Maybe there is a relationship. John Stossel writes,
Ray Kurzweil — inventor of things like machines that turn text into speech — has popularized the idea that we are rapidly approaching “the singularity,” the point at which machines not only think for themselves but develop intellectually faster than we.
At that point, maybe we no longer talk about “human history.” It will be “machine progress,” with us along for the ride — if machines keep us around. Maybe they’ll keep us in a zoo, like we do with our monkey ancestors.
Scientists and ethicists are beginning to wrestle with the question of how to make sure artificial intelligence, when it arrives, is nice to us.
The overlooked problem is that, apart from the fact that machines lack consciousness (and no one knows what it is anyway), they also lack motivation to do anything in particular. They are designed by humans to do something.
More realistic worry: The people behind the machines may be smarter than we are and may be up to no good. It happens.
Follow UD News at Twitter!