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Progress is Overrated
Where are we heading?
I’m a technophile. I surround myself with the latest technology, buy the latest gadgets and try to learn how to use them.
However, I’m scared of it.
I’m afraid we are advancing so fast and so blindly into the future that we haven’t had time to think it through, to gauge the consequences and the dangers of such technological paradise/hell.
Do we really want an AI that is smarter than us? Is that a wise thing to do? Are we creating a monster that is going to destroy us?
I’m not a Luddite but I don’t want to live in denial either.
It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.
Technology is exponential; your phone, your computer, your washing machine, your fridge will become a 100 times smarter in just a few years — AI, Deep learning, nanotechnology, robotics — all combined can explode into something unimaginable and we’ll be left behind.
There is a rule in nature: the smarter animal tends to rule. We used to compete with chimps for food, then we became smarter and now we used them for entertainment in zoos and do cruel experiments with them. Is AI going to do the same for us? You bet.
