Thursday, November 16, 2017

the "First Church of Artificial Intelligence"

Passed along in email today came this article about a start-up church of artificial intelligence.

My first snarky reaction was, "Go out and play in the street!"

But then, because someone is bound to buy in and because there may be something to buy into, I responded to my friend who sent it along:
Will it be benevolent, will it be belligerent, can (wo)men shape and control it ... ??? Questions abound and I am suspicious of anyone (including me) who says s/he is capable of seeing the outcome. One yardstick I have started using lately is the question "Does it fold in failure?" AI doesn't seem willing to fail ... which makes it inhuman ... not to mention boring and, from a human standpoint, malevolent.

It is interesting how, in one way or another, articles try and try and try again to get a handle on the whole matter -- as if an explanation were going to explain, and hence control, this brave new world.

Tnx.

3 comments:

  1. Why does everybody feel that they have to have a god? Is it really all about missing the parents who cared for them when little?

    ReplyDelete
  2. You seem troubled by "outcomes."

    It's as though you want the future to be certain instead of filled with possibilities. But express that sentiment as though others are the ones looking for certainty. In my mind the future is a near infinite set of possible outcomes; many outcomes further into the future dependent upon outcomes closer to the present.

    To better understand what I am referring to you might want to do a search for "Futurists." Briefly, "Futurists" are scientists whose specialty is a systematic exploration of possibilities about the future and how they can emerge from present circumstances.

    This study of future possibilities certainly has a long history but as a formal discipline seems to date back to the mid 19th century where it, to no great surprise began within a religious context.

    Wikipedia has a nice list of the more prominent futurists. Just search it for “List of Futurists.” You may wish to read some of their writings.

    BTW — Giving this a bit of a Buddhist spin, I do wonder how attached any given futurist is of being correct.

    ReplyDelete
  3. As for the Church of AI.

    I don't think it wise to begin to worship superior beings, it's likely to end badly.

    If AI's decide they need to establish a religion, well, why not. Science and Logic only can take one so far. I'd be curious to see how such a religion evolves.

    The revised Mumonkan
    Case 1: Does an AI have Buddhanature?
    Commentary: How does an AI Realize It's True Nature?

    ReplyDelete