2 ms·

I would argue that the recent future has much more evidence for AI than aliens. Evidence for the Messiah seems to primarily come from a 2,000 year old book. Th

by MR4D 10y ago

I would argue that the recent future has much more evidence for AI than aliens. Evidence for the Messiah seems to primarily come from a 2,000 year old book. Thinking about the future is an exercise in prediction. Necessarily, not all predictions would be correct.

nradov 10y ago
Please cite your evidence. So far no one has defined a scientifically plausible development path for constructing an AGI. At this point it's just as much science fiction as a warp drive or cloning dinosaurs.
- Arizhel 10y ago
  I have to disagree about cloning dinosaurs. A true AI isn't even well-defined; would we even know one if we saw it? We don't even know how consciousness works in ourselves. Warp drive we can understand at a high level and identify if we saw one, but our knowledge of physics says it's impossible. It may be possible, but not according to our theories; we'll have to either come up with different theories to invent it, or if someone stumbles across is, we'll have to modify our theories to explain it. (We do have one theoretical warp drive, but it relies on negative mass IIRC.) Cloning dinosaurs isn't like that. It's completely plausible. We've already cloned sheep and other animals. I believe the main thing holding us back from cloning dinosaurs is having enough intact DNA, or maybe some other technical hurdles related to the cloning process (after all, cloning a sheep wasn't that hard since we have no shortage of existing sheep to use for incubation; we don't have existing dinosaurs for this). Cloning dinosaurs is "science fiction" the way building a habitat on the Moon is: it's completely plausible scientifically, it's just being held back by other factors. AI and warp drive are not like this.
  - nradov 10y ago
    Ha ha let me know when you have a baby T. Rex. Cloning dinosaurs is a total pipe dream by people who don't understand biology. Extracting intact DNA is just one of several impossible obstacles. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/british-scientist-clone-dinosaur-they-havent-they-wont-and-they-never-will-heres-why-9225781.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/british-scientist-...

by MR4D 10y ago

nradov 10y ago

Please cite your evidence. So far no one has defined a scientifically plausible development path for constructing an AGI. At this point it's just as much science fiction as a warp drive or cloning dinosaurs.

Arizhel 10y ago
I have to disagree about cloning dinosaurs. A true AI isn't even well-defined; would we even know one if we saw it? We don't even know how consciousness works in ourselves. Warp drive we can understand at a high level and identify if we saw one, but our knowledge of physics says it's impossible. It may be possible, but not according to our theories; we'll have to either come up with different theories to invent it, or if someone stumbles across is, we'll have to modify our theories to explain it. (We do have one theoretical warp drive, but it relies on negative mass IIRC.) Cloning dinosaurs isn't like that. It's completely plausible. We've already cloned sheep and other animals. I believe the main thing holding us back from cloning dinosaurs is having enough intact DNA, or maybe some other technical hurdles related to the cloning process (after all, cloning a sheep wasn't that hard since we have no shortage of existing sheep to use for incubation; we don't have existing dinosaurs for this). Cloning dinosaurs is "science fiction" the way building a habitat on the Moon is: it's completely plausible scientifically, it's just being held back by other factors. AI and warp drive are not like this.
- nradov 10y ago
  Ha ha let me know when you have a baby T. Rex. Cloning dinosaurs is a total pipe dream by people who don't understand biology. Extracting intact DNA is just one of several impossible obstacles. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/british-scientist-clone-dinosaur-they-havent-they-wont-and-they-never-will-heres-why-9225781.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/british-scientist-...