to Google for information (bytes), society (cyberspace), and salvation (from the unknown)?

:mellow: Think BG really could go into the common vernacular AND the formal (i.e. diplomas!)? Wikipedia says it took till AD 525 for Anno Domini to be "calculated" and till the 8th century to be commonly used. Could Google be around that long?


Edit: oh wait, of course with the accelerated tech and worldwide insta-communication such an epochal switch in temporal thinking could happen much sooner than 8 centuries (duh)

[Ellipsis]

Don't forget that if that where possible we would seek ways to improve our own abilities beyond our natural ones....(Yes I still need more RAM, though a good quality processor wouldn't be bad eitheir)

Of course there are moral implications enhancement but I feel that in the end there is nothing else left, humanity can not be so simple as to be defined as flesh and bone (then again maybe it is our mortality/limits which give use our humanity...)

[stopharian]

As the propaganda stated it is hard to make predictions. But whether or not it happens by 2049 there is a good chance that it will happen........and the Chinese and Indians will be there.

[Meliora]

I don't know about the hard numbers, but the general trends presented are certianly food for thought. Interesting things to think about. It makes me sad/nervous that it seems much of humanity can't see the bigger picture beyond the next year or so, either because they are struggling just to survive(e.g. those in Africa) or because they have fallen into a subtle acceptance of the status quo and general apathy about anything that doesn't directly affect them right here and now(e.g. America).

[charred_heart]

:mellow: Think BG really could go into the common vernacular AND the formal (i.e. diplomas!)?that's like humanity declaring a new Epoch from the time Goerge Bush stopped eating peanuts or something!

Or actually, a better examle would be BLOL and ALOL

Re the OP: Like that fool has completely unravelled the archiecture of the human brain... It's the architecture that's important - not the number of transistors or neurons.

A nice phrase I just rememberd hearing in another language: That which is the most unfathomable to humans is themeselves.

[Hi-meh]

All that processing power, and it'll still be used for solitare. That's my prediction.

[Anonymous]

Just try to become important. That way, if humans achieve immortality or the equivalent (either on our own or with the help of supercomputer) you may be one of the ones who gets to have it, instead of one of the ones they kill off to regulate the population.

[C.J.Woolf]

Just try to become important. That way, if humans achieve immortality or the equivalent (either on our own or with the help of supercomputer) you may be one of the ones who gets to have it, instead of one of the ones they kill off to regulate the population.
I look at it from the opposite angle: Don't become marginal. You don't have to win this game, just not lose.

[Nighthawk]

... and Nighthawk will probably be dead. Oh the irony.

[stopharian]

... and Nighthawk will probably be dead. Oh the irony.


Dont worry pal. We'll have your head flash frozen.

[Nighthawk]

Dont worry pal. We'll have your head flash frozen.

Much appreciated :grin:

[rek]

I have no doubt computers can and will learn to be as good or better than humans in every way. We already have computers which can "learn" things through trial and error (similar to how we humans do). There's no reason a machine can't learn to think, and even adapt its own version of morals, just like a human does.

We are, in effect, creating something that will without a doubt be better than us in every way. The real question is: what will we do with that power?

[Hi-meh]

The real question is: what will we do with that power?

Do what humans do best, destroy ourselves. :sadbanana:

[Anonymous]

I have no doubt computers can and will learn to be as good or better than humans in every way. We already have computers which can "learn" things through trial and error (similar to how we humans do). There's no reason a machine can't learn to think, and even adapt its own version of morals, just like a human does.

We are, in effect, creating something that will without a doubt be better than us in every way. The real question is: what will we do with that power?

There's so many variables. I would assume that this intelligence would be able to work on and improve itself, and there's no telling how fast that could happen. The only limit would be resources, I guess. I suppose the best outcomes would either be to take us to space and provide us with planet terraforming technologies and swift space travel, or to provide us with a utopian society by acting as a benevolent dictator. I'm partial to the latter, myself. Who knows what we might meet in space.