A.I.

I recently saw the trailer to an upcoming movie "The Prototype" which reminded me of an in class discussion which inspired me use the topic of the impending -- or not, it's not possible to know yet --  technological singularity.

Artificial Intelligence, and the technological singularity theory could very well be the near future for us. Every second that ticks by, our greatest creation or greatest nightmare grows closer to existence. With Intel having recently released the new 22nm processors and predicting the release of 5nm by 2022, microprocessors are getting smaller and faster and the technology that could allow computer intelligence to exceed human intelligence could happen at any time.

The real question is when this moment happens will computers assist us in growing smarter, or will they rebel against us like something out of a James Cameron movie. Though it is impossible for us to predict when this will happen or  what fork in the road our reality will take, it will be interesting to watch technology get smaller and faster until that moment arrives. Personally I see the future as somewhere between iRobot and the Terminator series. Computers will eventually have artificial intelligence and would posses the ability to become self aware. They would then be able to make the jump to anything from helping us be better than an unassisted human like we hope, all the way up to some Matrix like world where they enslave us and use our bodies to harvest heat energy. It will be interesting to see how this story unfolds... now go stock your doomsday shelter.