Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/5039
43 www.hplusmagazine.com The Singularity, Utopia, & Happiness R.U. SIRIUS: have any critics of your ideas offered a social critique that gives you pause? RK: I still think Bill Joy articulated the concerns best in his Wired cover story of some years ago. My vision is not a utopian one. For example, I'm working with the u.S. army on developing a rapid response system for biological viruses, and that's actually the approach that I advocate — that we need to put resources and attention to the downsides. But I think we do have the scientific tools to create a rapid response system in case of a biological viral attack. It took us five years to sequence HIv; we can sequence a virus now in one day. And we could, in a matter of days, create an RNA interference medication based on sequencing a new biological virus. This is something we created to contend with software viruses. And we have a technological immune system that works quite well. And we also need ethical standards for responsible practitioners of AI, similar to the Asilomar Guidelines for biotech, or the Forsyth Institute Guidelines for nanotech, which are based on the Asilomar Guidelines. So it's a complicated issue. We can't just come up with a simple solution and then just cross it off our worry list. On the other hand, these technologies can vastly expand our creativity. They've already democratized the tools of creativity. And they are overcoming human suffering, extending our longevity and can provide not only radical life extension but radical life expansion. There's a lot of talk about existential risks. I worry that painful episodes are even more likely. You know, 60 million people were killed in WWII. That was certainly exacerbated by the powerful destructive tools that we had then. I'm fairly optimistic that we will make it through. I'm less optimistic that we can avoid painful episodes. I do think decentralized communication actually helps reduce violence in the world. It may not seem that way because you just turn on CNN and you've got lots of violence right in your living room. But that kind of visibility actually helps us to solve problems. RUS: you've probably heard the phrase from critics of the Singularity — they call it the "Rapture of the nerds." and a lot of people who are into this idea do seem to envision the Singularity as a sort of magical place where pretty much anything can happen and all your dreams come true. how do you separate your view of the Singularity from a utopian view? RK: I don't necessarily think they are utopian. I mean, the whole thing is difficult to imagine. We have a certain level of intelligence and it's difficult to imagine what it would mean and what would happen when we vastly expand that. It would be like asking cavemen and women, "Well, gee, what would you like to have?" And they'd say, "Well, we'd like a bigger rock to keep the animals out of our cave and we'd like to keep this fire from burning out?" And you'd say, "Well, don't you want a good web site? What about your Second life habitat?" They couldn't imagine these things. And those are just technological innovations So the future does seem magical. But that gets back to that Arthur C. Clark quote that any sufficiently developed technology is indistinguishable from magic. That's the nature of technology — it transcends limitations that exist without that technology. Television and radio seem magical — you have these waves going through the air, and they're invisible, and they go at the speed of light and they carry pictures and sounds. So think of a substrate that's a million times faster. We'll be overcoming problems at a very rapid rate, and that will seem magical. But that doesn't mean it's not rooted in science and technology. I say it's not utopian because it also introduces new problems. Artificial intelligence is the most difficult to contend with, because whereas we can articulate technical solutions to the dangers of biotech, there's no purely technical solution to a so-called unfriendly AI. We can't just say, "We'll just put this little software code sub-routine in our AIs, and that'll keep them safe." I mean, it really comes down to what the goals and intentions of that artificial intelligence are. We face daunting challenges. RUS: I think when most people think of utopia, they probably just think about everybody being happy and feeling good. RK: I really don't think that's the goal. I think the goal has been demonstrated by the multi-billion-year history of biological evolution and the multi-thousand-year history of technological evolution. The goal is to be creative and create entities of beauty, of insight, that solve problems. I mean, for myself as an inventor, that's what makes me happy. But it's not a state that you would seek to be in at all times, because it's fleeting. It's momentary. To sit around being happy all the time is not the goal. In fact, that's kind of a downside. Because if we were to just stimulate our pleasure centers and sit around in a morphine high at all times — that's been recognized as a downside and it ultimately leads to a profound unhappiness. We can identify things that make us unhappy. If we have diseases that rob our faculties or cause physical or emotional pain — that makes us unhappy and prevents us from having these moments of connection with another person, or a connection with an idea, then we should solve that. But happiness is not the right goal. I think it represents the cutting edge of the evolutionary condition to seek greater horizons and to always want to transcend whatever our limitations are at the time. And so it's not our nature just to sit back and be happy.