http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/nov/02/ai-gods-singularity-artificial-intelligence

Found this very entertaining article about the Singularitarians. While most folks are just starting to think about the possibilities of “software as collaborator” rather than “software as tool”, the Singularitarians are waiting for the coming of “software as saviour”.

As if there aren’t enough gods to choose from already…

Pretty typical of the human race to not see it’s own faults and rectify them; but instead prefer to put all their hope in a saviour…

Sorry, folks. I’m just too old and set in my ways to change religions now. If Goliath (my computer) becomes smarter than I am, then so be it. HE can start coding my web pages, and train Morti (my chatbot). I’ll just sit back and harp at him “you’re not doing it right!”, just like my Grandmother does me.

Roger Davie - Nov 2, 2011:

Pretty typical of the human race to not see it’s own faults and rectify them; but instead prefer to put all their hope in a saviour…

very true.

It’s incredible how some people really believe in Terminator and all this Hollywood trash…
For this kind of people, science and pseudoscience are the same things.
Por people like these, if AI doesn’t come to destroy us it comes to save us… WOW…And media only contributes for it.

Some can say: But yesterday’s science fiction is today’s science.. Yes.
But, no matter if yesterday, today or tomorrow menkind will be always responsible for the good or evil in our world.

It is an interesting concept and an understandable path for those that otherwise have no other faith.

It’s incredible how some people really believe in Terminator and all this Hollywood trash

I hope that this nr of people is less then I think. Personally, I believe the terminator movies did lots of bad. + they don’t make sense.

But, no matter if yesterday, today or tomorrow menkind will be always responsible for the good or evil in our world.

very true.

One thing I’d like to mention though: for most among us (definitely me for many things), there is no real difference between science and religion: both are simply excepted. There are very few people who really understand things like radiation, gravity, magnetism, ... let alone: string theory, quantum mechanics,.... Some bright person figures things out, and most of us believe him, cause other smart people tell us that’s correct. To me, that’s also faith, not science.

Jan Bogaerts - Nov 15, 2011:

One thing I’d like to mention though: for most among us (definitely me for many things), there is no real difference between science and religion: both are simply excepted. There are very few people who really understand things like radiation, gravity, magnetism, ... let alone: string theory, quantum mechanics,.... Some bright person figures things out, and most of us believe him, cause other smart people tell us that’s correct. To me, that’s also faith, not science.

Yes, it’s so true!
In the end, even when we talk about scientists, we can say that there are a lot of faith.  Just to give you a pratical example: I am a biologist. I can say that I understand a lot about genetics, evolution, ecology and zoology, however I can’t say the same about informatics. I am just a hobbyst, so I can say that nowadays I just BELIEVE in what you guys say about the AI algorithms and advanced logic. It’s not a shame for me,  also not a shame for you if you just believe in evolution, global warming etc… because it’s impossible to menage every little single knowledge source in this world in an expertize level.
But, I can see that some people are really converting science in a kind of religion and it’s not a new fenomena.

Maybe you’d like to read this article
http://thehumanist.org/humanist/articles/dawkins.html

Jan and Fatima are quite right in what they say. Nobody has the time or capacity to learn and understand everything that is discovered. Our civilization depends on our ability to specialise and we have to rely on each other to do our part. It’s a lot like a human body which consists of many different kinds of cells, all performing different functions and depending on each other to work together to create a stable environment. Just as (if I understand it correctly) all cells start out as stem cells and then specialise as they mature, so too do human beings.

I’ve long held the view that it is not individual human beings that we perceive as intelligent, but civilisation as a whole. Knowledge tends to advance and accumulate, regardless of the contributions made by various remarkable individuals and great discoveries are often made by a number of people simultaneously when civilisation is ready for them. For example, Newton and Liebniz are both credited with discovering calculus independently, likewise Darwin and Wallace re evolution.

However in thinking about this now, I’m not sure that “faith” is the right word for this. I’m going to suggest “trust” instead. All too often the other folks who we depend on make a mistake, or even try to cheat us or deceive us for their own gain. There is no room for learning with faith, but trust can change over time.

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.

To me faith is pretty much the same as trust.

You can quibble over semantics all you like but the fundamental difference isn’t going to go away.

Deity botherers and their associated apologists and hangers on are fond of pointing out that science requires faith for the reasons cited above just as much as religion does, but it simply isn’t the same thing at all.

The trust we place in our specialists, whether they be cosmologists or politicians, is constantly held up to scrutiny whereas faith is necessarily blind. In this context, faith is another word for stupid.

Andrew Smith - Nov 2, 2011:

Singularitarians are waiting for the coming of “software as saviour”.

I thought George Lucas already filled that gap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly_djozCksg

@Andrew - yep it’s just semantics…I know what you are getting at, I have faith in you