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  #51  
Old 12-31-2012, 12:24 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

I have a friend who worked at the Singularity Institute for three months, and has several articles on lesswrong. He thinks about the singularity every day, is an amazing character, and I love chatting with him about it even if every bone in my body screams rebellion at the idea. We also worked in the same office in an AI department.

My friend is unsure whether the singularity is utopian or dystopian, which I find funny. He wanted to work on ensuring it was utopian. He also had figured out some really ingenious ways to match everything to do with the singularity up with Christian mythology. He is an atheist, but he's invented a singularity vision of a literal heaven and hell.

You don't have to apologise for waxing philosophical. You just make sure you have these conversations in the pub over a lot of beer, and don't confuse any of it with serious AI research.

Dragar did his phd at Edinburgh same as me, so I'm wondering whether he knows who I'm talking about. Everyone in Informatics knows this guy.
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  #52  
Old 12-31-2012, 01:28 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

Hm, no, it doesn't ring a bell.
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  #53  
Old 01-01-2013, 09:29 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

BoingBoing has a p. good overview of the utopian/dystopian arguments today.

Robots are taking your job and mine: deal with it - Boing Boing :dealwithit:

We're definitely on a dystopian trajectory, not only because of the lolbertarian zero sum mindset, where you can't win unless someone else loses, but because people are already becoming dependent on opaque, corporate controlled technologies. To change that, both of those things would need to change.

So first, we need to trick angsty young people, probably using reverse psychology, into reading Buckminster Fuller instead of Ayn Rand; and also first, we need much, much better technical education, focusing on building and understanding technology, rather than the GUI navigation skills we're telling kids makes them technically adept. (You know who else can navigate GUIs? Pre-verbal babies and ACTUAL LITERAL FROGS AND LIZARDS is who.)
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  #54  
Old 01-02-2013, 12:13 AM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

Oh, hi! I am still on vacation, because apparently I am an academic now so I get entire months off at a time. I'm sure that at some point in the future I will have homework to procrastinate about or a deadline to ignore, but in the meantime, deal with it!!

:dealwithit:
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  #55  
Old 01-03-2013, 10:33 AM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

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So first, we need to trick angsty young people, probably using reverse psychology,
That's funny, but so outdated. Kids are into games nowadays, and lesswrong people are too. We need to trick people who play World of Warcraft into accidentally verifying the ABC conjecture.

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the GUI navigation skills we're telling kids makes them technically adept.
There was an advert in the UK with a kid explaining that his mobile phone worked by fairies.

:(
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  #56  
Old 01-03-2013, 11:01 AM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

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Hm, no, it doesn't ring a bell.
Ah, just testing the water there. I wanted to know whether he went "public", by which I mean, does anyone at Kings' Buildings know Roko.

Informatics and KB are designed to insular.
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  #57  
Old 01-03-2013, 06:18 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

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So first, we need to trick angsty young people, probably using reverse psychology,
That's funny, but so outdated. Kids are into games nowadays, and lesswrong people are too. We need to trick people who play World of Warcraft into accidentally verifying the ABC conjecture.
I think you just implied that I am not very much of a hepcat.

WE ARE ENEMIES NOW.
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  #58  
Old 01-05-2013, 10:43 AM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

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So first, we need to trick angsty young people, probably using reverse psychology,
That's funny, but so outdated. Kids are into games nowadays, and lesswrong people are too. We need to trick people who play World of Warcraft into accidentally verifying the ABC conjecture.
I think you just implied that I am not very much of a hepcat.

WE ARE ENEMIES NOW.
rofl Nah, everyone knows that FF is way ahead of the curve. I think 4chan borrows from you.
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  #59  
Old 01-05-2013, 07:02 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve




This is today's comic. If you go to the actual website, Saturday Morning Breakfast Comics, you can hover over the red dot and see the post-punchline: "Anyway, it's pointless to speculate about a dead species."
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  #60  
Old 01-07-2013, 03:13 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

P much all I know about the Singularity I learned from watching Transcendant Man 1.5 years ago, this thread and a bunch of YouTube videos over Christmas break.

If you hadn't heard, Ray Kurzweil is now Google's Director of Engineering so he's poised to make all his predictions come true!
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  #61  
Old 01-08-2013, 07:02 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

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It is a concept that has been played around with a lot in science fiction, like The Terminator, The Matrix, and Battlestar Galactica, just to name a few. Pretty much any time the machines rise up and enslave humanity, that's the singularity.
Schlachthof funf!


By the way, the Tralfamadorians in this movie are the good guys.
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  #62  
Old 03-01-2013, 04:58 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

I'm not smart enough to wax philosophical about the Singularity. But I will be askeered of robots on account of the Terminator and how science is leaping and bounding closer to getting us all killed and enslaved by robots.

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  #63  
Old 03-01-2013, 07:17 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

You don't need to be smart, you just need to smoke a doobie and think some deep thoughts, apparently. I must be a real sucker to take the long path and study for years on end.

But anyway, WHY WOULD YOU TEACH BIGDOG TO THROW CINDERBLOCKS?!?!?! :whygod: :freakout:
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  #64  
Old 03-01-2013, 07:19 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

from Skylar Tibbits on Vimeo.

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  #65  
Old 03-03-2013, 08:01 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

If the singularity is the advent of self assembling machines, I'd say that the singularity occurred about 3.5 billion years ago. What you seem to be talking about is a reenactment.
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Old 03-11-2013, 03:10 AM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

Yeah, but where did these machines get the blueprint? Or, would you suggest that is wholly contrived as well?
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  #67  
Old 03-11-2013, 07:59 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

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Post the first a little bit of background

There's a great introduction to what the hell I mean when I say "the singularity" at this link:

IO9: What Is The Singularity And Will You Live To See It?

Basically, the singularity refers to a theoretical point in the future when artificial intelligence created by humans becomes so intelligent that we can no longer control or even comprehend it.What about evolution?Do you consider it in your theory?Won't our brain evolve with time as well?If you're referring to robots, I think we might reach that state where robots are not controllable when we allow the robots to create, innovate etc..If we simply gave them a set of command that they have to perform then we wouldn't be in danger. How do you think we can develop robots that have consciousness like our own when we can't even figure out our own brains?Interesting topic ensign :)

It is a concept that has been played around with a lot in science fiction, like The Terminator, The Matrix, and Battlestar Galactica, just to name a few. Pretty much any time the machines rise up and enslave humanity, that's the singularity. In Terminator, they gave it a date. Judgement Day was August 29, 1997. In Battlestar Galactica, it has a sort of BC/AD connotation to it, where it marks the end of one era and the beginning of another. I think it does, anyway, I didn't actually watch BSG, but I loved Caprica.If you've seen Spielberg's A.I artificial intelligence, it's roughly a similar idea as well. A company that usually produces robots that carry out house functions etc..decide to create a robot kid!And this robot kid can love, and it will be a substitute for people who can't have kids or anything

answers in bold, my first reply to your first post :P
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  #68  
Old 04-17-2013, 01:30 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

Evolving Soft Robots with Multiple Materials (muscle, bone, etc.) - YouTube!

THREE-DEE WALRUS-PIXEL-MONSTERS WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND EAT YOUR CHILDREN!

:scaredno: :freakout: :scaredno:
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  #69  
Old 04-17-2013, 03:15 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

They can go ahead and eat our children, but that one at 2:23 won't be taking anyone's job with all those weird floppy appendages flying around. Imagine that guy showing up at an interview!
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Old 04-17-2013, 03:18 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

They reminded me of the noses on these aliens from Futurama.

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Old 04-27-2013, 09:41 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

How is this boring technology shit coming along?
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  #72  
Old 05-09-2013, 04:53 PM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

A Grand Unified Theory of Everything : The New Yorker
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  #73  
Old 05-10-2013, 12:41 AM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

Ah, old stuff like the last lines one Mr. Einstein posted a short while ago.
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Old 09-12-2013, 01:13 AM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

Abrupt rise of new machine ecology beyond human response time

I haven't read the whole thing yet, so please don't give me a quiz.

http://io9.com/a-new-digital-world-i...-us-1286428447

Last edited by lisarea; 09-12-2013 at 02:11 AM. Reason: Sssh. I am editing because I noticed the io9 article and wanted to put that in secretly. Sssh.
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  #75  
Old 09-12-2013, 03:42 AM
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Default Re: Ensign Steve waxes philosophical on the Singularity, a thrad by Ensign Steve

:wriggle:
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