About the Human-Machine Assimilation Forum

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Human-Machine Assimilation : Policy
This forum is intended as a clearing-house of sources for people interested in the coming e(de?)volution of people into machines. This is definitely happening, in several ways. First, the obvious use of machine parts to fix up humans with medical problems. Second, machine intelligence is evolving at a fantastic pace, while human intelligence is basically standing still from an evolutionary viewpoint, though cultural methods are allowing us to apply what we have more efficiently than ever before (elitist educational and employment policies, professional networks, web, corporate and gov-sponsored research programs, better primary education and literacy worldwide, etc.) This means it is likely machines will be smarter than humans, for most operational purposes, within 50 years. They may exterminate us, they may keep us as pets in zoos, or they may assimilate us, with or without our consent. Probably within 50 years we'll be so drugged up of our own volition we won't even care. But for those who care now, please post links and discussion on this (admittedly broad and crudely defined topic) here! * For those who say 'smarter than us in 50 years ? Can't happen!' consider what your reaction in 1904 might have been if somebody told you that within 40 years, the direct descendants of the crude Wright brothers' prototype airplane would be used to take off from a ship, fly across hundreds of miles of ocean, and destroy the entire US Pacific fleet of steel battleships from the air in a few minutes, while under constant artillery fire.

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