-Caveat Lector-
Super Computers Could Take Over the World
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=552
Mon Apr 9 15:59:24 2001
Super Computers Could Take Over the World
http://www.light1998.com/Super-computers/Super-computers.htm
San Francisco - The co-founder of one of Silicon Valley's top
technology companies believes scientific advances may be
ushering humanity into a nightmare world where super smart
machines force mankind into extinction.
In a heartfelt appeal published in the April issue of Wired
magazine, Sun Microsystems chief scientist Bill Joy urges
technologists to reconsider the ethics of the drive toward
constant scientific innovation.
"We are being propelled into this new century with no plan,
no control, no brakes," Joy writes. "The last chance to assert
control - the fail-safe point - is rapidly approaching."
Joy's article comes as a rare cry of caution in an industry that
thrives on relentless and often unplanned advances and is
now riding the boom of a "new economy" expansion
attributed to technological progress.
The warning is all the more disturbing because of the author's
own impressive tech credentials. A leading computer
researcher who developed an early version of the Unix
operating system, Joy has more recently pioneered software
technologies like Java and was co-chairman of a US
presidential commission on the future of information
technology.
Joy's fears focus on three areas of technology undergoing
incredibly rapid change.
THINKING, BREEDING ROBOTS
The first, robotics, involves the development of "thinking"
computers that within three short decades could be as much
as a million times more powerful than those now available.
Joy sees this as setting the groundwork for a "robot species"
of intelligent robots that create evolved copies of
themselves.
The second, genetics, deals with scientific breakthroughs in
manipulating the very structure of biological life. While Joy
says this has led to benefits such as pest-resistant crops, it
also has set the stage for new, man-made plagues that could
literally wipe out the natural world.
The third, nanotechnology, involves the creation of objects
on an atom-by-atom basis, which before long could be
harnessed to create smart machines that are microscopically
small.
All three of these technologies share one characteristic
absent in earlier dangerous human inventions such as the
atomic bomb: they could replicate themselves, creating a
cascade effect that could sweep through the physical word in
much the same way a virus spreads through the computer
world.
"It is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the
further perfection of extreme evil," Joy writes. "An evil
whose possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of
mass destruction bequeathed to nation states on to
surprising and terrible empowerment of extreme
individuals."
OTHER INDUSTRY LEADERS NOT CONVINCED
Executives attending PC Forum, a technology industry
conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, had mixed reactions to
Joy's grim view on technology.
"You can't argue with the incredible improvements in
thought, civilisation, productivity. The world is changing and I
think people would say dramatically for the better," said
Michael Campbell of SAP America, which develops software
to help corporations manage their business.
Steve Kirsch, the founder of Infoseek and now chief
executive of a new start-up called Propel, said he saw many
instances where science and research is not moving fast
enough, such as in the area of embryonic stem cell research,
where the US government is too restrictive.
"If anything ... we are moving the opposite way, not faster,"
he said. "Lives are going to be lost."
But others said Joy's fears of technology running out of
control were not entirely off the mark.
"From the sense that technologists fail to fully study or
bother to understand the long range implications of
technology, Bill Joy is right on the mark," said Steve Larsen,
senior vice president of marketing at Net Perceptions, which
develops personalisation software for the Internet.
UNABOMBER'S IDEAS
Joy says his new, darker vision of the potential threat to
humanity posed by technology - one he notes is shared in
part by convicted Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski - has led
him to reconsider his own contributions to the field.
"I have always believed that making software more reliable,
given its many uses, will make the world a safer place," Joy
writes. "If I were to come to believe the opposite, then I
would be morally obligated to stop this work. I can now
imagine such a day may come."
Joy does hold out some hope, saying humanity's effort to
control nuclear and biological weapons was evidence of the
strength of the species' self-preservation instinct.
But he urges a wider dialogue on the implications of new tech
advances and specifically asks that they be incorporated into
the programme at the annual Pugwash Conferences, which
began in 1957 as a forum for scientists to discuss the threat
posed by nuclear weapons.
"The experiences of the atomic scientists clearly show the
need to take personal responsibility, the danger that things
will move too fast, and the way in which the process can take
on a life of its own," Joy says. "We can, as they did, create
insurmountable problems in almost no time flat. We must do
more thinking upfront if we are not to be similarly surprised
and shocked by the consequences of our inventions."
[Story originally published: March 14 2000 ]
======================================================================
"It's Time To Circle The Wagons"
EVERY ACTION, CAUSES A RE-ACTION!
SEE: WORLD MONEY & THE BEAST
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/money.htm
The Real Story on Arsenic in Your Water
http://disc.server.com/Indices/149495.html
History of ENVAX (Internet)
The breakthrough for signals from the internet on the phone began with
the Carterfone decision in 1968, founded by Tom Carter, Dallas, Texas.
http://www.envax.net/history.htm
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