In a sense, I am both excited and scared for what is to come in the next 30 years. I believe that great discoveries and inventions will be made, but I am afraid at what cost. What we will sacrificing as a society for these advances? Will we no longer have privacy? Will Ai become too smart for its own good? Is our world going to turn into George Orwell's 1984? Unfortunately, it is impossible to know what exactly is in store for us. And that really is scary.
While Kurzweil and Joy both make very solid points about AI, I think both are overlooking the big picture; the fact that we are still in control of what we put out into the world. Now of course, as the years progress, everything will be newer, quicker, smaller, and more accessible, but that is just human nature. The need to improve. What we should be doing is monitoring the new AI, and keeping sure that we, the humans, are keeping one step ahead of them. We already know our limits, better, our morality, but we do not yet know the limits of robots, or for that matter, AI. By giving them a chance to feel, are we in effect, creating a new species? Whats to stop us from making a robot able to reproduce? I think that when it finally gets to that point, we will be in far over our heads, and the world will yet again change as we know it.
When you look at the revolutions such as the steam engine, television and the automobile, you must also look at the time they were presented. I do not believe that we live in a time where another big invention like this can happen. Then again, there are so many things I do not know about. What I do know, however, is that these earlier revolutions completely changed the way people lived their lives. In the time we live in now however, there isn't much on the horizon for life altering inventions. Yes of course, we are finding brand new ways to stay alive longer, cure diseases, and so on, but are practicing the basic trends of society; making families, entertaining ourselves, and the unending search for the best donut ever made. The thing I'm most afraid of is our government. What is there to stop them from gaining more power, and exercising that power in their citizens lives? Democracy? The Constitution? They hide behind those ideals and documents when it works out for them, but if they want to do something not exactly constitutional, they can manipulate the system.
For now, Kurzweil can keep his optimism about the boundless possibilities Ai has in store for us, but I think with people like Joy around, we will keep a good balance of opportunity and conservatism in our new products.
