The Singularity Summit

I caught two speakers at Saturday’s Singularity Summit at Stanford University. Both tried to convince the audience of the importance of the topic. Singularity, in this context, refers to the point when science and technology bring “humanity beyond its boundary of intelligence,” according to the conference Web site.

The first speaker I heard, Eliezer Yudkowsky, argued that Artificial Intelligence has been the victim of “ethnic stereotyping.” Science fiction movies and novels depict robots plotting to kill out their creator, man. But, Yudkowsky said, those storylines presume the robots will have the motivation to kill humans.

Maybe they’ll be more interested in curing cancer. Or creating a giant cheesecake.

Nevertheless, Yudkowsky firmly believes AI, with its ever-increasing intelligence, will alter “the fate of the world.”

“In a hundred million years, no one’s going to care about who won the World Series, but they’ll remember the first AI,” Yudkowsky said. He ended with a call to action to those attending the one-day conference. His plea: give money to his nonprofit, the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

“This matter does require your action and attention, not just your applause.”

The second speaker was author Bill McKibben (“End of Nature,” “The Hundred Dollar Holiday”), who acknowledged that his role was to play the flat-earth believer in a room of techno-Columbuses.

(Ironically, McKibben appeared at the summit thanks to technology – he wasn’t present but rather appeared via a realistic 3-D image using a Teleportec.)

McKibben argued the quest for endless technological advances is only valuable if the end result makes us happier, not if it helps us live forever. Life only has value if it ends, he said.

A survey of the major works of the singularity field, according to McKibben, shows only a tangential interest in helping people live more fulfilling lives. Singularity’s leaders, he said, primarily seek answers to such pseudo-philosophical inquiries as, What is it like to peer into “the naked soul of man.”

“Forgive me,” he said, but such queries sound “like sentiments shared outside a Phish concert.”

More profound questions for McKibben: “Can I give you a hand with that?” and “Do you think you could ever love me too?”

Until next time: Avoid the deadly robots, call your mother and lend a hand.

(P.S. Adam and Christa visited last week. Here are some photos from their trip.)