Singularity
The scientific adviser to the film Ex Machina has a new book out which explores the Technological Singularity. In the book he describes technological advances in AI, both biologically inspired and engineered from scratch.
The idea that human history is approaching a Singularity—that ordinary humans will someday be overtaken by artificially intelligent machines or cognitively enhanced biological intelligence, or both —has moved from the realm of science fiction to serious debate.
Some Singularity theorists predict that if the field of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to develop at its current dizzying rate, the Singularity could come about in the middle of the present century. Now, author and robotics researcher Murray Shanahan offers an introduction to the idea of the Singularity and considers the ramifications of such a potentially seismic event.
"Whether or not the singularity is near, these are questions worth asking, not least because in attempting to answer them we shed new light on ourselves and our place in the order of things."
In the new book, The Technological Singularity, Shanahan's aim is not to make predictions but rather to investigate a range of scenarios. Whether we believe that the Singularity is near or far, likely or impossible, apocalypse or utopia, the very idea raises crucial philosophical and pragmatic questions, forcing us to think seriously about what we want as a species.Shanahan describes technological advances in AI, both biologically inspired and engineered from scratch. Once human-level AI—theoretically possible, but difficult to accomplish—has been achieved, he explains, the transition to superintelligent AI could be very rapid.
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"The aim here is not to make predictions," writes Shanahan in the book's preface. "Rather, it is to investigate a range of possible future scenarios, without committing to the prospect of any one in particular...even highly unlikely or remote scenarios are sometimes worthy of study."He considers what the existence of superintelligent machines could mean for such matters as personhood, responsibility, rights, and identity. Some superhuman AI agents might be created to benefit humankind; some might go rogue. (Is Siri the template, or HAL?) The Technological Singularity presents both an existential threat to humanity and an existential opportunity for humanity to transcend its limitations.
Shanahan makes it clear that we need to imagine both possibilities if we want to bring about the better outcome.
Shanahan is Professor of Cognitive Robotics at Imperial College London. He has carried out work in artificial intelligence, robotics, and cogitive science. His publications span artificial intelligence, robotics, logic, dynamical systems, computational neuroscience, and philosophy of mind. His work up to 2000 was in the tradition of classical, symbolc AI. But since then he has turned his attention to the brain and its embodiment.
His current interests include brain connectivity, neurodynamics, comparative cognition, and the relationship between cognition and consciousness. His 2010 book Embodiment and the inner life: Cognition and Consciousness in the Space of Possible Minds
was a significant influence on the film Ex Machina for which he was a scientific adviser.
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