Intelligent robots, a paradigm shift is coming with more advanced and complex minds
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When we think about a future of humanity in which we live amongst AIs, or Artificial Intelligence, we usually imagine horrible scenarios like the ones depicted in famous movies like Terminator or The Matrix, where humans are destroyed or enslaved.
However, I actually think that one of the most important issues will be about psychology, dedicated precisely to the robots of the future.
If there is the possibility of one day figuring out how to make AIs with a similar intelligence level as to a human (and since technology advances exponentially there are serious possibilities that we will achieve it in this century, much earlier than many imagine), then these robots will undoubtedly, have feelings, just like us.
And then there’s the possibility that if emotion and intelligence are inextricably linked, there’s no such thing as an intelligent robot with no emotion, in which case the question of how much emotion an autonomous robot should have is, in some ways, out of the control of the programmer dealing with intelligence. |
And assuming that these beings will possess feelings, we could ask ourselves, what kind of feelings will they have?
The feelings we humans have today are based on two points: First, they come from large scale genetic factors, changes that we have accumulated gradually over billions of years as we evolved from being little microbes to more complex beings such as mammals and primates. And second, changes in our individual environment and life experiences.
Some Examples:
Both of these criteria are deeply related to each other. As a simple example, if a parent had two children, and one had suicidal tendencies while the other had tendencies about having love for life, there are more chances that the one that will reproduce will be the second child, and therefore he will be the one passing his "loving" genes to future generations.
In other words, it seems that the very reason that we are alive and living in a relatively balanced way (and yes, there are ongoing wars around the world as it has been always the case, but usually not at the family level but at more socially abstract levels) is that the genes that have survived generation after generation are those of people who are tend to do good things for society.
As a counter-example, imagine that in some inexplicable way all the genes (and the mentality we have as a result) of the almost 7 billion human beings of today are changed overnight to be genes that make us prone to kill people. It is almost certain that in a few years there will be a really small amount of humans alive on the planet, and very possibly we would lose everything related to technological innovations in the process, the end result could be something similar as a modern dark ages.
But beyond the genes, every person also has the emotional component that develops after many years of life, a component perhaps as important as the genetic, and that in the case of humans, since we are conscious beings and we are aware of our own existence, becomes a powerful reason that makes us search for constant improvements.
That is, the fact that one can have analyze our own mind gives us the amazing ability to identify what is wrong with us, and look for ways to improve it in order to solve whatever issue there is.
But even more interesting is the fact that as the level of education in the people increases, so does not only the level of perception of oneself, but also the level of perception at the global level (that is, understanding that we do not live alone and that we are all together in this experience that we call life).
Perhaps you are wondering what does all of this have to do with the more than likely existence of intelligent robots in the future? Well, actually, a lot!
Emotions help people to decide what is important and to integrate complex information into crucial decisions. So it might be useful to try to make a robot that has emotions too. | Source
Nevertheless, we should ask ourselves, how will these AIs develop good morals and proper principles if they are created "out of the blue" in a laboratory? And if they develop a moral code, under what principles and influences? And assuming that these AIs believe they are doing "good", could that good mean eradicating us from the planet to secure their own existences or the survival or other species on the brink of extinction?
I always like to take the optimistic side when it comes to the future and I believe that as the intellect of every living being increases (any type of being) it will be able to see how beautiful the Universe is and realize the fact that it is worth preserving all the life we can encounter, but the reality is that many times our believes can be wrong (just several centuries ago ago the majority of the people was totally convinced that the Earth was flat).
To that end, perhaps it is wise for us to fully understand ourselves first in the way we are today. How are our feelings generated in the brain? What neural patterns govern feelings like love, kindness, hatred or envy?
Having complete understanding about these issues could allow us to be better prepared to make sure that the robots we create are not only nice towards our own species, but towards any form of life that there is.
The clock is ticking and decisions need to be taken
Or maybe what we should do is to gradually evolve these AIs in a controlled environment, where we feed them information about everything there is about us and what we have been throughout our history, the pretty and the ugly, to feed them everything and hope that these AIs understand that although we certainly have not been (and are not) perfect, that we have arrived as far as we have come because many of us strive to make this a better world for ourselves, our friends and family, and of course for the future generations.
This issue I think deserves a thorough discussion among the world leaders in these fields (computer scientists, robotics, neuroscience, psychology), Elon Musk himself have said several times that he is scared about an AI getting out of control and harming humanity.
At least when there's an evil dictator, that human is going to die. But for an AI, there would be no death. It would live forever. And then you'd have an immortal dictator from which we can never escape." Elon Musk. | Source
Although regardless of what could happen when the time comes to really take global action about this subject, AIs will come to exist anyway, with or without an ethical or moral framework, so we can only hope that the next generation of leaders on this field are properly educated when it comes to the inherent danger that is not having enough understanding about our creations.
My point is that soon it will be time to bring this subject to light on a large scale and expose it to the public, perhaps even writing standards and rules about how to create these AIs in initially controlled environments (and only initially, because as time pass these beings will create other beings even more advanced, and from then on everything will probably be totally out of our control)
Or in other words (and this is something that I know today sounds controversial, or even unprecedented and / or impossible for most people), humans today will evolve to leave behind our biological bodies and we will merge with our creations, allowing us to become superior beings (or rather, better suitable to thrive in the Universe and comprehend it better) in all the senses of the word to what we are today. I just hope I can live to see (and maybe even be a part of) this transition.