Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Is It Possible That We Will Be Flying On Broomsticks After We Are Enrolled In Hogwarts School For Witchcraft And Wizardry?

"Is it possible that we will be living in a virtual reality after the Singularity?" asks Rachel Marone, Very Serious Futurologist and editor of the Robot Cult newsletter hplusmagazine (that's humanityplus! for all you mere humanity-minuses out there).

5 comments:

Dale Carrico said...

Apparently "The Future" is a lot like 1993... Vinge's Whole Earth gospel was out, memories of The Lawnmower Man were still ringing in our ears, irrational exuberance was lathering us up for The Long Boom...

jimf said...

> . . .memories of The Lawnmower Man were still ringing in our ears. . .

To say nothing of _Wild Palms_ and _VR 5_. I miss Lori Singer! (For that matter, I miss the 1990s.)

jimf said...

> Is It Possible That We Will Be Flying On Broomsticks. . .

Is it possible we'll have robots that get the humor in the wisecrack
"and while you're at it, you can stick a broom up your ass and
sweep the floor"?

jollyspaniard said...

Getting robots to understand humor probably isn't as hard as you might think. There are already some systems that can identify potential humor (but not necessarily to initiate it). The unimaginably difficult, we don't have any idea how to do it stuff is stuff that we humans take for granted probably because we did it when we were in diapers.

Dale Carrico said...

I don't think robots will get humor any time soon. They may get humor before Republicans do, however.