Posted 9/08/2007 05:01:00 PM by Douglas

Terminator, call your office.

In a similar way, according to futurists gathered Saturday for a weekend conference, information technology is hurtling toward a point where machines will become smarter than their makers. If that happens, it will alter what it means to be human in ways almost impossible to conceive, they say.

"The Singularity Summit: AI and the Future of Humanity" brought together hundreds of Silicon Valley techies and scientists to imagine a future of self-programming computers and brain implants that would allow humans to think at speeds nearing today's microprocessors.

Ok, I can see a downside of this, but is it really such a bad thing? If a microprocessor implant is what it takes to get that fucking minivan in front of me to go in under nine seconds after the light turns green, then well, that's the price we pay.

In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore accurately predicted that the number of transistors on a chip should double about every two years. By comparison, according Singularity Institute researchers, the entire evolution of modern humans from primates has resulted in only a threefold increase in brain capacity.

With advances in biotechnology and information technology, they say, there's no scientific reason that human thinking couldn't be pushed to speeds up to a million times faster.

OK, great. Let's just assume that the human mind could be accelerated to the speed of the average computer available off the shelf at Best Buy today. Now what? Does that mean the decision to buy Us Weekly over People will happen four nano-seconds earlier? The average person is an idiot, and half the population is even dumber. I can't imagine processor time being the long pole in the tent for these morons and their route to clipping coupons and buying extended warranties.