My sister-in-law, Janis has purchased a notebook computer for six months but she always find problems with her brand new computer. Today I go to her place and examine her computer. This is really a good news to IT specialist. Why? Basically, I found nothing wrong with her computer but found her have very limited IT knowledge. She has been working at a top American bank for many years as a secretary. I thought she would be a power PC user. It indicated that there are quite a few people who still need to employ IT supports.
But today I read an article about Ray Kurzweil, the Technological Singularity. Then I started worrying about my future. Of course, Ray Kurzweil is a very bright person and he has made great contributions to AI. 'The Microsoft chairman calls him a visionary thinker and futurist' claimed by O'Keefe 2007. He said, 'By 2027, computers will surpass humans in intelligence. And by 2045, "strictly Biological" Humans won't be able to keep up.' What does that actually mean? We are living in an accelerating era of change unlike anything we have ever seen. I somewhat agree with this statement as I have mentioned the speedy change of IT industry in the past two decades in my previous posts. This is no longer an imgination in an movie produced in Hollywood. O'Keefe (2007, p.46) gave an concrete evidence, back in the 1980s Ray predicted that a computer would beat the world chess champion 1998 (it happened in 1997).
Before I get into the details, I need to give you a terminology, Singularity. According to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, this means the technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence. After I have read through the first few pages of the website, I realise the ground for this notion. They estimated that the capacity and speed of CPUs will one day overtake the human brain. The biological and physical factors may sound logical to me. Can we really create a computer can think? I can still remember the movies such as 'The Terminator', 'Bicentennial Man', 'A.I.', 'I, Robot' and etc. In those movies, Computers not only can think, hate and love but also, fight against human beings. However, playing world chess is much simpler than human emotions. Besides, there are tens and thousands of different human mindsets and very often, humans behave illogically. How possible can we code infinitive possibilities into a program? I really get stuck...Of course, this is extremely difficult but it doesn't mean impossible as long as we have a supercomputer. SIAI (2007) claims that 'By comparison, speeds in modern computer chips are currently at around 2GHz – a ten millionfold difference – and still increasing exponentially'. Based on this ground, I believe it will happen one day...
References
But today I read an article about Ray Kurzweil, the Technological Singularity. Then I started worrying about my future. Of course, Ray Kurzweil is a very bright person and he has made great contributions to AI. 'The Microsoft chairman calls him a visionary thinker and futurist' claimed by O'Keefe 2007. He said, 'By 2027, computers will surpass humans in intelligence. And by 2045, "strictly Biological" Humans won't be able to keep up.' What does that actually mean? We are living in an accelerating era of change unlike anything we have ever seen. I somewhat agree with this statement as I have mentioned the speedy change of IT industry in the past two decades in my previous posts. This is no longer an imgination in an movie produced in Hollywood. O'Keefe (2007, p.46) gave an concrete evidence, back in the 1980s Ray predicted that a computer would beat the world chess champion 1998 (it happened in 1997).
Before I get into the details, I need to give you a terminology, Singularity. According to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, this means the technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence. After I have read through the first few pages of the website, I realise the ground for this notion. They estimated that the capacity and speed of CPUs will one day overtake the human brain. The biological and physical factors may sound logical to me. Can we really create a computer can think? I can still remember the movies such as 'The Terminator', 'Bicentennial Man', 'A.I.', 'I, Robot' and etc. In those movies, Computers not only can think, hate and love but also, fight against human beings. However, playing world chess is much simpler than human emotions. Besides, there are tens and thousands of different human mindsets and very often, humans behave illogically. How possible can we code infinitive possibilities into a program? I really get stuck...Of course, this is extremely difficult but it doesn't mean impossible as long as we have a supercomputer. SIAI (2007) claims that 'By comparison, speeds in modern computer chips are currently at around 2GHz – a ten millionfold difference – and still increasing exponentially'. Based on this ground, I believe it will happen one day...
References
SIAI - see The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
O'Keefe, B 2007, '(CHECK ONE*) □The Smartest □The Nuttiest Futurist on Earth', Fortune Asia, vol. 155, no.8, Time Asia (Hong Kong) Limited, 14 May, pp. 46 - 52.
The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence 2007, 'What is Singularity?', Overview, Updated 2007, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Inc., viewed 20 July 2007, <http://www.singinst.org/overview/whatisthesingularity>.
O'Keefe, B 2007, '(CHECK ONE*) □The Smartest □The Nuttiest Futurist on Earth', Fortune Asia, vol. 155, no.8, Time Asia (Hong Kong) Limited, 14 May, pp. 46 - 52.
The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence 2007, 'What is Singularity?', Overview, Updated 2007, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Inc., viewed 20 July 2007, <http://www.singinst.org/overview/whatisthesingularity>.
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