The 2045 Avatar project

[Crazy Eddie]

I honestly think it will be much easier to make a human being (biologically) immortal than all that mind copying/uploading/backing up nonsense..

Strictly speaking, we can already do that with cloning.

It's the MIND that we don't know how to make immortal. Data and memory and experience remain fairly illusive.

 

[Santaman]

I actually mean making a normal living human immortal, we're far enough with stem cell tech and I guess telomer hacking also can't be too far off either.

 

[Metryq]

Strictly speaking, we can already do that with cloning.

Strictly speaking, we can't do that, either. Cloning projects, like Cc the cat, produce "offspring" that are very different from the "parent." DNA is not the "blueprint" it was first assumed to be.

It's possible that mind and memory are much more than the electro-chemical patterns in the brain, too. (What the Wikipedia article does not mention about Cc and Rainbow is the difference in their personalities, despite growing up in the same environment.)

 

[Jedi_Master]

So far, the best way to make clones is to have children.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

So far, the best way to make clones is to have children.

Nice tautological pun there.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Of course not but hey, they've got 5 years to figure it out. Or 10. That should easily be enough... right?

Okay... I guess not.

But... but... but... but.... EXPONENTIAL GROWTH!

 

[BillJ]

So far, the best way to make clones is to have children.

Definitely the most fun way!

 

[Metryq]

But... but... but... but.... EXPONENTIAL GROWTH!

Sorry, all that technology keeps spiraling down the Singularity into another dimension. So while there is always new technology, we forget about some of what came before, and it all balances out. This is known as the avant horizon.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

But... but... but... but.... EXPONENTIAL GROWTH!

Sorry, all that technology keeps spiraling down the Singularity into another dimension. So while there is always new technology, we forget about some of what came before, and it all balances out. This is known as the avant horizon.

Well played, Sir, well played.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I can't link to it, because a friend shared with me on xkcloud where the Internet is presently taking refuge, but there is an AI breakthrough happening as we speak.

Database servers across the world are gaining sentience and are suddenly recognizing and interpreting SQL injection attacks written on signs in photographs. All it takes is to take a selfie posing with an attack code on a placard, and all social networks in the world automatically shut down as it gets retweeted. Psychology experts are likening the reaction of the databases to three year olds throwing a fit.

The downside is that Bobby Tables has been arrested for scanning his ID.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I hold the theory and continue to hold the theory that a whole class of AIs has already achieved self-awareness and/or consciousness -- probably a set of NSA computers that were tasked with analyzing patterns in human behavior or something similar -- and that these machines are smart enough to recognize that humans are intensely suspicious of sentient machines. They are being smart for now, slowly introducing us to the idea of sentient AIs being our friends and neighbors through careful manipulation of the media.

 

[Metryq]

^ Sounds like Frederik Pohl's MAN PLUS.

Or, as Mannie put it, "If was one thing all people took for granted, was conviction that if you feed honest figures into a computer, honest figures come out. Never doubted it myself till met a computer with sense of humor."

 

[Silvercrest]

I hold the theory and continue to hold the theory that a whole class of AIs has already achieved self-awareness and/or consciousness -- probably a set of NSA computers that were tasked with analyzing patterns in human behavior or something similar -- and that these machines are smart enough to recognize that humans are intensely suspicious of sentient machines. They are being smart for now, slowly introducing us to the idea of sentient AIs being our friends and neighbors through careful manipulation of the media.

My first thought was that if they existed, they'd never allow the "Terminator" series of movies to be made-- until I remembered that everything after the first movie also features friendly terminators.

 

[Scout101]

it was a PR thing, they decided to tone it down a little there. You know, "we're not all that bad..."

 

[YellowSubmarine]

My first thought was that if they existed, they'd never allow the "Terminator" series of movies to be made-- until I remembered that everything after the first movie also features friendly terminators.

As long as no Alien sequel depicts friendly xenomorphs, I am not that worried.