The last non-mod to post here wins

[Runesmith]

In a nutshell - It's a novel written by Aldous Huxley in the 1930s about the world in the year 2400. He imagines industrialization leading to a strict caste based society where humans are grown in vats for specific purposes. The novel is about the travails of a natural born human in that society.

The reason why I said we went on a tangent is because, unlike in Huxley's time, human labor is not a prerequisite for industrialization anymore. Automation, powered by AI will ultimately eliminate the need for human labor in any form. One could imagine a society where humans don't need to work and the whole population lives in utopic bliss, somewhat like in the opening sequence of Dan Simmons' Ilium (don't bother to read it - it's a disjointed, rudderless, soul-sucking piece of undiluted crap).

The reality will be different. Humans don't like to share wealth. A handful of ultra-wealthy people whose ancestors pioneered the AI development will own all the wealth, and the rest of the 99.9999% will live at the pleasure of those few and their chosen staff. At some point, a large percentage of the population will be culled, as they simply consume resources without being needed for the process of resource generation (ie. parasites). The rest will be kept for entertainment.

So yeah - go in to AI development. Your descendants will thank you for it.

[Wolf007]

To conclude, there's a 99.9999% chance our descendents are pretty fucked.
Although, there's allways the chance of huge angry mobs, underground resistance and mutated superheroes...

[Diapered_prince]

So you are saying that there is a chance that the word will be a better place

[Wolf007]

Sure, why not. Afterall there's a chance I'll win the lottery and never have to work again too, so...

[Sarge90]

You might never HAVE to work, but surely you'd get bored and find something to fill your time that could supplement your income and/or be viewed by some as work... I hear even philanthropy is hard work, and that's entirely the opposite of getting paid to do specific things... And then there's the other tedious past time of the wealthy: tax avoidance (definitely not evasion, that's illegal)... In short I think you'll maybe work harder if you did win the lottery, you just might enjoy it more and /or gain greater benefits from it.

Plus, if you do win the lottery then I think we've already established you should invest heavily in developing AI, although that opens far too many ethical and spiritual debates up for me, so I think it's better to enjoy what little time we have between now and the culling by partying it all away instead... Or, y'know, aim for VI that works perfectly instead and that way it won't try to supplant you at the top of the hierarchy.

[Runesmith]

The idea of an AI trying to supplant the humans who created it, is, in my opinion, just an imagined threat. An AI can be constrained within defined limits by the development techniques used, and by controlling the access to information. It's also more efficient to develop narrow-purpose AIs than to develop multi-purpose ones.

Throughout history, kings, priests and other despots kept huge populations under control and slaving for them. With humans being way more sophisticated than any AI system likely to be built (unless one is deliberately trying to do that), it should be easier to keep AIs in line than human slaves.

[Wolf007]

Kings, priests and vampires kept people in line, that's true. But they all used the same key ingredient: fear.

I'm not an expert, but I don't think any AI is capable of experiencing fear...ever. Neither am i really sure only "the good guys" (or sane for that matter) are going to be the only ones developing those AI-powerd mechanisms/organisms/whatevers.
There'll be more then one Dr. Frankenstein i imagine, and they're all keen to play God.

Anyway, you can count me out of living in such an environment. Better keep a few of those electromagnetic bombs at the ready when she does.

[Diapered_prince]

If we didn't give them any way to back up their "consciousness" and let them know that they could "die" that would cause a mild fear. Especially if we could also program in other emotions. But at that point could we tell what was and was not AI. If it looks human, acts human, and passes the Turing Test so as to be indistinguishable from another human, what then?

[Wolf007]

I just can't help but thinking human kind is bound to screw up really, really bad one day...

[Runesmith]

The kind of AI we are talking about takes a lot of money to develop. No one with that kind of money ever puts money in to something that doesn't generate a return. So the sophisticated AIs would be written for the purpose of understanding what makes you want to buy stuff, making stuff that you want to buy (very cheaply), and selling you that stuff. This is what my dystopian prediction was based on.

The other type of organization that will make AIs are the military and the intelligence community - but I am not allowed to talk about those.

[Wolf007]

The military is going to implement AI in their weaponry and possibly operating systems?! Now I'm just shocked!

Wait, i'm not. Just some static electricity...

Anyway, DOOMED! We're all DOOMED!
(within the next 1000 years or so)

[Runesmith]

Actually, we were supposed to be doomed on 31 December 999 AD. Since then, we've been doomed at least once a century or so. Lately the doominess has been increasing - Mayan calendars, Niburu, etc. I blame Doom III.

[Wolf007]

I always did have lots of respect for Doomguy who is believed to be a direct descendent of William "B.J." Blazkowicz. Especially for battling those cyberdeamons in sleeveless armor.

[Runesmith]

If Blazkowicz got reincarnated as the Doom guy (or the other way around, since the Doom guy has swords and crossbows, not a Laser Kraftwerk or a Tesla grenade), then who is the Nameless Hero in Gothic?

[Diapered_prince]

Would they be you? At the very least they are your link to the world inside the game. If you want to see that as yourself go for it.