Okey doke,

I was meandering around the internet one day when i came across this....

http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix/vinge/vinge-sing.html

Now Im not saying i believe it out and out, however i do feel that technology has progressed pretty rapidly and that advanced A.I. is certainly around the corner somewhere.

Anyway have a read and see what ya think.

Ryan

Wasn't Schwarzenegger in that movie? :)

In regard to the computer options, I don't believe it is possible with digital computer chips. Our own brains work in analog, and recoggnize an infinite number of states between 0 and 1, between yes and no. If we develop analog chips, it is possible that an intelligent computer could be built. Unless it were armed, however, the threat could easily be negated by pulling the plug.

In regard to the mutation, it would be a numbers game. If the new mutants appeared to be a threat, they would be badly outnumbered and most probably killed. More likely they would blend in and interbreed. Natural selection would move the average intelligence in the pro-survival direction. The third option, that the new mutants would live in an enclave somewhere, would run into problems with inbreeding unless great care was taken.

The I Robot/Terminator/Matrix thing is definitely going to happen.

Stars were only Hydrogen at first (the most elementary atom).

The second generation stars had Helium (the next most elementray atom).

100+ generations of stars later there are enough elements for a planet like Earth on which the dirt can learn to walk.

Once the slugs evolve into Men, evolution kind of stops because we have no natural selection. Almost any type of person can survive long enough to reproduce. Crazy people, people with dibilitating but managable diseases, 400 lb people, and stupid people.

The Universe is bound to keep becoming more complex, though. We will make the next level of intelligent being. Once we make the robots, they can make themselves and them Evolution will take place at exponential speed.

(The final result will probably be a cyborg rather than a straight up robot. Life is intrinsically organic.)

In less than 30 years we'll have quantum computers. They'll be able to compute thousands, millions, billions of times faster than current processors. They have the ability to hold data at 1, 0, or an infinite number in between. Will they be able to calculate faster than the human brain? Probably not. While in one tick, 2 to the 500 calculations occur, only 500 give rise to a usable value. Our brain? For every calculation, we probably have a usable value(or maybe more). The task of programming something to think like a human would be impossible to do as a human. We don't understand how we think, and an individual would never ever be capable of understanding the full logic behind each of his/her decisions. Due to the amount of processing power needed to find a solution to one thing the way a human thinks, computers would have a hard time keeping up. Not to mention creating a computer that also evolved would probably be far too difficult. Thinking and evolving are necessary in order to compete with humans. Therefore, even though machines may be able to almost erradicate us if they do manage to gain that much intelligence, they will still be incapable of destroying us entirely due to our ability to evolve faster, as a computer would not have enough data to move a step forward on the evolutionary tract after one attempt, to follow through would probably end in it's destruction.

So the Borg is actually a pretty good example of the way computers could end up being, not in form but in approach.

They learn from experience not intuition, so if you shoot them with a gun they will build armour to protect from that shot but will not look forward and say "We could build armour to protect against this and this etc".

Also they wouldnt unless prompted actually need to evolve, what would be the point from their angle? We are naturally curious species, they wouldnt have that trait

Complexity will increase. We are not the final step.

Chips incorporating organic matter will probably be perfected.
Logic will not overcome the intuition and reflex actions of humans.
It appears to me, that in the half-century that I have observed man, the human capacity to comprehend is still expanding due to the stimulation of exposure. The ability to adapt to arising stimulas appears to magnify when organic matter is involved.
The main side effect I see for humans arising from the increased computerizing of knowledge lies in the relm of lack of physical stimulation.
Of course we must take into account the fact that as we rely more and more on computerized knowlege we take more of a chance of deliberate mis-information becoming the accepted norm.