What will happen to the human race?
One objection that comes up a lot – in fact, probably the most frequent objection – is “Won’t those superintelligent AIs grind us up for lunch?” This is a complex issue even by my standards, and I speak as someone who has tried to design a human-equivalent mind. The correct scientific answer to this question is “I don’t know”. Imagine a Neanderthal trying to predict the fate of the human race. Not much luck, right? Now imagine a hunter-gatherer from fifty thousand years ago. Still no luck. The eighteen-fifties? Again, no luck. The nineteen-fifties? Sorry, no practical experience with programming computers – not by modern standards, anyway. No wonder nobody invented the concept of a Singularity until the late twentieth century. Is there some kind of reason why the late twentieth century was the first generation to be capable of fully understanding the problem? Or is it more likely that we, too, lack the background to ask the right questions? Ultimately, however, the questions are moot.
