will machines take us over within 20 years?
2006-09-16 04:29:23 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
Ohh well..this question is more of philosophy or psychology...[:)]
If the machines are permitted to make all their own decisions, we can't make any conjectures as to the results, because it is impossible to guess how such machines might behave. We only point out that the fate of the human race would be at the mercy of the machines. It might be argued that the human race would never be foolish enough to hand over all the power to the machines. But we are suggesting neither that the human race would voluntarily turn power over to the machines nor that the machines would willfully seize power. What we do suggest is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines' decisions. As society and the problems that face it become more and more complex and machines become more and more intelligent, people will let machines make more of their decisions for them, simply because machine-made decisions will bring better results than man-made ones. Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won't be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide.
2006-09-16 04:44:10 · answer #1 · answered by temptations_irresistible1 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
in one sense, machines have already taken over. Like me, for instance. I get my paycheck deposited straight into my bank, and pay all my bills on line. I almost never have any cash - I pay for everything by debit card and if I need some cash I just nip it out of the closest ATM. Even when I was overseas, I didnt carry any cash or travellers checks. All ATM -- I was buying hot dogs and candy bars and beer at the convenience stores in Iceland and Guatemala by debit card! So, what if the machines cut me off. I'd be totally screwed. I get all my info about the world from my computer news feeds, move around the city totally by car and subway, get diagnosed and treated at the MDs by machine...
So in a sense, the machines own me right now!
2006-09-16 04:34:06 · answer #2 · answered by matt 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It really depends on what you define as 'take over'. Many of us are already dependent on machines to survive. However I guess you mean something like them having autonomous intelligent control over human life. To some extent this may happen but is unlikely to happen on a global scale. Aside from the technical challenge of developing human like intelligence, we are all well aware of the potential as depicted in films like Terminator and I-Robot. That awareness will ensure that such control is kept firmly within the human domain, certainly within the time frame you are talking about.
2006-09-18 03:43:13 · answer #3 · answered by gbiaki 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the Matrix sense, absolutely not. Real intelligence by a computer is, in my opinion, at least 100 years away. The best A.I that we have been able to muster so far does not even posses the intelligence of a common house fly. Besides, even if computers did have an intelligence as great as ours, they still would not have the capacity to take care of themselves. Humans can move around and adapt in ways that no computer or machine can.
2006-09-16 04:41:35 · answer #4 · answered by bruinfan 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
machines need a program to work. computer programs do only what they know....they cannot learn. if they are programed to fight in the desert they will fight like they are in the desert, even if in ht middle of the woods. they do what they know, and cannot learn. that would be humanities sole (and only necessary) advantage. now an AI, a program that can learn, has yet to be created. but that can dramatically change the outcome of a human vs terminator war.
2006-09-16 04:37:02 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i promise you they will. if not in 20 yrs, in 21. machines are unstoppable, soon they'lle control missile launches, and grow more powerful than humans. making them better war machines than the average soldier. and as the robot is programmed, it grows to know greed, and that the world is better off without humans, and we're gone in 21 years.
2006-09-16 04:34:38 · answer #6 · answered by Moe A 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We are Microsoft. Resistance is futile. All will be assimilated.
2006-09-16 04:37:48 · answer #7 · answered by ahandle101 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, but the Chinese might.
2006-09-16 04:39:59 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋