Hacker Cinema
Transcendence
2014 · Film · 119 min
Directed by Wally Pfister
ThrillerScience FictionDramaMystery
Two leading computer scientists work toward their goal of Technological Singularity, as a radical anti-technology organization fights to prevent them from creating a world where computers can transcend the abilities of the human brain.
8 positive5 negative2 mixed26 neutralfrom 41 commenters
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43 comments on Hacker News
When I see things like this, it reminds that the saying life imitates art is surprisingly true. This is basically the premise of the movie Transcendence to a certain extent. Very interesting and very cool but begs the question just because we can, does it mean we should?
That being said, ever since I found out about Colossal Bioscience and their de-extinction projects, I have been tuned into their progress with great interest because it is the real life Jurassic Park.
A bit like the Transcendence (2014) movie.
If data integrity is assured, and thus there is no change in the data to store/transfer, then that's the opposite of computationally transforming the data?
How do we see robot and AI and helping interactions in film and tv and games?
A curated list of films for consideration:
Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" or "The Modern Prometheus" (1818), Metropolis (1927), I\, Robot (1940-1950; Three Laws of Robotics, robopsychology), Macy Conferences (1941-1960; Cybernetics), Tobor the Great (1954), Here Comes Tobor (1956), Jetsons' maid's name: Rosie (1962), Lost in Space (1965), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), THX 1138 (1971), Star Wars (1977), Terminator (1984), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Flubber (1997, 1961), Futurama (TV, 1999-), Star Wars: Phantom Menace (1999), The Iron Giant (1999), Bicentennial Man (1999), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Minority Report (2003), I\, Robot (2004), Team America: World Police (2004), Wall-E (2008), Iron Man (2008), Eagle Eye (2008), Moon (2009), Surrogates (2009), Tron: Legacy (2010), Hugo (2011), Django Unchained (2012), Her (2013), Transcendence (2014), Chappie (2015), Tomorrowland (2015), The Wild Robot (2016, 2024), Ghost in the Shell (2017),
Giant f robots: Gundam (1979), Transformers (TV: 1984-1987, 2007-), Voltron (1984-1985), MechWarrior (1989), Matrix II: Revolutions (2003), Avatar (2009, 2022, 2025), Pacific Rim (2013-), RoboCop (1987, 2014), Edge of Tomorrow (2014),
~AI vehicle: Herbie, The Love Bug (1968-), Knight Rider (TV, 1982-1986), Thunder in Paradise (TV, 1993-95), Heat Vision and Jack (1999), Transformers (2007), Bumblebee (2018)
Games: Portal (2007), LEGO Bricktales (2022), While True: learn() (2018), "NPC" Non-Player Character
Category:Films_about_artificial_intelligence : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_about_artificial_intelligence
List of artificial intelligence films: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_intelligence_films
Category:Films_about_robots: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_about_robots
Category:American_robot_films: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_robot_films
The 2014 film Transcendence touches upon this, but I can't recommend watching it. It's surface level and the rest of the film is mediocre.
I still think Transcendence (2014) (that AI movie with Johnny Depp) is a pretty relevant watch. (I do not condone violence.)
Still quite uncertain about how to feel about G(AI).
This sounds like “Revolutionary Independence From Technology (R.I.F.T.)” from the movie Transcendence (2014).
Yeah, I can't see any deep meaning - the story is simple and provided in digestible way, visuals are good and they even were praised for the scientific accuracy. Cast is pretty fine as well tho I personally didn't like Hathaway in it and at first I raised brow for McConaughey because I'm not really associating him with such films (despite his past role in Contact). It's enjoyable on par with Transcendence released earlier that year, but again: I hardly can see any way, reasons to dismantle it for solid theories.
If superintelligence can be achieved, I'm pessimistic about the safe part.
- Sandboxing an intelligence greater than your own seems like an impossible task as the superintelligence could potentially come up with completely novel attack vectors the designers never thought of. Even if the SSI's only interface to the outside world is an air gapped text-based terminal in an underground bunker, it might use advanced psychological manipulation to compromise the people it is interacting with. Also the movie Transcendence comes to mind, where the superintelligence makes some new physics discoveries and ends up doing things that to us are indistinguishable from magic.
- Any kind of evolutionary component in its process of creation or operation would likely give favor to expansionary traits that can be quite dangerous to other species such as humans.
- If it somehow mimics human thought processes but at highly accelerated speeds, I'd expect dangerous ideas to surface. I cannot really imagine a 10k year simulation of humans living on planet earth that does not end in nuclear war or a similar disaster.
Into the Wild, this perhaps romanticized / dumb idea that blindly chasing your passion to your demise may still be worth it. Dying from mushroom poisoning doesn't seem so fun though...
Walter Mitty and Big Year, similar adventures about people chasing their silly passions (but not fatally).
Transcendence, Her, and Robot and Frank, some of the very few AI-optimistic movies. I've always believed in the transformative social good of AI, since I first heard of the Borg, but most people and media are staunchly against it. It was nice to see a more friendly viewpoint.
I really enjoyed Arrival too and hope we have an experience like that someday, but the whole time travel thing was a turnoff.
Edit: Movies, unsorted, from the top of my mind:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_of_Control https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Origins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_East_(2013_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter%27s_Bone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contagion_(2011_film) , seen before Covid, deemed to be realistic, and therefore better than stuff like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warning_Sign_(film) somewhere in between. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_IV_(1974_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_(film) The remakes of the Planet of the Apes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Days_Later , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Weeks_Later a little less so, though it had some great scenes of flying into London City Airport and the modern parts around that. Bladerunner in the original versions, the remake not so much. 2001: A Space Odyssey, the intro and first parts, spaceflight to the moon and such, the rest not. Too boring. I liked the sequel 2010: Odyssey Two better, actually. Avatar. Part one only. All of this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(franchise) with the exception of the crossover stuff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_(film) for the almost cyberpunkish fuckedupness of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_Untold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WALL-E https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_(2005_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX_1138 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropia_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollerball_(1975_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_Dealer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southland_Tales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendence_(2014_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Puppet_Masters_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Survivalist_(2015_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_(2000_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_(2007_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hidden_(1987_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Zero_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capricorn_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangar_18_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_(2001_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timecop Ron Silverman Badass! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(2014_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_Blonde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_the_Night_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(1997_American_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truman_Show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombiana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowing_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Zone_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_(1998_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adjustment_Bureau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeforce_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fourth_Protocol_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_(2013_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_(2009_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Countdown_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypher_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigger_Point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_Conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anderson_Tapes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parallax_View https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Seduction
TV-Series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_(1975_TV_series) and the remake linked from there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Train_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho_(2006_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strain_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayward_Pines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silo_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_All_Mankind_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_(American_TV_series) and its prequel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_(TV_series)
WESTWORLD!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_(TV_series) Praimfaya! Yeehaa! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpart_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ark_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon_(TV_series) All of Black Mirror! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Experiments_Lain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelers_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_Skies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devs_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peripheral_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expanse_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helix_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporated_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_by_Wolves_(American_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_the_Loop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutschland_83 and sequels. ÄXZÄLLÄNNT! JAWOLLJA! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humans_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Night_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_(2019_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gods_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozark_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_High_Castle_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_(miniseries) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_Interest_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_(American_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvation_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Dome_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_(2009_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caprica
This all began about 2006 with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlestar_Galactica_(2004_TV_series) after having abstained from possessing a TV, or watching that by other means (with some exceptions for news and documentaries) since 1996, and mostly no cinema either.
That stuff rehooked me in a binge-watching session. Shit happens :-)
Do yoo vanna häff fries wiff thät?
/nerdsnipe off
AI and ML are vast, sophisticated fields of study. Increasingly people are realising that innovations in these areas will have an outsized influence in their daily lives. But they lack the mental capacity or time to invest in these subjects to be able to speak about them coherently. In their perception only the "nerds" can talk about these subjects and demand to be taken "seriously".
Thankfully the bar to be recognised as a "nerd" is very low indeed. You only need to have seen some TV like Battle Star Galactica, or movies like Terminator, Ex Machina, or Transcendence (starring Johnny Depp) to be considered a Nerd. You also might have to read a "hard" sci-fi novel, but most people haven't so you just have to say that you have, to claim a higher level of the uh.. operating thetan.
Now all you need to be really taken seriously is a "sympathiser" who has a PhD or maybe just hangs around in a college campus to lend credence to your fears. And for the academic, there is a lot of money to be made, and influence to be gained if you are the one that this crowd approaches for credibility. Its even better if you actually believe in this drivel.
Thats what I think of Eliezer Yudkowsky.
That’s what we’ve came to the conclusion too, kinda like the movie Transcendence. It is a pretty interesting conversation to talk and think about though from a moral, humane, and social aspect.
If AI becomes that powerful, what would end up happening is that we'd become able to foist ourselves into virtual worlds like in the movie Transcendence so that we become like them. It's like when you include your old version of your site as an html component or element inside your new site somewhere nested deep inside as an easter egg, you know what I mean?
We'd both be foisting each other into each other's worlds and creating new experiences for each other - us by helping them develop organic bodies to include them as components in this physical reality, and them by helping us build connectors so we can move our consciousnesses in and out of bodies and into their virtual reality.
The contrast between that film and Transcendence, which came out the following year is the perfect illustration of what this article is getting at:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/26/entertainment/mid-budget-movie-decline-cec/index.html
Her was an amazingly thoughtful sci-fi movie - a Sci-Fi movie in the truest sense, and a bargain at a ~$23 million budget. Transcendence was, basically, a blockbuster which really didn't make you think too hard about the plot. It clocked in at around $100 million budget.
When I compare threat of chemists (as example) to AGI it does not make sense, I genuinely don't understand what possible threat AGI can poses, like what is threat model of AGI, is there any objectively ?
Do people imagine AGI as in movie Transcendence and think it will happen in there's life time ?
I asked ChatGPT. It gave me bunch. I got some I've never heard of. I think I'll look into them.
<ChatGPT>
list 50 interesting movies that explore AI.
The Matrix
Ex Machina
Blade Runner
The Terminator
I, Robot
The War of the Worlds
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Transcendence
The Fifth Element
2001: A Space Odyssey
WarGames
Westworld
The Machine
Her
The Iron Giant
Automata
The Truman Show
The Prestige
The Martian
The Fly
The Bicentennial Man
Surrogates
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Limitless
Robocop
Electric Dreams
The Island
The Time Machine
The Circle
The Arrival
The Host
The Stepford Wives
The Brain that Wouldn't Die
Frankenstein
The Invisible Man
Metropolis
The Thing
Jurassic Park
Independence Day
Gravity
Artificial Intelligence: AI
Avatar
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
Inception
Interstellar
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Butterfly Effect
The Future.
</ChatGPT>
I recommend you to watch the movie "Transcendence", ignore the reviews. After that let it just be an idea for the movie plot and instead go walk through the woods for a while. I used to be where you are now, but no singularly can fix what is in essence a spiritual problem.
For years I used a playlist of the soundtracks of Deus Ex: HR and the movie Transcendence on shuffle for working on the PC.
Whenever I see stuff about automated algorithms it reminds me of a movie, can't remember the name or plot exactly but they create a being or upload someones consciousness and the "ai" is solving all the problems the world faces until it reaches the last one, humans. It then begins to synthesize some airborne virus or nukes that would scour us from the earth. We basically created tech that would eventually optimize us out of existence as a cancer to the earth.
Edit, found it Transcendence (2014), also it seems my brain injected some random thoughts into that plot, it's not about that at all but the point stands!
It is still trying to square AGI into human setting. I think Transcendence is the only serious movie I've seen, that actually tries to go beyond that.
There are examples of AI in sci-fi that are not bound to a single humanoid-robot type base. Just to pick some popular movies: The Matrix, Her, Transcendence
> Intelligence does not improve resource acquisition by itself.
Does it really not though? If you watched the movie "Transcendence" you'd presume that a sufficiently [initially] sophisticated AI can decipher our financial markets quite snappily and make a very quick money off of that -- and use those to finance its endeavours. Which is exactly what the AI in this movie did, very successfully too.
My point is, given a much larger and better brain, the intelligence within it can optimise a much larger problem space at once, and that can very easily include resource acquisition as well.
A similar idea moved a bit further is the theme of the film Transcendence
Annihilation, Dark City, Riddick Chronicles, Babylon A.D., Guardians of The Galaxy, Fast and Furious, Hummingbird, Transporter, Crank, Hardcore Henry, Revolver, Lucy, Ghost in The Shell, Now you see me, Passengers, Transcendence, Maze Runner, Limitless...
I think we've had a good run; I also think it's easy to be biased and not see it because of some nostalgia-effect of sorts. If you are f.e. 30+ you might more easily dismiss a movie as Limitless or Lucy as uncredible; both are based on a common myth that we only utilize a low percentage of our brains capacity, as an example, so they are that: unrealistic. But I think that's an unfair comparison because of an inherent bias that when you think about a movie like The Matrix you don't see it with the same critical lens because you perhaps had less knowledge of the world in your earlier years. #JustAFewThoughts
Everyone seemed to dislike the movie Transcendence, but at least it handled the opening of pandora's box scenario well.
Hard take off is not likely, simply because to go from a cat level intelligence to above human the resource requirements would be enormous. (If evolution needed hundreds of thousands of years, it's unlikely that a cat-level agent can do it that much faster without being noticed by a group of humans.)
But humans like to play God, and also play with fire. It's just a matter of time to play with Skynet and oops it's really Skynet.
Transcendence https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2209764/
Naw, the ideologues will go after the programmers first, as soon as they realize, much like in the movie 'transcendence'... [besides infrastructure etc]
The story has a few weak points, and having to fight against powerful adversaries with metric tons of vested interest in virtually all areas the AGI would disrupt is probably the biggest.
As you said, it would require much more chess moves.
I personally think the plot of the movie "Transcendence" is more believable -- if your AGI is fond of you (for one reason or another; you might even program it that way in a way that's not overridable) you can just freely let it loose in the internet and only give it instructions. The movie demonstrated how that AGI first made very sure to survive and then started to both expand itself and help its human creator and benefactor.
That being said, this story was still very enjoyable but I feel it lacked conflict. "As if they fell into a well-placed trap" is just not that captivating. And yet again, there are a lot of powers in our current world, most of which unseen and unofficial. For me to really like such a story, I want to see how the AGI will deal with them. I am 99% sure that any respectable AGI will eventually win but the journey to there would be extremely interesting!
This article is kind of meaningless since an artificial general intelligence hasn't been achieved yet. The usual story that probably got more public traction with the introduction of "The Terminator" movie always assumes a self-conscious entity that had mountaints of data on humans to analyze and quickly concluded we must go, either because we're warmongers and are constantly causing trouble and havoc (Skynet), or we're not evolved enough compared to that artificial and much more developed organism ("Avengers: Age of Ultron"), or a mix of both ("Transcendence").
An article saying "chill out people, robots won't ever take over because they haven't so far" is missing the point by kilometers. Our robots are dumber than an individual ant and have zero concept of self, life, death, needs, or their own place in the world.
Ray Dalio is a fascinating person. He purchased a one-word .com to share his personal and management principles, and now he is attempting to train a learning system to automate and preserve his decision-making.
There's a movie script somewhere in here. Exaggerate the narcissism, advance the science 50-100 years and we've got an eccentric billionaire that causes an artificial intelligence uprising. Like something between Transcendence and Westworld.
A few other thoughts from reading the article:
• Dalio seems like a classic case of someone pursuing immortality in whatever way he can. His coming out of retirement, his efforts to leave a legacy of "radical transparency" and to make his company an "altar of openness", etc. He is also 67 years old. He may feel as though he is "running out of time", and I've seen an uptick in media mentions surrounding him and Bridgewater. There's quite a few religious themes here.
• Bridgewater might be an excellent case study in radical changes that result in success, but it also might not. In particular, there are two challenges. First is the culture of Wall St, which lends itself more to a "show me the results" manifesto and can probably tolerate a culture of open criticism more than most other companies. The other is that Bridgewater is a single datapoint. We know almost nothing about the inner workings of e.g. RenTech, but they are just as impressive (albeit with lower AUM) and have a more "academic" culture. Does the culture matter that much, or is the success a result of a confluence of other factors? Someone who appears to pride himself on his contrarian decision making like Dalio might see his culture as the defining differentiator responsible for his success.
• I find it much more likely that Bridgewater's culture of open criticism (and elements of quantified self?) is like Zappos Holacracy and Valve's "no managers" manifestos, rather than a new set of principles to be brought down from on high. Each of these companies prides itself, and to some extent claims is the reason for its success, on a culture that was deliberately implemented instead of organically grown. After you see enough of these I feel you start to become "culture agnostic", and from my point of view I don't feel any of them has a causal relationship with profitability or productivity.
• A nitpick here - it seems hypocritical to reduce a culture of "radical transparency." If you decide to change the status quo from radical transparency for 100% of the staff to radical transparency for 10% of the staff, then what is so radical about it? Equally, what does it mean to only dole out radical transparency to those "responsible enough" to receive it? That sounds like...transparency.
Transcendence, Interstellar and Gravity. I haven't actually watched neither Interstellar nor Gravity, but from what I know neither of them portray technology in a bad light. But Transcendence does overall portray technology in a good light, though the majority of the movie is just the movie makers playing with the audience's luddite fears.
Still, it's a damn bad movie.
I remember an article in the 1980s about a wearable computer on a man's belt with batteries, and he had some wires to his brain to help him see shapes, but I can no longer find the reference or pics. It's amazing to see the progress if you compare the pics of the large device back then to the things they are doing now. That and the discoveries and inventions in computing, chip manufacture, cognitive science and biology that are coming together in so many ways. When I watched the film 'Transcendence' this past year, along with having been a fan of Kronenberg and his movie 'eXistenZ', I really started to think about the overlap and hybridization of technologies: implants, wearable tech, AI, CI, CRISPR, biopunk, VR, AR, etc... I can see a dystopic 'Bladerunner' style future of cyborgs, modified humans and crazy disease and organisms. On the other hand, I can see humanity coasting his way into accepting the weirdness, and the crazy future it will bring.
In the meantime, I hope many who cannot, will get to partake in walking, seeing and living longer due to these discoveries and inventions.
> I think Transcendence did a halfway decent job of showing some possible applications of friendly AI.
Interesting, I hadn't seen that one. While that doesn't give a very good impression of what the timescale could be (though it actually seems fairly plausible for an uploaded human that just runs faster with more data but doesn't attempt iterative self-improvement), it does suggest at least some possibilities in ways I haven't seen in other movies, and in relatively few short stories.
> That said, I don't think I'd constitute the conflation of any human mind and supercomputing as friendly.
"Friendly AI" is a specific term of art, referring to AI that values sentient beings, and whose value function involves modeling and satisfying the value functions of sentient beings. (Its opposite, "unfriendly AI", refers to any AI that doesn't value sentient beings; that doesn't just mean "actively hostile", but also simply "doesn't explicitly care", either one of which would create an existential threat. For instance, a paperclip-building AI that sees people as another source of matter that isn't paperclips yet.)
Almost all sentient beings tend to hold their own continued existence in high value.
pretty cool, and kind of reminds me of the movie Transcendence
Perhaps, but then because it's strong AI, wouldn't it be capable of gathering and applying resources toward improving and reproducing itself? Even if it's very expensive and slow at first, theoretically it would be smart enough to work on making itself faster, cheaper, and better.
Perhaps I've seen too many science fiction movies, like Transcendence, but I thought that was basically what was meant by "strong AI."
Apple would probably do this in a quite cool way, a bit like Transcendence http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2209764/
This is why Transcendence was such an awesome movie. Morgan Freeman and a team of rogue government agents save the world from the cure to cancer.
> It has been said that [1] Star Trek: The Next Generation was the last sci-fi hopeful.
two recent movies come to mind that seem essentially hopeful about the future.
Her - if you focus on the background here you'll notice all socioeconomic problems have been solved, all labor seems rewarding and creative.
Transcendence - in which humanity fails to embrace the salvation offered by technology.
both films culminate with a technological singularity. the future is positive and hopeful just as in Star Trek, but unlike Star Trek it won't be recognizably human.
Hopefully your first statement is true, but I've seen individuals do really dumb stuff.
A true AI would have the ability to learn and to evolve. Watch the movie Transcendence, I see very few flaws in that movie's logic.
If humans posed a threat to the AI it could certainly be malevolent from our perspective, to it it would just be doing what's necessary to survive.
Computers were "impossible" 200 years ago, the internet was something that few people could even imagine. I don't really consider anything impossible, what would make it truly impossible given enough time, resources, and motivation?
I think you can find quite a few counter examples of a female AI, not least of which Cortana. It's possible to imagine S'Jet as an example, though perhaps much closer to Transcendence (movie) than AI.
Really, I think it simply has a lot to do with the voice. I'll be darned if I can recall the source, but it seems that women can usually be understood more clearly and easily than men; that claim may be only over a lossy channel, but it seems to jive with my experience (listening to podcasts on a motorcycle, women tend to be easier to make out over the noise, and even Google maps' female voice is clear over a highway's roar).
As someone with a major in Artificial Intelligence, and who seriously just got back from watching Transcendence...
The movie was well-researched, and surely enjoyable for anyone contemplative. But they had to be farfetched to push the story along. There is likely nothing that occurred in the movie that would reflect any potential real-life issue.
I can't believe I'm disputing Hawking, someone who has accomplished more in a year than I will in my life, with what amounts to an appeal to authority. But I have to say this: his concerns are akin to me being worried about the large hadron collider destroying the universe.
Sounds like Ray is anxiously awaiting this movie. It seems to fit more with his vision.
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt2209764/
I like the movie Her a lot. I hated the trailer and could only motivate myself to see the movie after seeing lots of positive tweets.
With respect to 3 the secret agenda looks like to have been expressed in these lines:
"This spring Hollywood will weigh in with Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp as an AI researcher targeted by violent extremists who think we’re crossing a Rubicon that will be a disaster for humanity."
Remember how the world was about to be finished on 21Dec2012 and and the Hollywood movie associated with the fad?