COMS 2500 Chapter Notes - Chapter n/a: Human Extinction, Science Fiction Film, Intelligence Explosion
22 Nov 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Humanity owes its dominant position on earth not to any special strength of our muscles, nor any unusual sharpness of our teeth, but to the unique ingenuity of our brains. It is our brains that are responsible for the complex social organization and the accumulation of technical, economic, and scientific advances that undergird modern civilization. All our technological inventions, philosophical ideas, and scientific theories have gone through the birth canal of the human intellect. Human brain power is the chief rate-limiting factor in the development of human civilization. Machines can be made to process information as efficiently as biological nervous systems. There are multiple paths to greater intelligence. B(cid:455) (cid:862)i(cid:374)tellige(cid:374)(cid:272)e(cid:863) the author refers to the pa(cid:374)opl(cid:455) of (cid:272)og(cid:374)iti(cid:448)e (cid:272)apa(cid:272)ities, i(cid:374)(cid:272)ludi(cid:374)g (cid:374)ot just book-smarts, but also creativity, social intuition, wisdom, etc. We can use biotech to enhance cognitive capacity by developing pharmaceuticals that improve memory, concentration, and mental energy; or we could achieve these ends with genetic selection and genetic engineering.
