In the not too distant future, machines will be much smarter than humans. According to inventor and futurist scientist Ray Kurzweil, this will happen by 2045.
Machines are already smarter than us in many ways. They do math and trivia much better than us. The chess champion Garry Kasparov was beaten by Deep Blue. Machines spell, fix grammar, drive trains, translate, draw, calculate, sew, create art and fly much better than humans. Machines are learning very quickly to distinguish (fingerprints, irises) and relate (robots, computerized voices).
How long can we stay ahead of them? We’re doing everything we can to help them overtake us!
But anyway, we’re in charge, right? Like when you really want to relax and unwind, you can always turn off your Blackberry, right? And you don’t suffer withdrawal when your internet connection goes down. And you’ve never experienced joint soreness from overuse of an electronic device, right?
You can stay alive without technology, can’t you? Hmmm.
We are in charge, but just barely.
How many basic brain functions are we losing? Long division went out with my generation. Communicating face-to-face is disappearing with the current one. What are we going to use that extra brain space for?
Are there any ultimate human abilities that will keep us safe from our own inventions? Our experiences with the rapid development of technology in our lifetimes should give us some clues. There are only two crucial abilities that I can pinpoint:
1) discipline …which is only useful when you are holding to
2) purpose.
Will machines ever become so smart that they will be able to figure out why we are here?