SCI/TECH: Tiny Computers Go Where No Computer Has Gone Before

"Their speed would make us look like monkeys."

Let me rephrase this, their speed would make us look like ants.

We would have no choice, but to connect to the central AI neural-net.

This is where we would download the latest instructions on how best to prolong our lives, visit virtual thronging places, get the latest ways to connect our equipment that we have built w/ nanites to receive new instructions to build the things we want to have.








[edit on 9/11/2005 by bodebliss]

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies
What we must understand, is that, in trying to find a cure for all diseases, is almost the same thing as playing god, it is our everlasting quest for immortality, and with nanotechnologies, it is one leap forward, in the attempt to find cures for cancer, viral diseases, and the list just keeps going. Hell, we might even find a cure for aging. All of this is unnatural, and the more technology progresses, the less in touch man kind comes with his natural surroundings and way of life.

Who's to say that's a bad thing. Mankind has lived in a perpetual state of warfare for thousands of years. Or near enough to make peace time look rare, especially the last century. The only way we will survive is to wholeheartedly embrase technology and stop fighting it. It was ingrained into us very early on in our evolution that we are never to stay in one place for very long. We have been on this planet for long enough, time to leave the cradle of civilization and spread out amoung the stars and make our species immortal. How many people will choose to leave solely depends on how bad things get on Earth. Personally I think we are heading towards a new exodus and Homo-Sapiens will spread out and speciate, I cannot think of a better legacy.

Our way of life is coping with change that's the nature of our species, if we weren't so good at it we would have died off along time ago.

The Transhumanist movement encorages and actively discusses the various moral implications but we also urge that breakthroughs should not be held up in commitee when they can help people shortly after discovery. We are all collectively heading for a radically different world over the next 20 years, many challenges face us that could delay many advances so we must forge ahead while diligently keepin tabs on the risks.

[edit on 11-9-2005 by sardion2000]

We are already on the transhumanist path.

Vaccines have put us there, as well as artificial organs, transplants, stints, etc.

Originally posted by bodebliss
We are already on the transhumanist path.

Vaccines have put us there, as well as artificial organs, transplants, stints, etc.

Many will oppose and already do. There needs to be more commitment and awareness. Both of which are sorely lacking. Never assume an outcome as there are lots of wild cards in the deck.

This is by John Horgan

"Brain Chips and Other Dreams of the Cyber-Evangelists"
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 3, 2005


At times, I confess, I yearn for a brain chip. Dissatisfied with the sluggish, aging, three-pound lump of neurons that nature bequeathed me, I fantasize that a surgeon has drilled a hole in my cranium and installed a Neuromorphic Adaptive Quantum Nanoprocessor in my cortex. Its features would include a WIFI Internet linkup and an artificial-pundit program customized to reflect my rhetorical and intellectual idiosyncracies.

Instead of agonizing over this essay, I'd let my brain chip do the work. I'd mentally specify the essay's topic, target audience, word count, and tone (settings: mildly skeptical to viciously snarky). My brain chip would scour cyberspace for relevant readings, distill the mass of data and opinion into a nifty 2,000-word essay, and beam it to my editor--all in less time than it takes my "real" self to type this period. "I" could finally make a decent living as a freelancer.

Brain chips are only one of many technologies that could allow us to transcend our natural limits, but they appeal to those who consider genetic or pharmaceutical enhancement too subtle and slow. Think of the difference between the films Gattaca, whose genetically souped-up characters resembled supermodels with high IQ's, and The Matrix, in which everyone sported brain jacks. Brain chips could, in principle, allow us to download digitized knowledge of kung fu or helicopter navigation directly into our memory banks, like The Matrix characters. We could also control our computers and toaster ovens with our thoughts; communicate with other chip-equipped people, not in our current tedious, one-word-at-a-time fashion but broadband; and exchange virtual fluids with ultratalented "sexbots."

Link: www.johnhorgan.org...

We must ask ourselves would we allow such things to happen to us? Would we allow this type of technology to take us into an age were we can become "flesh bots" with super natural powers? If so, the mere human capabilities will become oboselete. Some agrue yes we should, because it would hender our advances in technology, and lives we could save if we don't.

I ask how do you personally feel about this?

If we combine our brains with computer chips, and the internet, then what privacy would we have? Could someone basically read our thoughts? Would our brains have ips? Would we even own our brains anymore? Would we have to pay to keep our brains online or offline? Would we have to pay to keep our brains? Could someone hack our brain, and give us false memories? These are questions we must ask oursleves. Where will this technology lead us? Better or worst? That is up to us to decide.

-LOD

Of course your talking about an internet w/ bandwidth of several terabytes / sec for everyone, maybe even petabytes / sec.

How would you feel if you could upload your personality onto a computer?
Or download someone else's personality?

Well let me revise that assumption. It would have to be an internet w/ 20 exobytes / sec or 20 million billion bytes / sec bandwidth.

www.kurzweilai.net.../articles/art0157.html?

Originally posted by LiquidationOfDiscrepancy
How would you feel if you could upload your personality onto a computer?
Or download someone else's personality?

I would not be into this having a permanent personality mimiced on the web.

I would like to be on the web in a totally virtual environment w/ other people, but if it got too real you might also really die.








[edit on 9/11/2005 by bodebliss]

If neurobionic chips get implanted in human minds, and the same into lets say a dog's mind, do you think we could communicate information between the two?

I don't know about you but I sense my dog's thoughts. They are highly emotional and easy to read creatures. When my dog is bothered by something, and I come into view he will point w/ his muzzle to the object of his concern telling me, like I was a dog also, with wines and half barks exactly whats going on and it's like a language you must interpret. I have noticed by careful observatio of his soundings that he uses the same sounds for squirrels each time and certain inflections tells me if they are close, far, and how many there are. He has set references for a number of things, and I can immediately tell if he is dealing w/ something new.

You may find this link interesting

James Hughes, a bioethicist at Trinity College, in Hartford, nonetheless contends that the benefits of neurobionics far outweigh the risks. We could minimize potential problems, he argues in Citizen Cyborg, by establishing a benign, global government that made brain chips available to everyone and regulated their use. To ensure that cyborgs behaved, for example, the government would test them for moral decency; those who failed would have 'morality chips' installed.

Link: ieet.org...

I just wonder what is considered "moral decency"?

Have a look at this brain cell on a microchip




[edit on 073030p://000 by LiquidationOfDiscrepancy]

I wonder how much smarter people would get with neurobionic microchips inserted into their brain?

[edit on 053030p://111 by LiquidationOfDiscrepancy]

Originally posted by LiquidationOfDiscrepancy
You may find this link interesting

I just wonder what is considered "moral decency"?

It's completely subjective and in the eye of the beholder. At least IMO.

I wonder how much smarter people would get with neurobionic microchips inserted into their brain?

Well considering that our brains resources are mostly tied up in processing signals from all the various organs, it would probably increase our intellect by an order of magnitude. People say A.I. will take over because they will be able to exponentially increase their intellect, well so can we...

Very interesting.. I'd like to do more research on this subject.

LiquidationOfDiscrepancy,

If you want to keep up on the latest developments, go here and download this news reader it's chock full of the latest longevity-transhumanist info:

www.mprize.org...

I wish I could find the articles, but I remember reading that the optimum physiological age for humans is 10-11 years old. This is the age at which the human form has the most open options for further development. I think at a future time scientist will try to freeze development at that stage. In effect all humans would seem an average 10 1/2 years old, even though they may be 1000's of years old.







[edit on 9/14/2005 by bodebliss]

This is for you Daystar