Should Computers Run the World?

[apis]

[shteii01]

no.

[GreyWoolfe]

It won't be the computers running the world but the field service techs that keep fixing them that will.

[Brumby]

The title is a little bit on the click bait side of things.

The conclusion of the talk outlines a much less dramatic and far more valuable approach:  Let algorithmic processes identify matters of interest - and then have human input for decision making.

Seems rather sensible to me.

[German_EE]

No

See 'The Forbin Project'. 'Demon Seed' and '2001 A Space Odyssey for s detailed explanation. That off switch is there for a reason.

[Electro Detective]

They might do a better job than the mobile phones are now,

and perhaps enslave users less... 

[Rerouter]

Any computational system carries the bias of the creators, equally our current approaches to reward systems are quite limited, Asimov's 3 laws are quite a nice example, some simple, well thought out at the time rules the learning systems had to follow, and in most of the stories built upon that, the AI's figure out how to cheat that system through conditions that where not planned for.

Its very common in most modern trained systems that small changes can cause them to misbehave, and during the training period face a number of revisions while the developers lock it down so it cannot cheat out of the situation.

The best way I can put it, we have the capacity to build tools to cross check and vet this stuff, but it has not yet passed the time spent vs time saved trade off, when your 5 minute patch takes a room of servers 3 months to proof, no places will approach it.

Can we use computational analysis to dig out data that helps humanity as a whole, 100%, issue is most of the time you kind of have to know what your looking for to begin finding it. this is tied in with how trustworthy a source of data is.

People have run analysis on the side effects of drug combinations just by trawling google search history patterns, Its helpful, but again, unless you knew to look for something like that, I doubt it would have been found.

[0xdeadbeef]

With the current state of "AI", I'd rather let chimpanzee decide upon my fate. Then again, with people getting dumber every day, it may be a race towards idiocy if either stupidity of AI created by mankind of stupidity of humanity itself will be its downfall.

[ElectronicSupersonic]

... Then again, with people getting dumber every day, it may be a race towards idiocy if either stupidity of AI created by mankind of stupidity of humanity itself will be its downfall.

It's not that people are more and more dumb (well not all of them at least), it's more to do with how fast paced life becomes - people just have no time to think (not to mention being thoughtful) they are forced to act and since there is no time given to think, acting is based mainly on reflexes/instincts. With predictable results. 

The way I see it the main reason for this f&%@ery, is how modern large businesses work. It's all about time vs money. People in charge insist on doing more and more work in shorter time frames to maximise profits, while people are not paid more regardless of the amount of work they have to do and ignoring limitations of human body/physiology/psychology (basically how fast we can think/act). People have different limits, most commonly limits aren't that high. Hence pace of life required and pace of life people are actually capable to withstand is less and less coinciding.

Add marketing (adds and all the related stuff lurking behind every corner) and state managed propaganda (regardless to whichever state it is) to the mix, the end result is zombie/robot like state (of mind) people live their lives in. This in turn looks like people are getting dumber and dumber every day. All the above is strictly IMHO.

As to the computers running the world... It's better be NOT A Windows 10 computer! 

[bd139]

Nope!

Sounds like the Kree Supreme Intelligence to me which is not a good thing.

[0xdeadbeef]

It's not that people are more and more dumb (well not all of them at least), it's more to do with how fast paced life becomes - people just have no time to think (not to mention being thoughtful) they are forced to act and

Maybe the percentage of dumb people stayed the same but it's just more and more people who would have worked as "pure finder" two hundred years ago are now working in offices. Anyway, just look at how 95% of people put their bottles on the conveyor belt at the counter of a supermarket and you feel surrounded by morons. And so many people nowadays are not even capable anymore to properly communicate in their mother tongue.

[rastro]

"Yes Dave; they're infallible..."

[apis]

The title is a little bit on the click bait side of things.

The conclusion of the talk outlines a much less dramatic and far more valuable approach:  Let algorithmic processes identify matters of interest - and then have human input for decision making.

Seems rather sensible to me.

Hannah Fry is a great speaker/popular science lecturer.

[Halcyon]

... Then again, with people getting dumber every day, it may be a race towards idiocy if either stupidity of AI created by mankind of stupidity of humanity itself will be its downfall.

It's not that people are more and more dumb (well not all of them at least), it's more to do with how fast paced life becomes - people just have no time to think (not to mention being thoughtful) they are forced to act and since there is no time given to think, acting is based mainly on reflexes/instincts. With predictable results.