Tuesday, November 23, 2010

How a program can evolve.

We are born a set of instructions. DNA is a recursive algorithm. This means it's results create the next equation. If we introduce random elements through sexual reproduction, some decision making, those algorithms evolve. They integrate with neighboring algorithms quite comfortably, all the same.

We had trouble "fitting it all on the disk" at first. But in the near future those little plastic disks will be able to store tremendous volumes of data. Then comes the cloud. Both frightening due to the legal, moral, and privacy implications and kind of wonderful if you ignore those, you have a place where you never run out of disk space.

A thing to love about this universe is that humans are not the only recursive algorithm that produces intelligence. There is intelligence all over the place on this planet.

That's where technology set us apart. We have made technology that creates new algorithms without human interference (except indirectly). These algorithms are not merely recursive, but they evolve based on a set of initial parameters and interaction with the outside world. "Tests."

Within the next decade, one of those tests will be "convince most people, most of the time, that you are a human being."

It is my hope they call him/her/it Turing, but it will probably be called Kurzweil. Of course, there, there will be a female version, either first or shortly after. Imagine the pornography. A lot of people will want to to light a fire with this AI. Religions will mobilize, fracture, and lie. Politians will capitalize, and destroy. People will come together and disagree.

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