What is Digg?72 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24Too late, this already exists.. It's called THE INTERNET!
Society: Myspace
Language: 1337
Culture:9yr old E-thugs - goatomatic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18FTA
"The agents will not be labelled, but will have their own distinguishing characteristics to make them recognisable."
Agent Smith? - Durrok, on 10/12/2007, -4/+20Oh come on man you can't just toss that out there. You need to make some joke about it! You just ruined it for the rest of us, thanks a lot.
- benitojuarez, on 10/12/2007, -6/+21My CPU is a neural net processor, a learning computer.
- wayjer, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16Yes you have to know that if it is submitted by CoJ, it must be a dupe!
- wayjer, on 10/12/2007, -6/+17CoJ = Duke of Dupe
- timewarrior, on 10/12/2007, -5/+15http://digg.com/robots/Searching_for_the_soul_in_the_machine
- robbh66, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9A number of movies have been made about this...
Never goes so well for the humans :| - ownedbytheman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11He just doesn't care. He is above dupe checking.
- nanos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Come with me if you want to live
- Slayback, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Someone should make a computer model to predict the outcome. ;)
- DCstewieG, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Cartman bought sea monkeys and they built their own civilization, then ended up having a war, launching bombs, and blew up their tank.
It was spoofing Simpsons when Lisa indirectly created a civilization for a science project by leaving her tooth in cola. - Wyzard, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8"NEW TIES"? Bah, "Darwinia" is a much better name. :-)
- djork, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Except computers won't call it "creationism" or "evolution." It will be called "inheritance" or "polymorphism."
- draegloth, on 10/12/2007, -9/+14I, for one, welcome our Computer Cultural Society overlords.
- spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4How much you wanna bet some British hobbyist uncovers this story from a military computer with no password?
- Lord_oftheTrons, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Everyone freaks out and starts claiming "Skynet, Terminator, Matrix"... So you think we should stop technological progress just because you are afraid of A.I.? The one thing you seem to be missing, is that A.I. is still HUMAN Intelligence. We created it, and it is therefore human. Ray Kurzweil wrote an excellent book on this topic, "The Singularity Is Near". Check it out for a great read.
"The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them."
-- Albert Einstein - 4degrees, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I wonder if they will make an agent that is ready to use by common folk ala seti@home...
computersociety@home? - victorycig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is right up my alley. I'm about to start a sociology PhD program, and my research interests include virtual societies.
A project like this will enhance our understanding of the development of basic, self-imposed rules that govern human societies. What I really wonder is this: will humans be able to create a social simulation comprehensive enough that it can accurately predict both large-scale human decisions like policy-writing and wars, as well as small-scale decisions like whether I should do laundry today or put it off another day? - wyattxp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4movie: The Thirteenth Floor
- DarthTurducken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Check out "The Thirteenth Floor"
- roguewit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"...being observed in a lab?" --By mice? Just to find out the answer is"42"...
- katina, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Since this has turned into an OT, dupey story anyway... ;)
I highly recommend the "Robot City" books by Isaac Asimov. Okay, he didn't actually write them himself but they are based on his robots. The books look into what happens on a planet built and entirely populated by robots. It is intended for human residents but there are none around to guide them so the robots just do their best.
They're just adolescent level but are still worth a read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov's_Robot_City - spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Sea monkeys + semen = seaciety!
- pbaehr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Reminds me of the nation of "01" founded by the robots in one of the Animatrix bits. Needless to say, bad things followed.
- Ramble, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Highly interesting, I wonder what will happen.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Get to the chopper!
- yoda715, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Skynet anyone?
- Omnicrola, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For any current machine system this is true, but all current computer systems are only designed to do specific things. Once you design an AI system that is allowed to modify any part of it's code as it sees fit, then it has the potential to do anything. Hook that AI system into a hardware system that can manipulate and control real world objects, and then you have the beginnings of a "robot revolution" ;)
- apt11, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This just in, computer society encounters their first virus - they call it Microsoft. President Bush sequesters part of computer society in order to investigate potential viruses of mass destruction.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There is absolutely no reason that in 1000 years this could not result in a "reality" not unlike the one we already live in. All that is really missing is degree of complexity and processing power. If both of those keep growing at the rate they have been then, in a pretty short time, a fully functional reality could be created with self-aware creatures that would believe themselves to be alive.
And they may, in fact, be quite right. - crythias, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1... and sentient entities will come to a realisation that perhaps there is something bigger than them, while others will deny that and say that it's all been a matter of extremely long periods of time.
- ucbrave92, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3what if we are just advanced computers being observed in a lab? ponder that.......
- avPaul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Agreed that all these references to movies/fiction is weird. Since when has the entertainment industry become some accurate predictor and judge of science and technology? Computer societies aren't frightening. People who rely on entertainment as a source of information are frightening.
At the same time, I'd not choose Kurzweil as a particularly accurate source of truth. The guy is swimming in his own kool aide. Real intelligence, even when artificially created, is still going to be extremely complex. Anything producing human levels of intelligence will be just as complex as humans and we won't understand how it works, either. It's already true (and has been for decades) that we can write programs that when running produce results we are unable to understand. There's no safety or security to be found in the concept that artificial intelligence will be understandable (or benign) because humans created it.
This concept of letting software entities evolve in a social setting is really smart. The biggest failing of AI has come from the idea that an isolated "thing" with no real connection to its world can be intelligent. Basic animal intelligence evolves from the animal's connection to it's world and its ability to move around in that world. Human intelligence requires society. We're intelligent because of, and within the context of, our sociality. (See http://www.adaptiveview.com/articles/ipsoprnt.html for an example of a computational intelligence method designed around a form of sociality.) - kloud213, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yeah there is a pretty good chance of that actually,at least i beleive so. His ideas look so good on paper but greed has always ruined his vision.
- cam815, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Movie influence or not, this whole premise just has bad idea written all over it. If it's a true society, designed around the basic ideas of survival and progression, they'll reach a point where expansion will be desired.
- victorycig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1In a very real sense, we are just advanced computers. I question the existence of "free will" on more than a philosophical level.
- alecks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You could argue that viruses (worms) today are very much like a form of life. Their genetic *code* gives them the basic insticts to survey and multiply. There are many species on earth who exhibit these characteristics... ofcourse, they also fit into a bigger picture of ecology where they play another role for a preditor or pray, and keep the ecosystem going.
I guess one could argue that so do viruses... keeps corporations going by providing anti-virus solutions and also helps raise awareness to those who become infected (once someone gets their PC hosed, they're more likely to be cautious in the future) - zubi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What is this virtual society realizes its existance and doesnt want to be destroyed...
Rise of the Machines. - DarthTurducken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@wyattxp
Dammit you beat me - mrpackrat42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1A.I. research is always a fun read. We can't clearly define what intelligence is, even in ourselves, and we don't know how it works. We can only say "Well, we know it when we see it". And so A.I. researchers are reduced to throwing a bunch of stuff together at random and hoping that something recognizably intelligent will grow out of it.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You're kind of getting at a "recursive Godhead" which I have written about before. I think I may have coined the phrase because neither Yahoo, Google or Usenet have that phrase (I x-no-archive my Usenet posts).
In any case, the recursive Godhead is really quite simple. In this very story we see ourselves becoming like onto gods to these created beings. With sufficient level of complexity they may become self-aware and alive for all intents and purposes. Thus we become the Godhead who controls the parameters of their existence. However, with sufficient complexity may come the requirement that those created beings also be able to create their own beings. This could easily become a recursive process where there are multiple creators, multiple realities, and many different rules whereby reality is governed.
In this model all things are possible. The "gods" one level above us may not interfere much. It could be that they interfere plenty but that 5000 years for us feels like a 20 minute break for them. Our reality may be bootable such that changes could be made and we would be reset to some default to start over.
The only way to test for this scientifically is to find breaks in reality where the rules are obviously broken. We'd have to hope that the level above us did not notice while we investigated. Currently the best chance for this is the fact that the worlds of the very large and the very small do not obey the same laws of physics. However, our masters may be ready to unveil that Grand Unifying Theory any day now and, of course, it will make perfect sense ;-) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Very, very nice. Worth clicking that link.
- NiLeS, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/breedinggrounds.htm
"From the corner of his eye he noticed the large output screens suddenly change. The screens, usually showing abstract data representing the activity inside the system, were now concentrating on one window of data in which the output from a Chinese natural language system was displayed.
Characters came slowly up on the screen.
On another window an autonomous language package was translating into English, French and Hebrew.
At Matt's fascinated gaze Weir had turned. For the first time since Matt had known him, he was speechless.
It was the same message, over and over, repeated in four languages on every screen in the silent complex.
Stop. The message said, simply.
Stop breeding us.
In the sudden silence the sounds of protest from outside were like the waves of a faraway ocean, racing closer and closer, drowning all thought but for the one echoed and multiplied on the screen.
Stop breeding us." - veloscaper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Milk, cheese and deli meats develop their own society, language and culture in my fridge all the time. I've never liked any of them.
- numba1xclusive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1***** John Connor, we need Mr. Anderson.
- ChileanGoD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1We allready saw that in TRON.
- ke4roh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Isn't there a movie about this sort of thing... with that California governor fellow?
- bslade, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2what is this, Fark?
- onelove, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1elephant dream
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