The Mushroom Conspiracy

You know the one: Keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em horse#. Much like the barefoot and pregnant strategy. It's all about keeping people ignorant long enough so that when they finally wake up, it's a done deal. All they can say is, "Wha' happened?"

Big changes are looming - and many are already upon us. ...Robots are taking our jobs already - how can we earn a living when there are no jobs left for humans? ...What else is coming?

These realities are being discussed the world over, mostly by scientists, economists, policy makers and businessmen. Time we joined the discussion, don't you think?

The moral dilemmas of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Should your driverless car value your life over a pedestrian's? Should your Fitbit activity be used against you in a court case? Should we allow drones to become the new paparazzi? Can one patent a human gene?

Scientists are already struggling with such dilemmas. As we enter the new machine age, we need a new set of codified morals to become the global norm. We should put as much emphasis on ethics as we put on fashionable terms like disruption.

"...Because of the great potential of AI, it is important to research how to reap its benefits while avoiding potential pitfalls."

Here are some of the specific questions being asked, that need answers:

Following is a sample, by no means exhaustive, of the ethical decisions which will face us:

Life Sciences. Should gene editing be legal to manipulate the human race and create “designer babies”? ..The list of ethical questions is long: what if a pre-natal test predicted your child would have an IQ of 80 points, well below average, unless you undertook a little editing? What if these technologies were limited to only a wealthy people?

AI, machine learning and data. Over time, Artificial Intelligence will help us make all kinds of decisions. But how do we ensure these algorithms are fairly designed? How do we iron out biases from such systems, which will eventually be used to determine job promotions, college admissions and even our choice of a life partner?

...Bots and Machines. How do we decide what driverless cars can decide? How do we decide what Robots can decide? Will there be a need for the robot equivalent of a Bill of Rights? What about the rights of humans to marry robots and of robots to own property? Should a highly advanced Cyborg be allowed to run for political office?

It's definitely past time to move forward. But how?

The dialogue needs to move beyond academic journals and opinion articles to include government committees and international bodies such as the UN.

So far we have taken a siloed approach – from worldwide banning on human cloning to partial restrictions on GM Foods. Different regions have also taken disparate views and failed to orchestrate a unified response: the EU’s approach to managing the societal impact of new technologies is markedly different from that of the US. China, on the other hand, has always taken the long view. Technology is like water – it’ll find its open spaces. In an interconnected world, local decisions are only effective when enabled by international consensus.

a reply to: soficrow

Clever thread title

I find the idea of AI both fascinating and frightening. A double edged sword that can either push us into a new age or destroy us as we know it. I think regardless of the implications (unless we're talking about The Terminator) we should aggressively persue it and let the water flow where it may.

a reply to: soficrow

I was really hoping this was going to be a thread about the giant communication network of fungus and how it will eventually find a way to kill humans because we are a threat to their existence.

It will be interesting to see how AI and robot/computer technology will influence existing and future laws.
As for taking jobs.. Someone has to program the robots, right?
My main concern has always been privacy. So many cameras on everything.
All it takes is a couple court cases to allow the gov't/police to view and use video from self driving cars and drones, ect. to prosecute Americans.
Interesting times coming up, for sure.

It seems like some are steering us to be mushrooms. It is not only technology, it is food chemistry that makes us believe we need it and must accept it. Science is a tool used by both good and evil. There are people out there that would want to control all of us and chemical technology along with other scientific approaches can make us into parrots, believing in what we are told and being overly obsessive with things.

I can see it coming and only want to make sure I can think on my own for the rest of my life instead of being conditioned to believe what they want us to believe. Ants are conditioned naturally to do what the hive does, sometimes that is good but sometimes it is bad if they are following the wrong leader. I understand this zombie chemistry pretty well, it is being used to make people believe in what is not really true.

It is only a matter of time before the SHTF. We will all be ants.

originally posted by: rickymouse
It seems like some are steering us to be mushrooms. It is not only technology, it is food chemistry that makes us believe we need it and must accept it. Science is a tool used by both good and evil. There are people out there that would want to control all of us and chemical technology along with other scientific approaches can make us into parrots, believing in what we are told and being overly obsessive with things.

I can see it coming and only want to make sure I can think on my own for the rest of my life instead of being conditioned to believe what they want us to believe. Ants are conditioned naturally to do what the hive does, sometimes that is good but sometimes it is bad if they are following the wrong leader. I understand this zombie chemistry pretty well, it is being used to make people believe in what is not really true.

It is only a matter of time before the SHTF. We will all be ants.

Yet I ask you Ricky, is this hive mentality much like tribal mentality? Have we not as a species lived for hundreds of thousands of years in a tribal way, not thinking for ourselves really but more relying upon the thought patterns and mores and lore of our local tribes? How much of what we think of as 'thinking for ourselves' is really just camouflaged group-think that is ages old and only in the last few thousand taken on this veneer of self-directed thinking?

Those on the right of our political spectrum here on ATS like to point out the group-think reactions of those on the left and I find it hard to disagree. All the while those on the left can easily notice it about people on the right. Both sides deny it in themselves claiming independence of thought yet I have to wonder.

So we see this looming future where we all think alike do to the machinations of the powers that be and the social complexes that seek to control us and take away our freedom of thought,yet if that is the state from which we arose and is the state into which we head, is it a hard supposition to consider that this period in which we now find ourselves much different?

Sadly there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Save the passengers life, or the pedestrians? There will need to be concessions made in all of these decisions that cannot begin to take all parties into consideration.

Human morals and integrity cannot be boiled down into an algorithm, regardless of complexity. Fuzzy logic is what we are capable of that is still held to scrutiny by a jury of our peers.

At the end of the day, an AI will need to be held just as liable as it's human counterparts.

a reply to: soficrow

Yep. Don't talk about it. Our daily news, as flamboyant and explosive as it is is, really only the tip of our existential iceberg.
I'm of the early boomer generation and my parents generation made little sense to me and my grandparents born in the late 1800s were like aliens to me. And I watch generation after generation come into being as I grow older and see how they, one after another morph into different cultural expressions and mores. And now we have maybe what, 5 and 6 generations all living at the same time and viewing the world not through the same set of glasses but rather glasses developed for their own?
Everybody pulling and tugging trying to defend their own cultural interpretations of reality, the way things really are?

Toss into this the cross cultural influences from other parts of the world each undergoing similar changes and it is a wonder that we manage to hold to any kind of stability at all.

"To master the dream in its entirety, however, man had to invent in two categories: inventions of power and inventions of understanding. The invention of the scientific method itself began as an adventure in understanding. Inventions of power without understanding have been the bane of human history."

It will be interesting to see if any lessons have been learnt...

The unbearable sadness of the Welsh valleys

a reply to: Michet

...plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Nice links btw. Thanks.

We the People, must certainly get involved in this discussion! For if not, we may face the likes of the dystopian dramas!

Shall mankind's economic and social divide further separate us? Shall the wealthy, powerful, and influential reap benefits, while leaving the common people in social stagnation and inferiority? Could such a divide, eventually cause a rift in our species?

"Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.

The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology.

People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species, he added."

The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.

Human species 'may split in two' (BBC)

H.G. Wells, in; "The Time Machine", imagined a human split, resulting in the Morlocks and Eloi.

"Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico, believes Darwinian evolution in humans is actually speeding up. He highlighted sexual selection through mate choice as one key driver.

"You still have powerful mate choice shaping mental traits particularly … traits that are needed to succeed economically and in raising kids," Miller said.

"We're also going to get stronger sexual selection, because the more advanced the technology gets, the greater an effect general intelligence will have on each individual's economic and social success, because as technology gets more complex, you need more intelligence to master it," he said.

"That intelligence results in higher earnings, social status, and sexual attractiveness."
Miller added that artificial selection using genetic technologies will likely accentuate these changes in the future.

"Parents could basically choose which sperm and egg get to meet up to produce a baby based on genetic information about which genes contribute to which physical and mental traits," he said.

"If the rich and powerful keep the artificial-selection technology to themselves, then you could get that kind of split between a kind of upper-class, dominant population and a lower-class, genetically oppressed population," he added.

"But I think it's very likely the new genetic technologies will be widespread in their use, simply because that's more profitable. So I think there will actually be a leveling effect, where both the poor and the rich are going to be able to have the best kids they can genetically."

FUTURE HUMANS: Four Ways We May, or May Not, Evolve (National Geographic)

Surely it is the wealthy financiers, the military–industrial–congressional complex, and the distinguished institutions of prestige who currently wield and direct current biotechnology.

Today, the very real and existent movements of Technocracy and Transhumanism are pioneering and leading the way, due to our fungal environment. It's time that we mushrooms glimpse a little light and get in this discussion.

I really don't understand where science is trying to take us... I mean the best life that we as humans can have... is a life where we are interacting with the Earth.

This Earth is the most complex and diverse environment that we could ever hope to have and we largely ignore it... instead of maximizing the pleasure of living on this planet we are seeking for other things. Other things that draw us away from the greatest blessing that Humanity has....which is the privilege to live on this extraordinary planet... and to enjoy it to its fullest....to develop societies and lives where we get to enjoy our environment by interacting with it on a deeper and fuller level. Instead we seem to constantly be going in the wrong direction.

a reply to: soficrow

The spirit of the mushroom will create a vessel through the mind of man, and man shall become one with the vessel.

the spirit will walk on this earth.

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire

originally posted by: rickymouse
It seems like some are steering us to be mushrooms. It is not only technology, it is food chemistry that makes us believe we need it and must accept it. Science is a tool used by both good and evil. There are people out there that would want to control all of us and chemical technology along with other scientific approaches can make us into parrots, believing in what we are told and being overly obsessive with things.

I can see it coming and only want to make sure I can think on my own for the rest of my life instead of being conditioned to believe what they want us to believe. Ants are conditioned naturally to do what the hive does, sometimes that is good but sometimes it is bad if they are following the wrong leader. I understand this zombie chemistry pretty well, it is being used to make people believe in what is not really true.

It is only a matter of time before the SHTF. We will all be ants.

Yet I ask you Ricky, is this hive mentality much like tribal mentality? Have we not as a species lived for hundreds of thousands of years in a tribal way, not thinking for ourselves really but more relying upon the thought patterns and mores and lore of our local tribes? How much of what we think of as 'thinking for ourselves' is really just camouflaged group-think that is ages old and only in the last few thousand taken on this veneer of self-directed thinking?

Those on the right of our political spectrum here on ATS like to point out the group-think reactions of those on the left and I find it hard to disagree. All the while those on the left can easily notice it about people on the right. Both sides deny it in themselves claiming independence of thought yet I have to wonder.

So we see this looming future where we all think alike do to the machinations of the powers that be and the social complexes that seek to control us and take away our freedom of thought,yet if that is the state from which we arose and is the state into which we head, is it a hard supposition to consider that this period in which we now find ourselves much different?

Humans tend to be community based animals. There are alpha people who take charge of the pack. That is normal.

What I am talking about is people who will use chemistry to control and profit from other. This is not a community or hive thing at all. It is a society where those with the right chemicals can control the masses. Humans already consume some of this chemistry to be happy and fit in to society. The problem is that when they jack up this chemistry too high it makes into marks for deceptive people who want to relieve us of our money. There are many in the medical trades that act like vultures when they get an injured human, they get a sparkle in their eyes.

But the use of these chemicals not only makes us not be able to challenge the doctors, it makes us believe deceivers all over the place. We get swindled easier, then because of our pride we shrug it off. I am learning more and more of this chemistry every week. Just eat what they say to eat and avoid what has said to be bad for you and you will believe me without question if I produce evidence that doesn't isn't even pertinent to the situation. It blocks our ability to comprehend, it takes away our ability to think properly, it takes away our common sense.

love this topic
long time lurker had to join to say ^^

also sapiens sounds like a good book
www.theguardian.com...

originally posted by: gale0fdeath
love this topic
long time lurker had to join to say ^^

also sapiens sounds like a good book
www.theguardian.com...

Welcome!

...and thanks for the link.