AI

[Joseph Tracy]

If our world survives, the next great challenge to watch out for will come -- you heard it here first -- when the curves of research and development in artificial intelligence, molecular biology and robotics all converge. Oboy. It will be amazing and unpredictable, and even the biggest of brass, let us devoutly hope, are going to be caught flat-footed. It is certainly something for all good Luddites to look forward to if, God willing, we should live so long. Meantime, as Americans, we can take comfort, however minimal and cold, from Lord Byron's mischievously improvised song, in which he, like other observers of the time, saw clear identification between the first Luddites and our own revolutionary origins. It begins:

As the Liberty lads o'er the sea
Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood,
So we, boys, we
Will die fighting, or live free,
And down with all kings but King Ludd!


On Mar 15, 2012, at 9:24 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:

> David Morris writes:
> "And I think Pynchon has this edge of culture central to his thinking."
>  
> Anyone have at hand those words from the Slow Learner intro in which TRP speaks about the future where
> brain science and neurons and computing will converge? As I remember (or misremember) it, it speaks to this
> observation.
> 
> From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> To: Bled Welder <bledWelder at hotmail.com> 
> Cc: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>; Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>; pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
> Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 11:15 PM
> Subject: Re: In Which Jung prewrites AtD's epigraph
> 
> Current SciFi anticipates an advent they call The Singularity.  It means the moment when an AI computer achieves consciousness, AKA humanity, with or without the pathology of concience.  Shelley's creature breached this threshold long ago.
> 
> So did Adam when he reached the age of reason, judgement.
> 
> Breach, here, is the theme.  The alternative is continuity of evolution.  But I'd say the bottom of Luddittism follows Shelly's and the Singularity fears.  A very conservative fear :  freedom is loss.  Others' freedom happens with our own, and our own freedom means big responsibility.
> 
> Yes, the fear is valid.  But, transfering our pathology onto overlord computers of the future says so much about our roots.  And I think Pynchon has this edge of culture central to his thinking.
> 
> On Wednesday, March 14, 2012, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Wednesday, March 14, 2012, Bled Welder <bledWelder at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >> Isnt it the amygdila where our archetypes lie? And wouldnt Jung be proud to learn this? Surely any sprit he spoke of was physical--
> >
> > Interesting, but please cite evidence.  Emotional center for archetypes memory may be valid as a pre-thinking source.  But I think animals think rationally more than we credit them.
> >
> > David Morris
> 
>