Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id EAA10421 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 24 Mar 2000 04:40:44 GMT Message-ID: <005a01bf959e$c3d2b280$03000004@r2z3h3> From: "Tyger" <void@internet-zahav.net.il> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <1258250756-7355963@smtp.clarityconnect.com> Subject: Re: Yes, but will there still be memes? Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 06:39:30 -0800 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Raymond O. Recchia wrote:
Sounds like a serious lecture. The head of Sun Micro and
> Douglas Hofstader. So what happens to the memes when humanity is
> replaced by robots that think like humans?
T: if indeed those AI systems will THINK LIKE HUMANS, why should anything
happen to the memes, they (the memes) will simply keep on replicating ,
using hardware instead of wetware..
best,
Tyger
----- Original Message -----
From: "Raymond Recchia" <rrecchia@mail.clarityconnect.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2000 8:22 PM
Subject: Yes, but will there still be memes?
> >WILL SPIRITUAL ROBOTS REPLACE HUMANITY BY 2100?
> >A SYMPOSIUM AT STANFORD
> >-- free and open to the public --
> >
> >Saturday, April 1, from 1 PM till 5:30 PM
> >Teaching Center, Science and Engineering Quad (TCSEQ), room 200 near the
> Math Corner, Sequoia Hall, and the Varian Physics Building
> >
> >Primary speakers:
> >
> >Ray Kurzweil (inventor of reading machine for the blind, electronic
> keyboards, etc., and author of "The Age of Spiritual Machines")
> >
> >Hans Moravec (founder of Carnegie-Mellon University's Robotics Institute,
> and author of "Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind")
> >
> >Bill Joy (co-founder of, and chief scientist at, SUN Microsystems)
> >
> >John Holland (inventor of genetic algorithms, and artificial-life
pioneer;
> professor of computer science and psychology at the U. of Michigan)
> >
> >Panel members:
> >
> >Ralph Merkle (well-known computer scientist and one of today's top
figures
> in the explosive field of nanotechnology) Kevin Kelly (editor at "Wired"
> magazine and author of "Out of Control", a study of bio-technological
hybrids)
> >
> >Frank Drake (distinguished radio-astronomer and head of the SETI
Institute
> -- Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)
> >
> >John Koza (inventor of genetic programming, a rapidly expanding branch of
> artificial intelligence)
> >
> >Symposium organizer and panel moderator:
> >
> >Douglas Hofstadter (professor of cognitive science at Indiana; author of
> "Godel, Escher, Bach", "Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies", etc.)
> >
> >In 1999, two distinguished computer scientists, Ray Kurzweil and
> >Hans Moravec, came out independently with serious books that
> >proclaimed that in the coming century, our own computational
> >technology, marching to the exponential drum of Moore's Law and
> >more general laws of bootstrapping, leapfrogging, positive-feedback
> >progress, will outstrip us intellectually and spiritually, becoming
> >not only deeply creative but deeply emotive, thus usurping from us
> >humans our self-appointed position as "the highest product of
> >evolution".
> >
> >These two books (and several others that appeared at about the
> >same time) are not the works of crackpots; they have been reviewed
> >at the highest levels of the nation's press, and often very favorably.
> >But the scenarios they paint are surrealistic, science-fiction-like,
> >and often shocking.
> >
> >According to Kurzweil and Moravec, today's human researchers,
> >drawing on emerging research areas such as artificial life, artificial
> >intelligence, nanotechnology, virtual reality, genetic algorithms,
> >genetic programming, and optical, DNA, and quantum computing
> >(as well as other areas that have not yet been dreamt of), are striving,
> >perhaps unwittingly, to render themselves obsolete -- and in this
> >strange endeavor, they are being aided and abetted by the very
> >entities that would replace them (and you and me): superpowerful
> >computers that are relentlessly becoming tinier and tinier and faster
> >and faster, month after month after month.
> >
> >Where will it all lead? Will we soon pass the spiritual baton to
> >software minds that will swim in virtual realities of a thousand sorts
> >that we cannot even begin to imagine? Will uploading and downloading
> >of full minds onto the Web become a commonplace? Will thinking take
> >place at silicon speeds, millions of times greater than carbon speeds?
> >Will our children -- or perhaps our grandchildren -- be the last
> >generation to experience "the human condition"? Will immortality take
> >over from mortality? Will personalities blur and merge and
> >interpenetrate as the need for biological bodies and brains recedes
> >into the past? What is to come?
> >
> >To treat these disorienting themes with the seriousness they
> >deserve at the dawn of the new millennium, cognitive scientist Douglas
> >Hofstadter has drawn together a blue-ribbon panel of experts in all
> >the areas concerned, including the authors of the two books cited. On
> >Saturday, April 1 (take the date as you will), three main speakers and
> >five additional panelists will publicly discuss and debate what the
> >computational and technological future holds for humanity. The forum
> >will be held from 1 PM till 5:30 PM, and audience participation will
> >be welcome in the final third of the program.
> >
> >Sponsoring agencies at Stanford:
> >Symbolic Systems Program; Center for the Study of Language and
> >Information; Department of Computer Science; Department of Philosophy;
> >Center for Computer-Assisted Research in the Humanities; Channel 51;
> >GSB Futurist Club
> >
> >
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
>
> Sounds like a serious lecture. The head of Sun Micro and
> Douglas Hofstader. So what happens to the memes when humanity is
> replaced by robots that think like humans?
> Raymond O. Recchia
>
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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