Evolution of the human species

[episodic]

Humans have evolved to a standstill it seems.

I often wondered if we created conscious machines in the next 50 years - and within the next couple of hundred years machines start being able to make other machines and increase their consciousness to the level that of or exceeding humans - would that not be our evolutionairy leap?

So I'm asking if these machines persisted for many thousands of years, and say something occurred that wiped out most of the biological life on the earth (including humans) would these machines not be 'us' in our evolved form?

Would this not be the ultimate evolution?

 

[CarlKillerMiller]

I don't think so, as the machines are not our offspring in biological terms.


That would just be the machines surviving over the mammals, same as the mammals did over the reptiles so long ago.

 

[episodic]

Originally posted by: Chraticn
I don't think so, as the machines are not our offspring in biological terms.


That would just be the machines surviving over the mammals, same as the mammals did over the reptiles so long ago.

I kind of feel you - but in a sense the machines would be our offspring. Whatever consciousness they created would be in our own image.

 

[Eli]

no, that wouldn't be considered our evolutionary leap, lol.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: episodic
Whatever consciousness they created would be in our own image.

What makes you think that? I'd think it would be more likely that they'd discard the fragile human psyche and stick to something more predictable.

- M4H

 

[episodic]

Originally posted by: Eli
no, that wouldn't be considered our evolutionary leap, lol.

I know it seems 'strange', but consider this. We are constantly working on cybernetic stuff. What if at some point the line between a man and machine is so blurred that you really can't tell.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: episodic
Whatever consciousness they created would be in our own image.

What makes you think that? I'd think it would be more likely that they'd discard the fragile human psyche and stick to something more predictable.

- M4H

Do you still have an appendix?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: episodic

Originally posted by: Eli
no, that wouldn't be considered our evolutionary leap, lol.

I know it seems 'strange', but consider this. We are constantly working on cybernetic stuff. What if at some point the line between a man and machine is so blurred that you really can't tell.

As long as reproduction is still biological and not mechanical, it's human.

- M4H

 

[episodic]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: episodic
Whatever consciousness they created would be in our own image.

What makes you think that? I'd think it would be more likely that they'd discard the fragile human psyche and stick to something more predictable.

- M4H

What I'm saying is that whatever experience they were able to have with the world would be programmed in our own image with our own limitations. Initially at least the beginnings of consciousness would for the machines would be interacting with the world in a 'human' manner. This no doubt would affect their offspring.

You forget as well if the machine is consious and not merely repeating our instructions - then it would be apt to have all the shortcomings of a conscious being.

 

[Connoisseur]

Ehh wouldn't consider machines as our next evolutionary step. What I think has happened is that our technology evolved to a point where we stopped natural evolution. Diseases and conditions that would've been fatal are now easily treatable and the person has a chance to pass it on to the next generation. I think we basically became masters of our own evolution; that is to say, any biological changes that we undergo will be done artificially by humans, and not nature.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: episodic
Whatever consciousness they created would be in our own image.

What makes you think that? I'd think it would be more likely that they'd discard the fragile human psyche and stick to something more predictable.

- M4H

Do you still have an appendix?

Yes, and rightly so, because the appendix has only recently been rendered "useless" on an evolutionary timeline. In another fifty thousand years, maybe we'll have evolved it out naturally.

- M4H

 

[meltdown75]

i always thought we were going to evolve into the little grey dudes. *shrugs*

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: episodic

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: episodic
Whatever consciousness they created would be in our own image.

What makes you think that? I'd think it would be more likely that they'd discard the fragile human psyche and stick to something more predictable.

- M4H

What I'm saying is that whatever experience they were able to have with the world would be programmed in our own image with our own limitations. Initially at least the beginnings of consciousness would for the machines would be interacting with the world in a 'human' manner. This no doubt would affect their offspring.

You forget as well if the machine is consious and not merely repeating our instructions - then it would be apt to have all the shortcomings of a conscious being.

You do realize that we're just a few years from realizing such powerful technology, right?

I mean, we're advancing fast.. but you're talking sci-fi artificial intelligence that doesen't exist yet, lol...

We don't really even know how to define consciousness... let alone inbue it into a non-living mechanical entity.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: episodic
What I'm saying is that whatever experience they were able to have with the world would be programmed in our own image with our own limitations. Initially at least the beginnings of consciousness would for the machines would be interacting with the world in a 'human' manner. This no doubt would affect their offspring.

You forget as well if the machine is consious and not merely repeating our instructions - then it would be apt to have all the shortcomings of a conscious being.

An artificially programmed conscience is not a substitute for genetic lineage. Unlike humanity, a robotic "evolution" could be retroactive. We don't have "service packs" for wisdom teeth.

Perhaps you could argue that it would just be evolution on a far more rapid scale than we're used to seeing. A cluster of robots with the ability to investigate and change their own beings and nothing else to do would probably achieve some sort of stable evolutionary stage in short order. If something altered that, they would all quickly and uniformly adapt.

- M4H

 

[MercenaryForHire]

BTW, I'm proud to have come from a monkey.

- M4H

 

[Jumpem]

People still believe in evolution?

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
BTW, I'm proud to have come from a monkey.

- M4H

:shocked: EW!

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
:shocked:

Edit - Whoa, animated :Q ?

EMOTICON EVOLUTION!

- M4H

 

[myusername]

The most disturbing thing is that intelligence does not seem to be an evolutionary factor.

 

[her209]

On a micro-level, there is evolution happening all the time. For example, a lot of the Indians were killed off due to diseases introduced to them by the Europeans.

In terms of macro-evolution, what about people with twelve fingers and twelve toes?

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: myusername
The most disturbing thing is that intelligence does not seem to be an evolutionary factor.

I would argue that the factor is actually inversely proportional.

 

[rezinn]

Originally posted by: episodic
Humans have evolved to a standstill it seems.

Evidence? You cannot measure evolution on the timescale you experience.

 

[Landroval]

I think we can think of any type of true AI that comes about as our 'children". At least we should have some compassion and concern for them -- hopefully not screw them as badly as many of our 'human' children have been.

And we will definitely alter our physical form in this century enough to be dramatically different from what we are now, both physically and mentally. So your question is very insightful

 

[QuitBanningMe]

I don't think it would be an evolutionary leap.

Our next leap will be when we take evolution out of natures hands and make enhanced and specialized humans.

 

[xirtam]

So what you're saying is that if we invented a butter factory that produced a ton of butter, and then it started overproducing and got beyond our control, and we couldn't stop it, and then it overflowed and the entire human race drowned in butter... that we evolved into butter?