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Artificial intelligence: can we control it?
It is the world’s greatest opportunity, and its greatest threat, believes Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom
Scientists reckon there have been at least five mass extinction events in the history of our planet, when a catastrophically high number of species were wiped out in a relatively short period of time. We are possibly now living through a sixth — caused by human activity. But could humans themselves be next?
This is the sort of question that preoccupies the staff at the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford. The centre is an offshoot of the Oxford Martin School, founded in 2005 by the late James Martin, a technology author and entrepreneur who was among the university’s biggest donors. As history has hit the fast-forward button, it seems to have become the fashion among philanthropists to endow research institutes that focus on the existential challenges of our age, and this is one of the most remarkable.
Tucked away behind Oxford’s modern art museum, the institute is in a bland modern office block; the kind of place you might expect to find a provincial law firm. The dozen or so mathematicians, philosophers, computer scientists and engineers who congregate here spend their days thinking about how to avert catastrophes: meteor strikes, nuclear winter, environmental destruction, extraterrestrial threats. On the afternoon I visit there is a fascinating and (to me) largely unfathomable seminar on the mathematical probability of alien life.
Presiding over this extraordinary institute since its foundation has been Professor Nick Bostrom, who, in his tortoise-shell glasses and grey, herringbone jacket, appears a rather ordinary academic, even if his purple socks betray a streak of flamboyance. His office resembles an Ikea showroom, brilliantly lit by an array of floor lamps, somewhat redundant on a glorious sunny day. He talks in a kind of verbal origami, folding down the edges of his arguments with precision before revealing his final, startling conclusions. The slightest monotonal accent betrays his Swedish origins.
…
Bostrom makes it clear that he and his staff are not interested in everyday disasters; they deal only with the big stuff: “There are a lot of things that can go and have gone wrong throughout history — earthquakes and wars and plagues and whatnot. But there is one kind of thing that has not ever gone wrong; we have never, so far, permanently destroyed the entire future.”
Anticipating the obvious next question, Bostrom argues that it is fully justified to devote resources to studying such threats because, even if they are remote, the downside is so terrible. Staving off future catastrophes (assuming that is possible) would bring far more benefit to far greater numbers of people than solving present-day problems such as cancer or extreme poverty. The number of lives saved in the future would be many times greater, particularly if “Earth civilisation”, as he calls it, spreads to other stars and galaxies. “We have a particular interest in future technologies that might potentially transform the human condition in some fundamental way,” he says.
So what tops the institute’s list of existential threats? A man-made one: that rapidly advancing research into artificial intelligence might lead to a runaway “superintelligence” which could threaten our survival. The 43-year-old philosopher is himself a notable expert on AI and the author of Superintelligence, a startling and controversial book that discusses what he describes as “quite possibly the most important and most daunting challenge humanity has ever faced.”
“Before the prospect of an intelligence explosion, we humans are like small children playing with a bomb. Such is the mismatch between the power of our plaything and the immaturity of our conduct,” he wrote.
Source: https://next.ft.com/content/46d12e7c-4948-11e6-b387-64ab0a67014c
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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