Elon Musk With New Spacex Tech Says Costs Will Drop By A Factor Of 100

[Deepwater6]

It wouldn't walk away because it would be hindered by it's physical limitations. Why don't people who fall off cliffs spread their wings and fly away? A more viable question would be why wouldn't the phone call 911 to say it's in trouble and needs rescue? The fact that I used a phone as an example is not relevant. It could be any shape or form of future smart technology. The point is the line between humans and technology will continue to blur in the future and may result in some ominous scenarios.

 

We will become so much more dependent on them to fly our planes, drive our cars, take care of all our banking needs, Christmas shop for us, drone deliver packages to us anywhere anytime. Just to name a few and the list goes on and on and on. I don't think many people understand how much further AI is set to delve into our personal lives on a personal level.

[TomKalbfus]

Well I have a personal stake in this as I am 50 years old, and probably closer to the end of my life than towards its beginning, in the natural course of a human life span. We have human minds trying to extend human life, but the problem is they are only human minds, and with those minds progress has been slow in figuring out the cure to many things like cancer, paralysis, and aging - the number one killer of us all, but if we can create superhuman minds, maybe advances in medicine will occur faster. Equally unsatisfactory is our progress in space travel after the Apollo years, in the years leading up to Apollo, space technology advanced in leaps and bounds from the V2 missile to the Saturn V rocket, and then the state of technology went into deep freeze, maybe artificial minds superior to humans can break that log jam. Without it, I may die at age 70 or 80. If you are 20, you have to worry about computers replacing you in the workforce, but if you are 50, they can't come soon enough. I think there is a good chance that in the next 20 to 30 years, we might hit that technological singularity, and if they destroy mankind, well I would die anyway if they didn't.

[Deepwater6]

Funny you brought that up, I'm in 50's as well, and often tell my 20 something children that when they are my age they may very well be able to walk into a convenience store and grab a new plug and play liver off the shelf. in fact possibly many other vital body parts after their bodies are configured to accept the new organs. This will also be essential for long distance space travel, especially early on when the ships can only carry a small compliment of medically trained personnel.

[TomKalbfus]

​I have some unpleasant realities ahead of me unless medical miracles happen soon. I also do not know the nature of consciousness. For instance if I uploaded my brain and ran it in simulation on a computer, and assuming I was unconscious when I did this uploading process, when I woke up, would I be the simulation or the original? I don't know what makes me, me. If I copy myself, will I be the copy, I also wonder if I die, will the Universe copy me by random chance? Maybe after googolplex years and googolplex light years from my original location. Get a clump of matter with all the right elements and what are the chances that it will form me with all my memories? That person, whoever he is will think he is me. Now I don't think this copy of me will most likely form in the vacuum of space, I think there would have to be an unlikely chain of casual events in order for me to form by random chance. I guess I will either find out in the next few decades or I will end without really realizing it. Depends on the nature of existence I suppose.

[Maine farmer]

 

 

I'm not referring to a Sci-fi "Terminator" scenario, but one of ethical contradiction. In the future if you were to leave your personal device in a dangerous place, a place where it could be easily destroyed, and future device/phone is conscious enough to know the danger exists and it cries out not to be left there alone, would you care? This device is advanced enough to become part of your every day life in an intimate way. It talks to you when you're sad, and tries to encourage you. It will tell you when you look tired and recommend getting some sleep, make up a list and arrange to have your groceries delivered. It will remotely start the coffee for you in the morning, turn the AC on for you before you get home so it's comfortable. At some point this device will do most of the things any caring significant other would do for you. After years together wouldn't you grow somewhat attached to it? Which leads to the question, where is the line for AI self awareness?

 

 

Aside from the economic consequences of AI is that people will no longer be challenged and grow bored, and boredom often leads to trouble.  I had a roommate one semester in College who ended up getting kicked out because every weekend he had to be out doing something.  

[TomKalbfus]

Aside from the economic consequences of AI is that people will no longer be challenged and grow bored, and boredom often leads to trouble.  I had a roommate one semester in College who ended up getting kicked out because every weekend he had to be out doing something.  

Can't you get a hobby? People need goals other than the work they do to earn a living.

[Maine farmer]

Can't you get a hobby? People need goals other than the work they do to earn a living.

Some people can get a hobby, and some people's hobby seems to be getting in trouble, as was the case with my former roommate.  The question is if machines can do everything and do it better, what incentive will there be for people to do anything but lay around, overeat, and die from gluttony and sloth?  Procreation, perhaps, but people may one day be unable to distinguish between human and sexbot, in which case humanity will just die off and it won't matter anyway.

[TomKalbfus]

Some people can get a hobby, and some people's hobby seems to be getting in trouble, as was the case with my former roommate.  The question is if machines can do everything and do it better, what incentive will there be for people to do anything but lay around, overeat, and die from gluttony and sloth?  Procreation, perhaps, but people may one day be unable to distinguish between human and sexbot, in which case humanity will just die off and it won't matter anyway.

You ever hear of the idea of human uploading? There are two ways to go about it in theory. There is fast and slow. The idea is to copy what's in your brain and put it in a computer so it thinks, acts like you and has all of your memories, so as far as it is concerned it is you.

 

The fast way is to scan your brain either destructively or nondestructively. if nondestructively it produces only a copy of you, the copy thinks he is you because he has all of your memories and personality up to the time of the copy, and he doesn't know how he ended up in a computer simulation. the the original you is still around, then both you and the copy think they are you.

 

The slow way to upload is to graft a computer onto your brain, the computer simulates your brain cells and communicates with the rest of your brain as if it were a part of your brain, and your natural brain can't tell the difference. As you grow older, your natural brain slowly dies, and the computer does more and more of your thinking and memorizing until Your body dies and the Computer is all you. A computer could also download into an organic human body, it could theoretically print a human body by printing all of its organs including the brain, this most likely wouldn't be instantaneous, so it would tend to take a while to do this.  A computer simulation could be the place to me, We can produce a Cyber-Earth for Cyber humans to inhabit, they would have virtual bodies and brains and live in an environment that seems real to them, except they can live as long as they want, so long as the simulation keeps running. Cyberspace could be a place we can explore and colonize as electronic beings. In a simulation we can have appliances that produce simulated food for our simulated bodies to eat, and we can enjoy a nice meal in cyberspace. If we have simulated garbage after the meal, we throw it in a trash can and it disappears. If we want to go someplace on Cyber Earth, we step into a teleporter and it instantly takes you there just like in Star Trek. Do you want to travel in space? We could create a Cyber Solar System and alter the planets to make them interesting. We could spin up Cyber Venus, and populate it with dinosaurs, while producing virtual particles in its simulated atmosphere to reflect most of the simulated light back into space, and create Earthlike conditions. We can flit around the Cyber Solar System in magic spaceships or simply teleport to where we want to go.

 

If you want to explore real space, you could download your program into a spaceship with a smaller computer to simulate you, and then that spaceship can accelerate at one hundred Earth gravities, and your simulated human body won't feel it, your could quickly reach relativistic velocities within a few days, and travel to the nearest Star System in weeks to months subjective time. Giant Superhuman AIs will figure out how to do this. If you don't want the artificial AIs doing all your work, you could set your simulation not to allow them within the simulation and do your own work.