A Celebration Society

Tag: entertainment

  • Do AIs Need to Have Fun?

    Do AIs Need to Have Fun?

    The AI researcher Jurgen Schmidhuber has argued in a talk that there is a precise way to optimize a self-improving superintelligence based upon Godel’s mathematics. He further explained this in a paper audaciously named “Formal Theory of Creativity, Fun, and Intrinsic Motivation”.

    He says “The simple but general formal theory of fun & intrinsic motivation & creativity (1990-) is based on the concept of maximizing intrinsic reward for the active creation or discovery of novel, surprising patterns allowing for improved prediction or data compression … it has been argued that the theory explains many essential aspects of intelligence including autonomous development, science, art, music, humor. …

    He continues: “To build a creative agent that never stops generating non-trivial & novel & surprising data, we need two learning modules: (1) an adaptive predictor or compressor or model of the growing data history as the agent is interacting with its environment and (2) as a general reinforcement learner. The learning progress of (1) is the fun or intrinsic reward of (2). That is, (2) is motivated to invent things that (1) does not yet know but can easily learn. … some of the AGIs based on the creativity principle will become scientists, artists, or comedians.”

    Who would ever have imagined that AI’s might need to have fun? And yet, why would self-directing intelligences of any sort otherwise bother with “thinking” beyond addressing their own survival issues?

    This is an entirely different view of AIs than the Terminator-type fears which dominate popular dystopian fiction. Yes, there are serious reasons to be concerned about the motivations of AIs and the possible threat they pose to humanity. But given adequate resources of matter and energy to maintain their thinking processes, AIs may just as well find us interesting–even fun–rather than something to extinguish or rule.

    In my view, humanity can assure a safe coexistence with AIs only by merging with them. While this prospect will be discomfiting to many, it need not be unpleasant. Done on an “opt in/opt out” basis, people will be able to augment our senses and intelligence as we now augment our bodies with machines such as cars.

    A Celebration Society comprised of “humans” in various expressions of humanity–both ordinary and AI enhanced–could be a wonderful tapestry of possibilities, far beyond our present imaginings.

  • What Will the World be like in 2053?

    What Will the World be like in 2053?

    (Note: this was originally posted as an invited answer on Quora. However, by writing this I extended my previous thinking in some new ways, so I thought it should also appear here.)

    I’ll turn 100 in that year, so I’m pleased you chose it.

    As I see it, assuming we avoid scenarios in which civilization implodes, we will have a world of universal material abundance. Further, this abundance will be much less physically expressed than in our time because of the universal availability of fully immersive, zero latency VR.

    I expect tomorrow’s VR to be marketed as “Better than Real”. Sight will be at 8K visual levels or better, sound will be full surround, and touch will be as if one were there. All manner of future, past, alternate universe/SF, and even fantasy scenarios will be available, with the option to play any character in the narrative or to invent and insert one’s own character. I imagine that groups of friends will have an endless hobby of joining VR simulations and playing in them together. (Some, the Simulation Theorists, might argue that’s what we’re doing right now.)

    I expect such gaming to be the primary form of recreation circa 2053, Concerns about physical inactivity can be addressed in multiple ways: (1) the VR experience can be designed to include real movement of one’s physical body, (2) biological and nanotech means will likely exist to give the benefits of exercise to one’s body. (There is already genetic treatment that produces massive muscles in mammals. Researchers create “mighty mouse” with gene tweak that doubles muscle strength GHB, used in Europe to treat depression, insomnia and as an aid to childbirth, strongly stimulates growth hormone release.), (3) people can actually spend some time in “real” reality (which I hope we can make so enticing and delightful that this will be a pleasure, and not a duty. If they do so, technologies such as PACE exercise (for aerobic capacity) and the PowerPlate (for muscle strength, flexibility and balance) will allow people to stay fit with little time invested.

    That said, there are basically two ways this abundance can be manifested. Either a small, elite group of owners will enjoy abundance like the space colony dwellers in Elysium and the Tomorrowland residents, with the rest of the people warehoused (still with VR, though), or everyone will enjoy that kind of abundance. I have made a specific proposal for how we can assure the latter outcome.

    Exponential acceleration of technology notwithstanding, I do expect human inertia and irrationality to delay adoption of the above technologies in various parts of the world. However, given the tremendous benefits to those desiring entertainment, education, and tourism, I fully expect an effective black market to develop for VR software that doesn’t comport with the moral codes that will seek to regulate it. (Even though no real people or animals are harmed!)