Kurzweil writes that "as we reverse engineer our bodies and brains, we will be in a position to create comparable systems that are far more durable and that operate thousands to millions of times faster than our naturally evolved systems." The computational capacity needed to emulate human intelligence, he says, "will be available in less than two decades." Once a computer achieves a human level of intelligence, "it will necessarily soar past it."
I have many items on my 2006 to-read list. The second (after Rudy Rucker's "The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul") is "The Singularity Is Near."
Related: Douglas Rushkoff's 1994 book "Cyberia" is now available online. When this book hit stores, I had yet to send an email.
2 comments:
Never drive your brain/body engine further than your intelligence, compassion, ethics, and sense of wholistic responsibility can fuel.
Happy new year!
Carol Maltby
The computational capacity needed to emulate human intelligence, he says, "will be available in less than two decades." Once a computer achieves a human level of intelligence, "it will necessarily soar past it."
Computational capacity does not equal emulation of human intelligence. I have no doubt that machines will probably achieve and even surpass the computational capacity of the human brain within a decade or so. But until the research community learns that it is not the brain that thinks and stops misidentifying brain function with thought, there will be no emulation of human intelligence. And personally, given the current strong materialistic bent of the research community (a fact which I doubt will see much change for at least the next half century) there will not be much further progress in this direction. I think even Kurzweil fails to see this primary aspect of the problem.
Otherwise, I wish everyone reading this a joyous and prosperous 2006!