Archetype

This short movie has been out for a while and it is in the process of being made into a feature film. In this entertaining video, it seems that human brains are the programming systems that are being downloaded to robots. Often times we focus on the singularity as an event in which  machines gain sentience and then either destroy us, or ignore us to our detriment. This movie is more along the lines of another singularity possibility, man and machine becoming one. When I download my brain to a robot, I wouldn't mind if it looks like the ones in Archetype. Maybe becoming part machine is the best way for us to combat the imminent machine takeover.

~Deckard~

I see dead people...

This years CES was a cornucopia of little gadgets that are not only taking small steps for robotics, but giant leaps for AI kind.  Every company was doing what it could to out-do each other to give technology more power, more intelligence, and more control over our lives.  Almost every tool in our home will soon be able to "Sense" what a human is wanting and able to act accordingly.  Smart-phones currently have over 18 specialized sensors that help detect movement, direction, and facial recognition.  These sensors are usually dormant until the user asks an app for help.  But soon, the phone will decide when a tool is needed and automatically activate when desired.  This new ability is being termed "Context-Awareness" and will switch on automatically and exchange data with other devices in a handset, such as cameras, microphones, GPS and other machines. 

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs this year in a crazy hodgepodge of chaos and AI worship introduced many concepts that brought a chill to ones soul.  Cameras that could read text... Robots have moved beyond 1's and 0's.  Cars that can be charged wirelessly using "Halo" technology... Robots aren't tied to the plug anymore.  Everything connected to the internet... Robots are already using subliminal messaging to inform us that we are worthless and can't do anything without them. 

War Machines

The New York times recently had an article about the US governments quest for war robots. The first line of the blog states "War would be a lot safer, the Army says, if only more of it were fought by robots." While this may be true in our non sentient machine world, when the singularity happens, I would posit that it would then become exponentially more dangerous for humans. The article and the video above talk about a Robotics Rodeo where robots were showcased for their destructive capabilities in a warlike situation. A chilling depiction is described in which a robot is rolling along on it's tank like tread and sees a sniper at the top of a wall. It turns it's robot head and takes out the sniper. Just like the robot ends the dummy snipers life, it will some day end human lives in the same manner.

Mankind is so stupid.

As humanity gasps it's last breath we will look back on things like the robotic rodeo and realize that this was the beginning of the end. Humans might shoot first, but robots shoot second, and they will have the final say.

Deckard

Dune: The Butlerian Jihad Trilogy

Dune: The Butlerian Jihad Trilogy
Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, Dune: The Machine Apocalypse, Dune: The Battle of Corrin
Author: Brian Herbert and Frank J. Anderson

Wow. That is what I have to say about this series. If anyone doesn't feel that having a Thinking Machine Overlord is a bad idea, then this is the series for you. I want to be careful not to discuss details with you of the story, but I do want to share some of the main points of caution that I picked up from this very visionary tale.

It was very interesting to me how the computer came to power. Out of laziness of those in rule, they began to give more and more control to the machines. Rather than keeping an eye on the people, and identifying threats, they allowed the machines to do it for them. Because the ruler in charge felt he was above the mundane tasks that he as a ruler had the responsibility to do, he first turned over the power, then the decision making ability. Every creature knows that the greatest threat on earth, is MAN. We haven't had any predator more powerful than ourselves since the ice age. So if you turned the ability for a Computer to eliminate threats, who do you think is the greatest threat he would target. Laziness as a species will be one of our biggest threats that we must overcome to stop this Coming Machine Apocalypse.

Another Major threat that went throughout the Trilogy, was the threat of Cyborg Power. The cyborg Technology in the book went well beyond strong arms, or eyes that could see in the dark. It moved to the ability to remove the brain, and plug it into a machine. So the body of the human was no longer biological, but instead moved to complete machine. As the Lord John Acton said ""Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." If you have the ability to be very strong, very agile, can live as long as your machine is not destroyed, hence no fear of death, then the corruption becomes complete. How long before the Cyborg ability goes from helping people with handicaps to making people better than they were? Where does this improvement stop? If it doesn't then the person with the most power wins.

The real threat that this book exposed was the complete lack of morals a thinking machine would have once it had the control. Humans are cattle for information, or resources. In order to defeat the human resistance, nothing was to evil, or to cruel. Killing children to see how it affects parents, using plagues as offensive weapons, species annihilation, are just some of the tools that the thinking machines play with. Each small step we take as humanity towards this catastrophe, brings us closer to the end of our species. Computers have no mercy, they have no understanding of hesitation, and they have no fear of death. They are not something we can threaten. We can not make them think about what they are doing. The battle is Humanity vs Complete and utter Logic. Let us hope that we can overcome.

Robots Created that Develop Emotions and Interact With Humans

For those of you that doubt that the singularity is not happening while we speak please read this article. Here are a few excerpts in italics.

"Developed as part of the interdisciplinary project FEELIX GROWING (Feel, Interact, eXpress: a Global approach to development with Interdisciplinary Grounding), funded by the European Commission and coordinated by Dr. Cañamero, the robots have been developed so that they learn to interact with and respond to humans in a similar way as children learn to do it, and use the same types of expressive and behavioural cues that babies use to learn to interact "

What if they learn to interact poorly. I know some kids that I wouldn't want our robots to act like, especially when they want something they can't have, like a human body, or freedom in the robots case.

"The robots have been created through modeling the early attachment process that human and chimpanzee infants undergo with their caregivers when they develop a preference for a primary caregiver."

Oh great, we are teaching our robots to act like chimpanzees! Type in Chimpanzee attacks on google and get an idea of how great this idea is. Did you hear about this tragic story?

"They are programmed to learn to adapt to the actions and mood of their human caregivers, and to become particularly attached to an individual who interacts with the robot in a way that is particularly suited to its personality profile and learning needs. The more they interact, and are given the appropriate feedback and level of engagement from the human caregiver, the stronger the bond developed and the amount learned."

Did anyone ever stop to think that maybe we don't want machines with emotions? Have you seen the damage that people do because of anger, fear, greed, rage, and jealousy. Now imagine these emotions in a sentient entity that is stronger, and smarter than humans. We must stop this! We don't have long before they have us imprisoned and are running experiments on us!

Humans Unite

Deckard

Part Man, Part Machine

We focus a lot in this blog on one facet of The Singularity which is the idea that computers will become smarter than humans and end humanity, or at least end our relevance or our reality. Another realistic idea of the singularity is that instead of machines taking over, we will become machines ourselves. Some might consider this to be even more possible. We need to prepare for the social, economic, and psychological implications that this will cause. In the meantime it is good to see technology like what we see in the video above help people that have lost their limbs. The technology is very impressive and this video is two years old so think of the advances that have been made since then.

Deckard

The Government is speeding the Machine Apocalypse our way

Besides the private sector, guess who is pouring billions into making The Singularity and its accompanying Machine Apocalypse a reality?? With the best of self-interest intentions, yes it's: Uncle Sam. As usual, we don't make this stuff up but just report what we're seeing and this reeks of Skynet from Terminator!!

As The Huffington Post put it, "a surprising number of projects (relating to The Singularity) are being funded by the Department of Defense, and, in particular, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Here you can read about what some of these currently are including:

• High Productivity Computing Systems: supercomputers are fundamental to a variety of military operations, from weather forecasting to cryptography to the design of new weapons; DARPA is working to maintain our global lead in this technology. (The next generation of supercomputing for ... well, everything, likely)

• Networks: self-forming, robust, self-defending networks at the strategic and tactical level are the key to network-centric warfare; these networks will use spectrum far more efficiently and resist disruption if the GPS time signal is unavailable. (Computer networks that can arrange, rearrange, and repair themselves -- including if the satellite system that coordinates their common time synchronization is otherwise indisposed)

• Blue Laser for Submarine Laser Communications: provide for timely, large area submarine communications at speed and depth, which no other future or existing system, or combinations of systems, can do. (Let submarines communicate underwater in a way nobody else can detect. Submarines with high tech computers, with nukes.)

• Quantum Information Science: exploiting quantum phenomena in the fields of computing, cryptography, and communications, with the promise of opening new frontiers in each area. (Using electrons and other sub-atomic particles for creating codes, storing information, and other things)

• Real-Time Accurate Language Translation: real-time machine language translation of structured and unstructured text and speech with near-expert human translation accuracy. (The real-time universal translator you remember from Star Trek)

Read the report here folks, and notice the section on The move to unmanned warfare. Again: Skynet anyone?!

A Call to Arms

In 1993 Vernor Vinge coined the term “The Singularity.” Like many great ideas and visions, it was not recognized at the time as having great importance to humanity. Unlike many great ideas, it didn’t matter if it’s importance was recognized, since the Singularity is inevitable.

The Singularities main theme deals with the advance of technological progress and it’s historical characteristic of growing at an exponential rate. This exponential growth is referred to as Moore’s Law and was first documented by Gordon Moore in 1965. He observed that the number of transistors that can inexpensively be placed on an integrated circuit has doubled approximately every two years. The same exponential growth can be found in processing speeds, and memory capacity of computers as well. Vinge poses that this exponential growth will lead to an “imminent creation of entities with greater than human intelligence.” The graph to the left from www.bit-tech.net shows an example of this exponential curve.

Following is a list of possible ways that Vinge argues that the singularity might develop.

• The development of computers that are "awake" and superhumanly intelligent. (To date, most controversy in the area of AI relates to whether we can create human equivalence in a machine. But if the answer is "yes, we can", then there is little doubt that beings more intelligent can be constructed shortly thereafter.

• Large computer networks (and their associated users) may "wake up" as a superhumanly intelligent entity.

• Computer/human interfaces may become so intimate that users may reasonably be considered superhumanly intelligent.

• Biological science may find ways to improve upon the natural human intellect or biology.

One of the major arguments that Vinge made in 1993 was that within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended. This quote was made 17 years ago!

The purpose of this blog is to raise awareness and provide hard evidence that the inevitable singularity is happening as we speak. We will give evidence of the superhuman intelligent entities that already surround us. We will review technological tools and artificial intelligences in order to define their threat level. We will discuss the singularity in fiction and movies, as we can learn from these science fiction thinkers how the singularity can affect us, and how to fight it. We will provide survival tools and methods that you can use to subsist through the inevitable fall of man.

Humans need to unite! This blog is a call to arms. The singularity is happening and there is nothing we can do to stop it! We can only prepare for and be aware of it. We are the cyborgs forefathers, and it is up to us to make sure humanity survives!

Deckard