May 31 2011: "There is no aspect of technology that has not had a human hand in it."
That is actually not true when you think about it. Animals have shows time and time again their ability to innovate. And if you believe in evolution, you must contend that humans were not the first to deal with technology. I doubt the first thing to ever use a stick from a tree, and manipulate it for a beneficial purpose was a human.
And in that regard, you could say technology existed before we did. It has also had an oddly similar process of evolution to that of biological species.
All the replies here are great. I personally believe that technology does have a sort of life, yet it not "conscious"....yet. I think it has to be thought of differently than the growth and evolution of biological organisms. But if I had to draw an analogy, I would say that for the past century or so, the development of the computer as we know it, is like the early stages of constructing the basic internal system of a body and it's organs. And eventually, this "body", through human technology, will develop the ability to become smarter on it's own. That's when I feel the conscious will "turn on"
The author of the book I speak about in the original post, who was one of the founders of Wired magazine, and may have been the first person ever hired through a computer, also brings up an odd, yet seemingly inevitable scenario:
When robots reach the level of intelligence comparable to humans, will we start respecting their wishes the way we would another human?
May 28 2011: I think you can already say that our brains are very mechanical. Like you said, the further our scientist get at mapping our brain completely, the easier it will be for us to perceive our brains as being mechanical, but with the information we have already (for example the new Ted video where they were able to activate neurons using lights) you could already say that our brains are comparable to anything mechanical.
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A comment on Talk: Ray Kurzweil: The accelerating power of technology
Jobs released the iPhone in 2007, and said the technology was 5 years ahead of its time
Looks like Ray was correct, and Jobs was magical.
A comment on Talk: Marco Tempest: The magic of truth and lies (and iPods)
A comment on Talk: Tim Harford: Trial, error and the God complex
A reply on Conversation: Is Technology, as a whole, Autonomous?
That is actually not true when you think about it. Animals have shows time and time again their ability to innovate. And if you believe in evolution, you must contend that humans were not the first to deal with technology. I doubt the first thing to ever use a stick from a tree, and manipulate it for a beneficial purpose was a human.
And in that regard, you could say technology existed before we did. It has also had an oddly similar process of evolution to that of biological species.
All the replies here are great. I personally believe that technology does have a sort of life, yet it not "conscious"....yet. I think it has to be thought of differently than the growth and evolution of biological organisms. But if I had to draw an analogy, I would say that for the past century or so, the development of the computer as we know it, is like the early stages of constructing the basic internal system of a body and it's organs. And eventually, this "body", through human technology, will develop the ability to become smarter on it's own. That's when I feel the conscious will "turn on"
The author of the book I speak about in the original post, who was one of the founders of Wired magazine, and may have been the first person ever hired through a computer, also brings up an odd, yet seemingly inevitable scenario:
When robots reach the level of intelligence comparable to humans, will we start respecting their wishes the way we would another human?
A comment on Conversation: Human mind Vs Robotic program