[Link] Robots Program People
On Scott Adams’ Blog: Robots Program People:
It won’t be long before all new drugs are discovered by robots. This start-up is an example of that trend.And it won’t be long before IBM’s Watson can diagnose and prescribe treatments better than any human doctor.Put those two trends together and robots will be programming humans with drugs. Drugs are the user interface to our moistware.[...]Someday, for sure, machines will be programming humans. And that day will probably be in your lifetime. But don’t be afraid because the robots will someday have a drug that will make you feel totally okay with being their pet.
I think this is quite relevant as that is actually quite likely and has lots of failure modes from UFAI to Moloch.
The post also has some discussion of whether the machines are actually actors in this (“You are thinking that humans program the machines, and the machines just do their job.”) and does some insightful comparisons on that.
I, for one, do not welcome our new robot overlords… but after receiving the drug, I will.
They will come for you first. If you welcome them; they might overlook you for a while. In the end they come for all of us.
There’s a lot of handwave here.
Meh. Drugs are by definitions substances injected in the body, and cannot discriminate between structurally identical but functionally different neurons.
Unless by drugs you intend something that is totally not like a drug, but then it becomes a standard UFAI scenario.
Who says that the drugging Watsons are the only working component in the system? I think the far-reaching effect of this not-that-unlikely szenario has the potential to make many other failure modes much more likely. A self-satisfied society has much less energy to detect them for example. A more complex system makes failure modes more numerous.
This is one of the most fascinating typo I’ve ever seen!
Anyway, it’s undoubtful that the sociology of AI developement is something to be studied.
It’s German: https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Szenario
What never ceases to amaze me about languages is they are more or less pronounced the same way, but in German that at least follows from the rules, mostly. In English it is kinda weird that the combo of “es” and “see” becomes “stz” yet in practice it works like that.
To some extent, they already are. Google and Facebook have had measurable impacts on neural structures and human behavior. There are also products like “emospark” that are designed to deliberately manipulate our emotional condition. Now, how well they do remains a question.
“But don’t be afraid because the robots will someday have a drug that will make you feel totally okay with being their pet.”
That’s nice of them.
Industrial pollutants profoundly change the functioning of our biochemistry...are cracking towers, chemical synthesis plants or combustion engines “programming humans”? The volitional part of undergoing a medical treatment or taking a certain drug rests entirely with the doctor and the patient, even when sophisticated diagnostics/drug synthesis software is involved.
Is Adams making some point that isn’t weakened by Watson’s lack of agency that I’m missing?
I predict that robots will program us via neurofeedback, and it will represent a glorious civilization-level advance. We get wearables that continually measure our brainwaves and emotional states, and can send sounds, smells, tactile sensations, encouraging words,....to change how we are thinking and feeling. We gain conscious control over more of our brain and become better humans.
Did you know about this?
DARPA SUBNETS
Sounds pretty straightforwardly like programming a brain.
No, thanks for showing me.
Aren’t those pills wonderful? Yes they are.
Similar things were said in studies on training Chimpanzee’s to read.