Am I the only one a bit terrified?

[Seko]

i think this is relevent...


in the next 10-20 years a technological singularity is going to occur, and basically a robot will be smarter than a human, but what if this robot; in all it's knowledge made a better robot?

think about it, and endless cycle of almost endless technological advances daily... and in the crossfire humans would become obsolete.

[Asia Kali Yusufzai]

They already made "ADAM". A robot that did scientific experiments and then used those results to do more experiments.
And there are the evolutionary programs. They create CG characters and are told to do something, like walk. There are several generated skeletons, each with different AI. The two AI best at trying to walk then get brought together with some random variation to creat 4 more AI who are a little bit better at walking. Then the best of that group get put together and so on and so on, until the AI can strut, and the coding is indecipherable for humans.

The thing is though, "humans would become obselete," isn't necessarily true. With new technology comes new opportunities. With new opportunities come new jobs. We've gained so much technological advancement, yet we haven't gained much free time.

[DatFox Coleo]

What if HAL 9000 comes back down to earth... *Shiver*

[Asia Kali Yusufzai]

What if HAL 9000 comes back down to earth... *Shiver*

Then we'll be sent hurtling through space/time and achieve ascension

[Armalite_]

Call me "old fashioned" but am I the only one with a second generation Ipod Video and an old cell phone? Wtf is an "app" and why is everyone going crazy for them on their hand helds? Why are Blackberrys so special? I don't like smart phones, touch pads, or things that are complicated. I like the old way of doing things. How does GPS work? Do they teach that in school?...Sorry, but I can only read maps. Imma stick wit mah typewriter and No. 2 pencil wit the pink eraser. 

...I must live in a cave or something...or being extemely poor might have something to do with it. xD

LOL

[flames]

Whilst I don't deny that these are important things to be considering and I have thought of such things in the past I'd say that the general reactions here are a bit much in some regards, especially seeing as people have essentially been saying the same things about technology since the turn of the 20th century. Human nature is such that there will always be corrupt people and there shall always be such people in positions of power, that people shall exploit the resources available to their own benefit: in the past it was the church and religion (still true to some extent today) and today it's with the corruption of technology for the purposes of war. There shall always be risks. There shall always be flaws in the government, always be those who desire power and conflict. It doesn't matter if it's a bomb, a machine or something far more crude: technology or not they'll find a way.
So whilst we should be concerned certainly, I'd say some of the fears here are a tad out of proportion, normally blown up by the media and creating self-fulfilling prophecies. Pretty much every worry about computers and robots so far I'd say are along the same lines people held decades ago and you'll notice that for all our progress, there isn't a single machine on this planet that even comes close to true artificial intelligence. There have been leaps and jumps yes, but the form of technology people have been afraid of (mostly due to movies and TV) for the past few decades are still pretty far away. The Y2K bug was a lot less of an issue then most seemed to think, considering that some people seemed to think a bug regarding the way computers store time would cause them to go berserk? Please, pull the other one.

The world hasn't become any more evil or corrupt since the past, nor have the base human values and instincts really changed that much: in most areas there are groups that hold most of the power and that perform shady deals behind everyone's backs, each generation complains about the next being disrespectful and rebellious and man still finds new ways to kill his fellow man. The problem lies not in technology or anything else on this Earth but us. The fact that most of us are hard-wired to follow authority even if it clashes with our morals and that so many average people can put others through pain for the most pathetic of reasons doesn't help.
*shrugs* Being terrified does little good. Reflect on it, try to stop corruption wherever you can, ensure that power/freedom is given to individuals rather than political or religious groups, do all that we can to keep the peace and when everything finally breaks out of control...be ready.