I was just reading an article in the New York Times entitled "Scientists
Worry Machines May Outsmart Man". It deals with current developments in the
field of artificial intelligence -- or A.I. -- and addresses certain
concerns that some scientists have regarding where things may be headed.
While some scientists and visionaries laud the progress that is being made,
others worry about the situation getting out of control -- meaning out of
human control.

The absurdity of this situation, in my mind, is that they have already begun
to recognize the potential dangers, and yet they foolishly march on in their
endeavors.

Exactly where are things headed? In reality, we don't need modern
technocrats or scientists to answer this question for us, because almost
2,000 years ago, the Bible warned us precisely where things are headed. In
the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation, we read the following
verses:

"And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles
which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that
dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had
the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the
image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause
that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed."
Revelation 13:14-15, KJV

Do the previous verses prophesy a robotic artificial intelligence being
brought to life by scientists sometime in the future?

Following is the complete New York Times article:


Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man

By JOHN MARKOFF - NYT

July 25, 2009


A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself.
Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still
controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill
autonomously.

Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of
computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research
that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that
carry a growing share of society's workload, from waging war to chatting
with customers on the phone.

Their concern is that further advances could create profound social
disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.

As examples, the scientists pointed to a number of technologies as diverse
as experimental medical systems that interact with patients to simulate
empathy, and computer worms and viruses that defy extermination and could
thus be said to have reached a "cockroach" stage of machine intelligence.

While the computer scientists agreed that we are a long way from Hal, the
computer that took over the spaceship in "2001: A Space Odyssey," they said
there was legitimate concern that technological progress would transform the
work force by destroying a widening range of jobs, as well as force humans
to learn to live with machines that increasingly copy human behaviors.

The researchers -- leading computer scientists, artificial intelligence
researchers and roboticists who met at the Asilomar Conference Grounds on
Monterey Bay in California -- generally discounted the possibility of highly
centralized superintelligences and the idea that intelligence might spring
spontaneously from the Internet. But they agreed that robots that can kill
autonomously are either already here or will be soon.

They focused particular attention on the specter that criminals could
exploit artificial intelligence systems as soon as they were developed. What
could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as
a human being? What happens if artificial intelligence technology is used to
mine personal information from smart phones?

The researchers also discussed possible threats to human jobs, like
self-driving cars, software-based personal assistants and service robots in
the home. Just last month, a service robot developed by Willow Garage in
Silicon Valley proved it could navigate the real world.

A report from the conference, which took place in private on Feb. 25, is to
be issued later this year. Some attendees discussed the meeting for the
first time with other scientists this month and in interviews.

The conference was organized by the Association for the Advancement of
Artificial Intelligence, and in choosing Asilomar for the discussions, the
group purposefully evoked a landmark event in the history of science. In
1975, the world's leading biologists also met at Asilomar to discuss the new
ability to reshape life by swapping genetic material among organisms.
Concerned about possible biohazards and ethical questions, scientists had
halted certain experiments. The conference led to guidelines for recombinant
DNA research, enabling experimentation to continue.

The meeting on the future of artificial intelligence was organized by Eric
Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who is now president of the association.

Dr. Horvitz said he believed computer scientists must respond to the notions
of superintelligent machines and artificial intelligence systems run amok.

The idea of an "intelligence explosion" in which smart machines
would design
even more intelligent machines was proposed by the mathematician I. J. Good
in 1965. Later, in lectures and science fiction novels, the computer
scientist Vernor Vinge popularized the notion of a moment when humans will
create smarter-than-human machines, causing such rapid change that the
"human era will be ended." He called this shift the Singularity.

This vision, embraced in movies and literature, is seen as plausible and
unnerving by some scientists like William Joy, co-founder of Sun
Microsystems. Other technologists, notably Raymond Kurzweil, have extolled
the coming of ultrasmart machines, saying they will offer huge advances in
life extension and wealth creation.

"Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,"
Dr. Horvitz
said. "Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating
in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture."

The Kurzweil version of technological utopia has captured imaginations in
Silicon Valley. This summer an organization called the Singularity
University began offering courses to prepare a "cadre" to shape
the advances
and help society cope with the ramifications.

"My sense was that sooner or later we would have to make some sort of
statement or assessment, given the rising voice of the technorati and people
very concerned about the rise of intelligent machines," Dr. Horvitz said.

The A.A.A.I. report will try to assess the possibility of "the loss of human
control of computer-based intelligences." It will also grapple, Dr. Horvitz
said, with socioeconomic, legal and ethical issues, as well as probable
changes in human-computer relationships. How would it be, for example, to
relate to a machine that is as intelligent as your spouse?

Dr. Horvitz said the panel was looking for ways to guide research so that
technology improved society rather than moved it toward a technological
catastrophe. Some research might, for instance, be conducted in a
high-security laboratory.

The meeting on artificial intelligence could be pivotal to the future of the
field. Paul Berg, who was the organizer of the 1975 Asilomar meeting and
received a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1980, said it was important for
scientific communities to engage the public before alarm and opposition
becomes unshakable.

"If you wait too long and the sides become entrenched like with G.M.O.," he
said, referring to genetically modified foods, "then it is very difficult.
It's too complex, and people talk right past each other."

Tom Mitchell, a professor of artificial intelligence and machine learning at
Carnegie Mellon University, said the February meeting had changed his
thinking. "I went in very optimistic about the future of A.I. and thinking
that Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil were far off in their predictions," he said.
But, he added, "The meeting made me want to be more outspoken about these
issues and in particular be outspoken about the vast amounts of data
collected about our personal lives."

Despite his concerns, Dr. Horvitz said he was hopeful that artificial
intelligence research would benefit humans, and perhaps even compensate for
human failings. He recently demonstrated a voice-based system that he
designed to ask patients about their symptoms and to respond with empathy.
When a mother said her child was having diarrhea, the face on the screen
said, "Oh no, sorry to hear that."

A physician told him afterward that it was wonderful that the system
responded to human emotion. "That's a great idea," Dr. Horvitz said he was
told. "I have no time for that."


Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23
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