Technology could grow beyond human control, warns Millennium report
http://dbs.cordis.lu/cgi-bin/srchidadb?CAL...EN_RCN_ID:24053
Many people still do not appreciate how fast science and technology (S&T) will change over the next 25 years, and given this rapid development along several different fronts, the possibility of technology growing beyond human control must now be taken seriously, according to a new report.
The State of the Future 2005 report is produced by the United Nations University's Millennium Project - a global think tank of foresight experts, academics and policy makers. It analyses current global trends and examines in detail some of the current and future challenges facing the world.
Setting the scene, the report states: 'Future synergies among nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science can dramatically improve the human condition by increasing the availability of food, energy and water and by connecting people and information anywhere. The effect will be to increase collective intelligence and create value and efficiency while lowering costs.'
The report argues that because the factors that caused the acceleration of S&T are themselves accelerating, the rate of change in the past 25 years will appear slow compared to the rate of change in the next 25 years. 'To help the world cope with the acceleration of change, it may be necessary to create an international S&T organisation to arrange the world's science and technology knowledge as well as forecasts of potential consequences in a better Internet-human interface,' it argues.
The most important questions to pursue, according to the report, are: how are nanoparticles absorbed into the body through the skin, lungs, eyes, ears and alimentary canal? Once in the body, can nanoparticles evade natural defences of humans and other animals? What are the potential exposure routes of nanomaterials - both airborne and waterborne? How biodegradable are nanotube-based structures?
The authors suggest that a classification system will be needed to provide a framework within which to make research judgements and keep track of the knowledge regarding potential nanotech pollution. 'Toxicologists and pharmaceutical scientists will have to be brought together to investigate nanoparticles' ability to evade cell defences to target disease,' they add.
Returning to the wider challenges facing humanity, the report notes that national decision makers are rarely trained in the theory and practice of decision making, and argues that advanced decision support software could help. 'Formalized ethics and decision training for decision makers could result in a significant improvement in the quality of global decisions,' it concludes.
Full Version: Technology could grow beyond human control
This made me think. Why don't aliens use robots?
Oooor, what if, the aliens were or are robots?
i don't understand why aliens haven't introduced themselves yet.. if they're out there and are friendly, it woudl have happend. other possibilities, they aren't out there.. either, we're the highest/most advanced society or they've killed themselves in a huge Alien vs. Alien war, i don't get it. OR, they're hostile and are planning their take over..haha
edit: sorry, this was kinda off subject. heh
edit: sorry, this was kinda off subject. heh
^Or maybe they are just so far away that without faster than light travel or wormholes it would take them thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years to reach us and would it reall be worth it, just to contact us, I mean really!?!?!
QUOTE(AztecInca @ Jul 2 2005, 01:44 AM)
^Or maybe they are just so far away that without faster than light travel or wormholes it would take them thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years to reach us and would it reall be worth it, just to contact us, I mean really!?!?!
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And also, this universe is immensely vast. Even with wormhole technology, that would take an supurb amount of energy - and mapping such a thing as vast as the universe would take years among years. Although with the Nanotech lifespan, we ourselves may see what wormhole travel is like, and will definatly see mars populated. It is said one can acheive 500 years with such technology.
And yes it would be worth it, tottaly worth it. Just for reality TV. To make fun of how terrible it is.
The Borg, Matrix or I-Robot... pretty freakin scary. We have machines that think trillion's of times faster then the human mind, so what is stop those machines from thinking for themselfs after we get greedy with trying to push it further? 
QUOTE(whoa182 @ Jun 28 2005, 11:57 PM)
Technology could grow beyond human control, warns Millennium report
http://dbs.cordis.lu/cgi-bin/srchidadb?CAL...EN_RCN_ID:24053
Many people still do not appreciate how fast science and technology (S&T) will change over the next 25 years, and given this rapid development along several different fronts, the possibility of technology growing beyond human control must now be taken seriously, according to a new report.
The State of the Future 2005 report is produced by the United Nations University's Millennium Project - a global think tank of foresight experts, academics and policy makers. It analyses current global trends and examines in detail some of the current and future challenges facing the world.
Setting the scene, the report states: 'Future synergies among nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science can dramatically improve the human condition by increasing the availability of food, energy and water and by connecting people and information anywhere. The effect will be to increase collective intelligence and create value and efficiency while lowering costs.'
The report argues that because the factors that caused the acceleration of S&T are themselves accelerating, the rate of change in the past 25 years will appear slow compared to the rate of change in the next 25 years. 'To help the world cope with the acceleration of change, it may be necessary to create an international S&T organisation to arrange the world's science and technology knowledge as well as forecasts of potential consequences in a better Internet-human interface,' it argues.
The most important questions to pursue, according to the report, are: how are nanoparticles absorbed into the body through the skin, lungs, eyes, ears and alimentary canal? Once in the body, can nanoparticles evade natural defences of humans and other animals? What are the potential exposure routes of nanomaterials - both airborne and waterborne? How biodegradable are nanotube-based structures?
The authors suggest that a classification system will be needed to provide a framework within which to make research judgements and keep track of the knowledge regarding potential nanotech pollution. 'Toxicologists and pharmaceutical scientists will have to be brought together to investigate nanoparticles' ability to evade cell defences to target disease,' they add.
Returning to the wider challenges facing humanity, the report notes that national decision makers are rarely trained in the theory and practice of decision making, and argues that advanced decision support software could help. 'Formalized ethics and decision training for decision makers could result in a significant improvement in the quality of global decisions,' it concludes.
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http://dbs.cordis.lu/cgi-bin/srchidadb?CAL...EN_RCN_ID:24053
Many people still do not appreciate how fast science and technology (S&T) will change over the next 25 years, and given this rapid development along several different fronts, the possibility of technology growing beyond human control must now be taken seriously, according to a new report.
The State of the Future 2005 report is produced by the United Nations University's Millennium Project - a global think tank of foresight experts, academics and policy makers. It analyses current global trends and examines in detail some of the current and future challenges facing the world.
Setting the scene, the report states: 'Future synergies among nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science can dramatically improve the human condition by increasing the availability of food, energy and water and by connecting people and information anywhere. The effect will be to increase collective intelligence and create value and efficiency while lowering costs.'
The report argues that because the factors that caused the acceleration of S&T are themselves accelerating, the rate of change in the past 25 years will appear slow compared to the rate of change in the next 25 years. 'To help the world cope with the acceleration of change, it may be necessary to create an international S&T organisation to arrange the world's science and technology knowledge as well as forecasts of potential consequences in a better Internet-human interface,' it argues.
The most important questions to pursue, according to the report, are: how are nanoparticles absorbed into the body through the skin, lungs, eyes, ears and alimentary canal? Once in the body, can nanoparticles evade natural defences of humans and other animals? What are the potential exposure routes of nanomaterials - both airborne and waterborne? How biodegradable are nanotube-based structures?
The authors suggest that a classification system will be needed to provide a framework within which to make research judgements and keep track of the knowledge regarding potential nanotech pollution. 'Toxicologists and pharmaceutical scientists will have to be brought together to investigate nanoparticles' ability to evade cell defences to target disease,' they add.
Returning to the wider challenges facing humanity, the report notes that national decision makers are rarely trained in the theory and practice of decision making, and argues that advanced decision support software could help. 'Formalized ethics and decision training for decision makers could result in a significant improvement in the quality of global decisions,' it concludes.
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This leads me to believe that the possibility of a human-machine hybrid is in our future...sort of a cyborg. Not to the scale of science fiction, like the Borg off Star Trek or anything, but more nano-technology, cellular repair and perhaps even artificial cells to fight off infections and disease. Imagine dozens of programed nano-bots, the size of a blood cell, all programed to destroy cancer cells, or even to help increase production of white blood cells to assist in the maintenance or even cure AIDS, HIV, Ebola, Alzheimers, etc...
It's a wondrous time that we live in...embrace the future.
I don't see this ever happening, computers still rely on programing, it would take a genius to develop a self thinking robot to the scale of even a 1 yr old child and even then it still needs new programing to tackle new task when they arise.
So what if they can process information faster, they still need to know what to do with it. On there level of programing what to do if "a" happens do I react with pre programed response "b","c" or "d" and even then what if the variables of "a" happen to change like it becomes "a-1" does it still react as event "a". Its still all about programing lots and lots of programing. We still can't simulate a trial and error type programing. Only action and response
QUOTE(__Kratos__ @ Jul 2 2005, 02:11 AM)
The Borg, Matrix or I-Robot... pretty freakin scary. We have machines that think trillion's of times faster then the human mind, so what is stop those machines from thinking for themselfs after we get greedy with trying to push it further?
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So what if they can process information faster, they still need to know what to do with it. On there level of programing what to do if "a" happens do I react with pre programed response "b","c" or "d" and even then what if the variables of "a" happen to change like it becomes "a-1" does it still react as event "a". Its still all about programing lots and lots of programing. We still can't simulate a trial and error type programing. Only action and response
Whatever will happen will take a large amount of time for it to, because A.I still is programmed to Human intelligence, and weve only come this far in technology over the course of thousands of years.
Or maybe the aliens came to Earth and wasted there time and went straight, nothing interesting they thought.
QUOTE(Jester @ Jul 2 2005, 10:18 AM)
Whatever will happen will take a large amount of time for it to, because A.I still is programmed to Human intelligence, and weve only come this far in technology over the course of thousands of years.
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true, BUT technology grows exponentially... it may have taken 100 years to get this far, but to go the same approx. growth in technology nowadays would only take ~20years b/c technology grows exponentially NOT linearly. it grows faster and faster and faster each and everyday.
check out this article.. very interesting. i think it was posted by Whoa182 a while ago!
http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1
edit: this is what i was trying to say...
"Recently a Noble Prize winning panelist dismissed Bill's concerns, exclaiming that, "we're not going to see self-replicating nanoengineered entities for a hundred years." I pointed out that 100 years was indeed a reasonable estimate of the amount of technical progress required to achieve this particular milestone at today's rate of progress. But because we're doubling the rate of progress every decade, we'll see a century of progress--at today's rate--in only 25 calendar years."
all this talk about aliens and technology and robots makes me wonder if aliens didnt come to our planet a long time ago and use it as a science lab to perform all kinds of experiments with stuff like stem cells and what not. or maybe they used different materials to create robots than we would use, cause i find the way the human body works to be very machine like. egh. guess we'll never know though.
So we could all be like lab rats? 
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