Page 9 - Artificial Intelligence: Building Smarter Machines

directly into our brains. Even hearts will be rendered unnecessary because
nanorobotic blood cells will circulate through the body under their own
power, with no need for a heart to pump the blood.
In 2008 Kurzweil cofounded Singularity University in Silicon Valley.
The school offers courses, conferences, and other programs to prepare
people for leadership roles in the envisioned technological revolution.

“SUMMONING THE DEMON”

What would it be like to live in a world where humans are not the
highest form of intelligence? The fact that no one knows what will
happen is enough to alarm many. But physicist and AI researcher Stephen
Omohundro, founder of Self-Aware Systems in Palo Alto, California, has
some interesting speculations, which James Barrat summarizes in his book
Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era.
Any self-improving, superintelligent machine, Omohundro reasons, will
make achieving its goals its number one priority. He believes that these four
overriding principles will govern its actions:

1. A superintelligence will be efficient, doing whatever it takes to meet its
objectives in the quickest, most effective manner. This might include
inventing new technologies and creating virtual environments in which
to conduct experiments.
2. A superintelligence will take whatever measures are necessary to
protect its existence. If humans pose a threat or a perceived threat, a
superintelligence will find clever ways to defend itself, such as making
numerous copies of itself and hiding them in computer clouds.
3. A superintelligence will go to great, almost unbelievable lengths to
gain the resources it needs to complete its mission. Omohundro puts it
bluntly: “These systems intrinsically [naturally] want more stuff. They
want more matter, they want more free energy, they want more space,
because they can meet their goals more effectively if they have those
things.” For instance, he thinks that a superintelligence might build

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