All of this talk about the future and artificially-intelligent robots taking over, frankly, exhausts me. It's tiring to sit and think about the "ifs" and "maybes" all the time. But I understand why we are all so fascinated by the idea of artificially-intelligent robots; I mean, who doesn't want a robot servant one day that'll do all the boring things in life that humans never want to do? Our imagination lets us visualize this and inspires us to strive to create robots that serve our every whim. But an abstract idea can't possibly replace the reality of a real, concrete robot that is fully and completely self-aware and truly artificially-intelligent.
When I actually sit down and imagine the different responses and questions people would have to a robot becoming a sentient being, obviously a plethora of them come to mind. But they're not big questions like "Who are you?" and such. I just want to know what combination of human logic and imagination and our world's resources (such as metals, etc.) would we have to have in order to have a fully self-aware robot. I'd like to imagine such a robot would look like a human, but this is probably because 1) I'm a human and 2) I don't have another being as intelligent as humans to compare them too and. And once we can answer the question of how an artificially-intelligent robot could even feasibly exist would I then ask other bigger questions.
Maybe this is my natural resistance to thinking about the impossible. With today's current technology, unless the government really just IS that good at keeping secrets from the rest of humanity, artificial-intelligence the way we've been talking about in class is impossible. And until our technology and understanding of humanity GREATLY improves, it will continue to be nearly impossible for me to really, fully imagine what an artificially-intelligent robot would look like, act like, etc. I just can't do it.
But if and (hopefully) when that happens, maybe then we can begin the discovery of a new type of intelligent "creature" and everything that comes with that. Of course, how we should treat such a being will only be known once such a "creature" exists and then, and only then, can we come up with "definitelys" and "absolutelys" that will replace the overbearing and annoying presence of the "ifs" and "maybes" of today. Especially the ones we have in class. o_o
I find really interesting that you brought up the topic of the environmental requirements that this would take. So far, we have discussed the various theories and ideas about advancements in technologies and what it would do or look like but we haven't thought about the financial and the burden on our natural resources that having a massive amount of robots with superior artificial intelligence will have. Our environment is already so hurt that having this happen might just be the final blow for our planet.
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