The Ice Age Cometh

[_Keith]

Ed, "This makes the other entities impossible to recognize as it could be the universe itself." is a wickedly clever quote. There are some who believe that the Universe is God, and God is the Universe.

I'll give you another wicked one. We think of life as having certain physical characteristics and requirements. What is that was not the case, what if there were other ways for life to develop, drastically different ways. When we, as humans wish to explore environments where we cannot exist or hostile environments where we might be in danger, we send probes to gather information. What if we, humans, are nothing more than biological probes, sent to gather information (experiences) and send it back to, well, to God.

[amazondk]

I have watching some Ray Kurzwell interviews this afternoon. If he is right we will become in one form or another merged with nano machines. He does not think that AI will wipe us out. But, others do. One thing for sure change is not linear.

One thing for sure things will change. And probably faster than climate change.

One option could be this; Space based solar energy.

[_Keith]

Each of us

A cell of awareness

Imperfect and incomplete

Genetic blends

With uncertain ends

On a fortune hunt that's far too fleet

[Ed in Houston]

The climate will not be so important to humans after they become robots. There is a robot that just flew past Pluto the other day and it did not mind it being hundreds of degrees below zero. While this machine has the brain of an insect, it will not be long before the robots will have super human intellect.

Once the machine surpass human intellect the machines will rule the world.

Google Chief executive says:

"A broad range of jobs that once seemed beyond the reach of automation are in danger of being wiped out by technological advances, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google warned on Thursday".

".. the spread of information technology is starting to have a deeper impact than previous periods of technological change and may have a permanent impact on employment levels".

"economists have warned that the current pace of change is too fast for employment levels to adapt".

Apple co-founder computer genius Steve Wozniak:

"Machines have won the war and the human race is destined to become little more than house pets".

"As technology explodes, humans are not going to be needed"...

.."true artificial intelligence will creep up on mankind like an accident".

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/humans-become-pets-in-rise-of-the-machines-apple-cofounder-20110605-1fkq0

Many scientists are not as optimistic as Google chief Kurzweil or Steve Wozniak and foresee danger in AI exceeding human intellect.

Evolution is in high gear and many species will perish in this sixth mass extinction currently underway.

But before the terminator comes along jobs will go away for most humans leading to the social upheaval of the 2020s when most humans become useless eaters to the machine economy.

Bill Gates: Yes, robots really are about to take your jobs

"Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates isn’t going to sugarcoat things: The increasing power of automation technology is going to put a lot of people out of work. Business Insider reports that Gates gave a talk at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, DC this week and said that both governments and businesses need to start preparing for a future where lots of people will be put out of work by software and robots....... 20 years from now, labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower. I don’t think people have that in their mental model.”

"As for what governments should do to prevent social unrest in the wake of mass unemployment, the Microsoft cofounder said that they should basically get on their knees and beg businesses to keep employing humans over algorithms."

http://bgr.com/2014/03/14/bill-gates-interview-robots/

In 20 years the computer gurus believe that many humans will become useless eaters in the machine's economy and that superhuman AI is an existential threat to the continued existence of humanity.

Bill Gates, Like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, Worries About Artificial Intelligence Being a Threat

"All three geniuses have expressed fear in the possibility of artificial intelligence someday possibly posing as a dangerous risk to the existence of humanity."

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/29436/20150129/bill-gates-like-stephen-hawking-and-elon-musk-worries-about-artificial-intelligence-being-a-threat.htm

So after the human's jobs have gone away in a couple of decades and the rise of the machines has given way to the terminator being at your doorstep, most humans will be seen sitting around wringing their hands that the temperature has risen a couple of tenths of a degree.

Ed in Houston

[Funkthulhu]

Ed, check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

As for Ice Ages. One thing we haven't talked about is the tendency for complex systems to have some sort of feedback loop that perpetuates a return nominal conditions. It is possible that we will encounter an as yet unknown or formerly dismissed mechanism that will rapidly cool the planet and/or remove carbon from the atmosphere. However, these systems, where they exist and function, are generally able to handle natural shifts in climate/carbon/energy and it may very well be that our activity will overwhelm any feedback loop and prevent the ice.

Just food for thought, the world is a wonderfully complex machine to try and understand.

[_Keith]

Ed, check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

As for Ice Ages. One thing we haven't talked about is the tendency for complex systems to have some sort of feedback loop that perpetuates a return nominal conditions. It is possible that we will encounter an as yet unknown or formerly dismissed mechanism that will rapidly cool the planet and/or remove carbon from the atmosphere. However, these systems, where they exist and function, are generally able to handle natural shifts in climate/carbon/energy and it may very well be that our activity will overwhelm any feedback loop and prevent the ice.

Just food for thought, the world is a wonderfully complex machine to try and understand.

So, what you are saying, is that in spite of the past, and in spite of theories on both sides of the climate debate, anything or essentially nothing can happen. You should keep that to yourself, there is no money in it. :-)

[amazondk]

Boy Ed. That can be depressing. I think that the AI subject needs to be treated similar to nuclear weapons. We still have not blown up the world. Although it still is possible. Since AI will not crawl back in a box, just like nukes won't if our species is to survive we have to confront the danger not run away from it. I think that this is much more of a danger than worrying about global warming. There are still Indians in the forest in my state that have never had contact with the outside world. Direct contact that is. Of course they know we exist. They just do not have Iphones yet. There are a lot of challenges coming on very quickly. I would say much greater than climate change.

dk

[amazondk]

Ed, check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

That was good.

[The7thLegend]

Interesting topic... let's not forget a possible asteroid collision could change things in a hurry also. We've had a few close encounters.

[amazondk]

Interesting topic... let's not forget a possible asteroid collision could change things in a hurry also. We've had a few close encounters.

I thought we had a few direct hits.

[_Keith]

Interesting topic... let's not forget a possible asteroid collision could change things in a hurry also. We've had a few close encounters.

For me, these kind of fall in the anything can happen scenario. Endless scenarios to end it all tomorrow, only a few that we are even aware of. I prefer to stick to one senseless conversation at a time, lol.

[The7thLegend]

Interesting topic... let's not forget a possible asteroid collision could change things in a hurry also. We've had a few close encounters.

For me, these kind of fall in the anything can happen scenario. Endless scenarios to end it all tomorrow, only a few that we are even aware of. I prefer to stick to one senseless conversation at a time, lol.

Oops... lol... didn't mean to get too far off topic...

And now back to your usual senseless programming...

[_Keith]

Don't worry about any of this, it is just a simulation anyway, lol.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3185261/Is-universe-FAKE-Physicists-claim-playthings-advanced-civilisation.html

[amazondk]

So if the multiverse of parallel universes is reality they all would be part of the game.

[Ed in Houston]

I thought everyone already knew that the universe in which we live is a hologram. It seems that all that we think is real is but the projection of information contained in a two dimensional surface and projected into the 3D universal that we perceive.

"We are living in a giant hologram, and everything we see around us is merely a projection of a two-dimensional surface."

"This surface contains all the information needed to describe a three-dimensional object - which in this case is our universe."

Of course there will always be competing theories of our creation and existence.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3057957/Are-living-HOLOGRAM-time-scientists-prove-strange-theory-true-realistic-models-universe.html

Ed in Houston