What if robots ran the world?...

[AmbientSound]

Let us assume for a moment that we (humanity) reached a point in the development of technology where everything became autonomous- for example, an A.I. ran the Internet (posing absolutely no threat to humanity because we made absolutely sure it couldn't turn against us in any way) and fixed peoples' computers for them. Let's say we had machines that materialized food out of the collision of beams of subatomic particles. And let's say that all the jobs in the world were done by robots.

Let's say it got to a point where we didn't need money- after all, robots don't need to be paid, they can work non-stop as long as they continue to have energy running through them, they don't get cranky or bored, etc.

How do you think that would change the state of humanity? You and I could own a thousand cars, for free, instantly. We could tell these robots to invent new stuff that we needed, and they could even calculate DNA in seconds, able to make cures for all diseases, etc.

What would happen to our values if we didn't have to work anymore? What would happen to good and evil? How would we interact with each other, and how would we continue to learn spiritual lessons?

[Everlasting]

We would design and build the robots, we would build spaceships and conquer the universe, we would go camping. Play chess, plant gardens etc... it would be great.

[Starvingpercussionist]

I'd think that spiritual progress would be much easier, supposing that politics and useless laws like the criminalization of marijuana had been eradicated by then. Also assuming that this technology is shared by the whole world, I'd say our values would shift away from valuing the mundane pursuit for more stuff, to spiritual fulfillment. We could still learn spiritual lessons, in fact, I'd think that would be the main focus of life, supposing that uncondtional love and the greater expression thereof is the goal for all people and all physical hindrances in the way of that had been removed.

[interception]

I think a post scarcity society would be wonderful. All basic needs are taken care of, leaving all people free to take on persuits of much a higher nature.
People would still do things that might harm others, but it will be a real minority and easily addressed. Most evil deeds arise from base emotions and ignorance, so eliminating desperate situations of hunger, greed and jealousy and other selfish desires that arise from scarcity (as well as eliminating the genetic predisposition factors) should minimize almost all situations for those base emotions to come about.

That's the theory anyway.

[AmbientSound]

I agree with you guys. If everyone's material needs are taken care of, then we can manifest heaven on earth.

I guess now it is a question of whether the most brilliant and gifted individuals of the human race will help things along in that direction.

[kurai kokoro]

yeah It would all be great at some point but then some bafoon would program robots to "clean" up all the garbage and thats where it would go wrong, the robots would then "clean" all organic life from the face of the earth and then it would be a great desert of sorts. and if someone programed it to clean only all the non organic garbage, just imagine all the horrible trouble that would cause. just remember, if it can go wrong, It probably will.

[NoY]

They DO anyways mate.

We are all just furniture reacting to what just happened. if you realise that every single thought in your mind in your whole life was simply a reaction to somthing else like your environment ,under currents of emotions or parents programming you as a child blah blah. then you would see not only are we all robots but we arnt technically alive at all because the only real life form in our lives is the environment we exist in and you have to go as far back as the big bang to care about it lol

Digi Digi Digi G Buck

:NoY:

[AmbientSound]

yeah It would all be great at some point but then some bafoon would program robots to "clean" up all the garbage and thats where it would go wrong, the robots would then "clean" all organic life from the face of the earth and then it would be a great desert of sorts. and if someone programed it to clean only all the non organic garbage, just imagine all the horrible trouble that would cause. just remember, if it can go wrong, It probably will.

Nah, there'd be an A.I. to take care of the definition of the word "garbage." And other robots to apprehend the bafoon before it was too late.

[Mustardseed]

I suppose you would be able to use food stamps to buy gas then 

[kurai kokoro]

gas is harmfull and waistfull.

and what do you think would happin if those robots found out they was superior to us, then they would know that
1. they don't need us.
2. they aren't as fragile.
3. we are great sources of energy.
3. many ways to kill a human only one way to kill a robot.

[CFTraveler]

Robots already run the world.
Try to go one whole day without using a computer, or doing anything that involves a computer.

[kurai kokoro]

I can't, I need music, the only way I can be happy is with music.

[Stookie]

I can't, I need music, the only way I can be happy is with music.

For real
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2JChnwv2Ws

[kurai kokoro]

that is ridicules lmao. well some good of robots i guess as long as people don't get too lazy, I'd still like to have the human element in the loop of all things, especialy gardening. somethings only a human can and is ment to do.

[AmbientSound]

gas is harmfull and waistfull.

and what do you think would happin if those robots found out they was superior to us, then they would know that
1. they don't need us.
2. they aren't as fragile.
3. we are great sources of energy.
3. many ways to kill a human only one way to kill a robot.

1.) From what I have proposed, robots could not "find out" that information because their programming would prevent that from happening. Lines of code tell computers what to do, and that goes for robots too. Humanity would not give robots the power to overwrite any programming that would result in loss of human life, freedom, or anything else we deem necessary. All activity would be monitored by other robots that were programmed to ensure that no bad piece of code could overwrite a good piece of code. There would be a top-level robot which would be coded with, for examole, the Constitution as its operating system. This code could never, ever be changed no matter what, because a way of doing so would simply not exist.

2.) Robots are not as fragile, but I am not proposing robots that are made like ninjas, I'm talking about things like unmanned vehicles such as cars, fork-lifts, etc., which would be built and designed only for work. So it's actually good they aren't fragile.

3.) There are far better sources of energy than humans. To a robot, we are not even good for that.

4.)Assuming the above three conditions WERE inadequate to stop our destruction at the hands of robots, there are as many ways to kill a robot as with a human. The easiest way to destroy a robot is with a magnet. If a powerful enough magnetic field was exposed to their circuitry, they would be toast.

[Tayesin]

The advent of increased technology was supposed to give humanity more leisure time... in reality it has done so, but, that is enforced leisure time by being unemployed or having less opportunity for gainful employment in a job (not careers) that provides personal satisfaction.

Artificial Intelligence is well advanced, due to each 'component' required being researched independently of each other, machines that feed on organics to power their circuitry, human cells operating as natural computer chips and providing astounding advances, spacial and face recognition etc... the list just goes on and on as Human kind pursues the dream of AI/Robots/Androids.

The U.S. government has been deploying pilotless aircraft for over 20 years, and currently use the AI Hunter Killer (MQ-9) which can register it's own flight plans, seek and destroy targets while staying aloft for most of a day and does not require a person to oversee its activities other than to monitor systems, etc, and this is in active service in the middle east already!

The advances in micro machinery are just astounding. According to some research I read in 2002, one single nano-bot release, accidental or puroseful, will invade every human on the planet by travelling on air currents. These machines can already form complex and changing forms to suit any task, they can self-replicate from basic materials, and join together to create new forms unthought of by us humans.

How then do we insure they do not become the higher form of Intelligence on this planet?

I think heading in this direction is a huge mistake by we humans seeking more and greater advances in technology.. which by the way we always as a first use put them to military service!! Always.

Once the military/big business finalise their current research into robotics, indepedant weapons platforms, etc, we then stand the risk of becoming outdated things on the planet, no matter how much programming is done to try and prevent humans from becoming targets... the fact is we know now humans are already being targeted by independant weapons patforms!!

Where does it go from here?

[kurai kokoro]

yeah I meant the EMF when I said that, but anyway moving on.

[AmbientSound]

Unfortunately, Tayesin, you are right. While I don't think we face the threat of artificial intelligence, since that would all but require them to have a personality construct of a sociopathic nature, we are heading in a terrible direction. We have to fight that direction with every ounce of our beings, lest we fall to despair. These technologies can all be put to the uses of good rather than evil, but that technology must be put into the right hands. Our problem is that we are advancing our technology and not our spirits. I wonder what 2012 has in store for us.

[kurai kokoro]

I don't believe artificial intelligence exists but rather only actual intelligence, A computer is only as smart as it's programme which indicates that only actual intelligence exists weather programed or not and if a human can program a computer, so too a computer can program itself. but whatever.

[AmbientSound]

The entire crux if this argument is determining how free a machine might be to operate outside of its programming. How free are WE to operate outside of ours? Since we ARE the programmers, we can choose our own viewpoint. Usually that is based on our values. What would a machine value? Our values are what drive us to make choices, or to not make choices.

Your statements are true to the extent that the computer can operate based on the instructions it was given by its programmer. If it tells the computer to use the Internet to seek out knowledge, then it will do so.

Another factor that might play into the actions undertaken by a machine are the sensory mechanisms with which it might be equipped. A computer cannot see unless it has a camera. It cannot hear without a microphone. It cannot taste or smell without some sort of chemical detection equipment, it cannot feel tactile sensations without a grid network of very sophisticated pressure-pixels (just a term I'm using here to describe what a machine's substitute for topical nerves might be) or feel temperature using some sort of internal thermometer. And how would psychic powers play into all of this?

These things would give the machine further input, which would help it define the information it received a lot better. If the machine had access to a fabricator machine, it could make these things for itself, depending on its programming. Our own minds operate based on associative properties, and though absolutely everything we experience gets recorded directly to our subconscious mind, even if we aren't aware of parts of that experience, some of it is conscious, and what is written to conscious memory is whatever we deemed to be important. Testing that information against the subconscious information is what causes us the sensations of intuition.

Anyway, I'm just saying, it goes beyond the programming alone.

[kurai kokoro]

ya know something, I cannot disagree with you but in our own right we too have been programmed ourselves, I say this only because 1. our brain is so complex thus limiting our knowledge, and 2. I had a dream I was on an Archeology site and I found a robot so sophisticated and so human like I was baffled.

[AmbientSound]

Yes, robots and humans are programmed. But do we in fact operate outside of our programming? Isn't that the whole argument of the soul's existence? Our brains are limited in our knowledge because if we knew everything, we would be Gods. Our limitations allow us to oversee our little piece of existence. These limitations give meaning to what we experience. It's like taking a whole bunch of different colors of paint and making a picture out SOME of them, as opposed to dumping all the colors into a bucket and smearing the resulting color onto an entire canvas, making every part of the canvas exactly the same.

The diversity of existence keeps existence interesting. I don't necessarily think that robots would take over the world. If we are arguing that they are so sophisticated, then they will have sensory integration hardware and software, emotions, and an ability to write and re-write their own programming- just like us. They would be capable of collecting data and making their own judgments. If this is so, then I have to assume that they can be reasoned with. And if this is so, then there is a possibility that a robot could have a soul. They could in fact make their own living bodies, starting from scratch with a genetic code, and they could transfer themselves into the brains of these new bodies, much like Smith did from the second Matrix movie (but hopefully for less evil purposes).

Our emotions are contained on a spectrum of older and newer genetic code. We have base tribal instincts that tell us to kill, make war and fight, be afraid, etc. but then also we have newer programming which allows us to analyze a situation with more sophistication than our ancestors, allowing for more diplomatic courses of action and other approaches to the problems we face.

We are at a point right now where our older genetic coding is becoming obsolete. We recognize collectively that the old ways of war and fighting are not the best way to get things done. Though it is still happening, the majority of people know that there are better ways to do things, and that in itself is a good sign. We are evolving, even if very slowly. It might only take a very small tweak in our genetic coding and we could evolve into the next level of existence.

If robots surpass us as the most evolved and intelligent form of existence on the planet, what do you think they might do? Do you think they would recognize the importance of environmental preservation? I think they would. I also think they could be reasoned with and that it might not mean the imminent extinction of our species or a reduction of our species to a source of energy for them. They would know that we would try to make war on them if they tried to do that. So rather than wasting energy on it, they would probably see solutions that we can't.

[+Explorer+]

Everyone would probably become very lazy and the world would end.

[kurai kokoro]

If you've seen the matrix then you would relize that they never even left the matrix in the first place, that was the whole point of the part where Neo destroyed the robot "outside" the matrix, he even said it towards the end of the third movie. so you see the meaning of the whole matrix series was that the further out you go the further inward you go. same with meditation.

[Everlasting]

Robots doesen't have to be mechanaic, you can brainwash a human into being a robot, this has been going on for the last 50 years. You can also create a bio replica/clone of a former live person, bushs, clintons, Obama etc etc. As a matter of fact the powers that be heavely depend on these clones to do their bidding. This is why there's so many TRAITARS in politics.