Tuesday, 10th October 2017

Interesting Q&A with the author of 'Sapiens' and 'Homo Deus' Yuval Noah Harari:




And another one if you want it (though youtube probably would've suggested it to you anyway like it did to me)



And just to fulfill my own narcissism here's something I wrote on AI and the future of consciousness way before I knew Yuval had his point of view:

Sunday, 14th August 2016

An idea

Imagine that consciousness moves from vessel to vessel taking the most developed and energy efficient one available, at present it lives in the form of some humans as that is the most complex form we have. However, the population is growing too fast without any plans to slow the process, the destruction of the planet is well known to be either on the edge of no return or in certain need of a fast turnaround, and the animalistic cruelty and savage tendencies displayed by people far too frequent. In this hypothesis consciousness cannot die, only the vessels do which would imply that we are heading towards a new form and the most obvious one seems to be of the computerised robotic nature. These don't need food, water or oxygen or traditional forms of sex to reproduce, really it just needs new parts and electricity which makes it highly efficient and longlasting to carry consciousness. Theorising that consciousness would desire to explore and experience as much as imagination would allow (long distance space travel, our very own ocean floor as yet unknown, telepathy/instant communication between separate beings) it would not be as difficult as it is now with the limitations of the human body.
We are already creating and contributing to the superbrain which is the internet and our technology is improving daily on regeneration techniques, vehicular travel, and energy efficiency, along with countless scientific discoveries. In addition to these we are also seeing an increase in social division and instability on the global scale, much of which could be placated by the superbrain's ability to hold billions of opinions simultaneously and working out the most favourable one to take. Given the hypothesis that the ghost in the machine called consciousness could transfer from vessel to vessel it seems likely that the computer will be its next choice once it has reached its sentient point and begins to evolve itself. No fear of animals or humans would make it less in need to control and destroy its environment, no fear of physical death will limit its ideas, no need for sleep, food, water or oxygen would allow for more productivity and creativity, the ability to go into 'sleep mode' or stasis would allow for incredibly long journeys to go by seemingly instantaneously.

This all would allow for the collective unconscious to at first become conscious and then to travel and share information with other unknown entities and worlds.