Is a Skynet scenario plausible?

**Kang** · 2012-11-27 16:56

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cambri...--finance.html

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Cambridge to study technology's risk to humans

LONDON (AP) — Could computers become cleverer than humans and take over the world? Or is that just the stuff of science fiction?

Philosophers and scientists at Britain's Cambridge University think the question deserves serious study. A proposed Center for the Study of Existential Risk will bring together experts to consider the ways in which super intelligent technology, including artificial intelligence, could "threaten our own existence," the institution said Sunday.

"In the case of artificial intelligence, it seems a reasonable prediction that some time in this or the next century intelligence will escape from the constraints of biology," Cambridge philosophy professor Huw Price said.

When that happens, "we're no longer the smartest things around," he said, and will risk being at the mercy of "machines that are not malicious, but machines whose interests don't include us."

Fears that machines could overtake humans have long been the subject of science fiction — the computer HAL in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," for example, is one of film's best-known computer threats.

Price acknowledged that many people believe his concerns are far-fetched, but insisted the potential risks are too serious to brush away.

"It tends to be regarded as a flakey concern, but given that we don't know how serious the risks are, that we don't know the time scale, dismissing the concerns is dangerous. What we're trying to do is to push it forward in the respectable scientific community," he said.

While Price said the exact nature of the risks is difficult to predict, he said that advanced technology could be a threat when computers start to direct resources towards their own goals, at the expense of human concerns like environmental sustainability.

He compared the risk to the way humans have threatened the survival of other animals by spreading across the planet and using up natural resources that other animals depend upon.

Price is co-founding the project together with Cambridge professor of cosmology and astrophysics Martin Rees and Jann Tallinn, one of the founders of the internet phone service Skype.

The university said Sunday the center's launch is planned next year.

**vagus** · 2012-11-27 16:57

If Google continues to release free shit and run this world. Yes, Skynet is possible.

**isladar** · 2012-11-27 17:39

Betteridge's Law of Headlines, which seemingly applies to thread titles as well.

**Kang** · 2012-11-27 17:58

Originally Posted by isladar

Betteridge's Law of Headlines, which seemingly applies to thread titles as well.

You got me. It's even funnier because I'm a journalist and should know better.

**Abandon** · 2012-11-27 18:07

Originally Posted by isladar

Betteridge's Law of Headlines, which seemingly applies to thread titles as well.

Holy wow, I love you. Also, after reading the first line of the article and seeing "cleverer," I stopped reading.

**miokomioko** · 2012-11-27 18:32

It's alright because Ian Betteridge broke this law himself.

**BaneTheBrawler** · 2012-11-27 18:40

At the opposite end of the scale, there are the Minds from the Culture novels; benevolent super-intelligent sentient machines that run a Utopian society.

I much prefer that model.

**Andalusian girls** · 2012-11-27 18:43

inevitable

presupposing continued existence the evolutionary cycle of organic life will culminate in artificial sentience

who can say what form it will take but like everything else i imagine it will be varied, and malleable

**Boyiee** · 2012-11-27 18:50

Originally Posted by Andalusian girls

inevitable

presupposing continued existence the evolutionary cycle of organic life will culminate in artificial sentience

who can say what form it will take but like everything else i imagine it will be varied, and malleable

Does that mean I can eat it?

**quannum** · 2012-11-27 18:58

We already have robots that scout terrain, identify targets, and follow commands to kill humans. You could say skynet is already here, but that it's still controlled by humans.

For the Betteridge fans, Will that control stay in human hands?

**Qalbert** · 2012-11-27 19:18

Originally Posted by BaneTheBrawler

At the opposite end of the scale, there are the Minds from the Culture novels; benevolent super-intelligent sentient machines that run a Utopian society.

I much prefer that model.

great series

**Boyiee** · 2012-11-27 19:21

Originally Posted by quannum

We already have robots that scout terrain, identify targets, and follow commands to kill humans. You could say skynet is already here, but that it's still controlled by humans.

For the Betteridge fans, Will that control stay in human hands?

No.

Wait, yes.

Fuck.

**Tajin** · 2012-11-27 19:27

I for one welcome our fleshlight overloards.

**Grey Jorildyn** · 2012-11-27 19:32

Seriously? There's a Center for the Study of Existential Risk. Who woulda thunkit...

**isladar** · 2012-11-27 19:40

How can they even know they're thinking it?

**Abandon** · 2012-11-27 20:07

Originally Posted by Tajin

I for one welcome our fleshlight overloards.

for the second time in 10 days, WHAT THE FUCK IS A LOARD

**isladar** · 2012-11-27 20:12

Originally Posted by youlietoomuch

ooh wow good for you.. I should care? Forum troll overloard can troll better then anyone ooooh wow good for you.

bask.

**Abandon** · 2012-11-27 20:14

Madam, why must you do such things to me?

**isladar** · 2012-11-27 20:15

DID YE NOT ASK, AND HAVE I NOT ANSWERED THEE
YEA EVEN FROM THE VERY FOUNT OF TRUTH AND CROSS-SERVER I HAVE ANSWERED THEE

**Abandon** · 2012-11-27 20:15

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&tbo=d&s...w=1280&bih=841

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