Random Thoughts Five: Ya rolls the dice, ya takes yer chances

[Broken_Erika]

We need Cyborg-Chimpanzees!

 

[AdamCrock]

We need Cyborg-Chimpanzees!

With lazers !

 

[The_J]

Why would one ask Cortana how much RAM they have? Just type dxdiag into your run menu and then you can view all your specs there.

Most things which can be done via voice control are faster and more efficiently done on a keyboard or mouse...so... .

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Just saw a trailer for a movie called Escape Room.
It was only a matter of time until someone turned the idea into a Sawesque horror movie...

...but...

Could/should have done that one or two years ago.


Thats some very Very Bad Timing.
Two weeks ago a couple of teens in Poland died in an escape room because of a fire in the building.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I retract my earlier statement that food security is a solved problem. We have solved the production issue but the distribution problem is still killing people world wide.

 

[Silurian]

I retract my earlier statement that food security is a solved problem. We have solved the production issue but the distribution problem is still killing people world wide.

Yes its the distribution of wealth problem.

 

[cardgame]

Most things which can be done via voice control are faster and more efficiently done on a keyboard or mouse...so... .

Which makes it perfect for controlling smartphones. Motorola was ahead of the curve and Samsung is still behind. (I could do way more stuff and way easier with my older Moto X2 than I can with my Galaxy S7)

 

[Takhisis]

No amount of teaching or nutrition will ever make a chimp smarter than a human.

Humans are getting smarter. Every few years companies have to adjust IQ test baselines to account for the gradual rise in intelligence among the population. Our teaching methods and technologies have improved such that every new generation is significantly better informed than the last one. For the most part, hunger and malnutrition are a solved problem which in turn has contributed to our mental uplifting as starving brains are not learning brains. We are also learning which byproducts of our own civilization are toxic to us and have take many steps to mitigate them.

In spite of this gradual rise in intelligence, there is a plataeu which we will be unable to rise above without genetic or cybernetic intervention. Just as no amount of teaching or nutrition will ever make a chimp smarter than a human, so it is the same with us.

Are we smart enough to invent the tools to allow our continued ascent or are we reaching peak human?

There's also the reality that the smarter we get, the more destructive we are as a society

Well, yes, that's because the individual IQs of people might go up but collective intelligence is still calculated as that of the least intelligent person in the room divided by the number of people in the room IIRC.
And that's IQ. Our EQs are all over the place and there's no such thing as a consensus on ethics, morality, ‘a path’, or whatever you want to call it.

 

[Silurian]

Is it true that IQs are going up?
We know more stuff but that does not mean we have a higher IQ.

 

[Takhisis]

Is it true that IQs are going up?

Read about the Flynn effect.

 

[Cutlass]

No amount of teaching or nutrition will ever make a chimp smarter than a human.

Humans are getting smarter. Every few years companies have to adjust IQ test baselines to account for the gradual rise in intelligence among the population. Our teaching methods and technologies have improved such that every new generation is significantly better informed than the last one. For the most part, hunger and malnutrition are a solved problem which in turn has contributed to our mental uplifting as starving brains are not learning brains. We are also learning which byproducts of our own civilization are toxic to us and have take many steps to mitigate them.

In spite of this gradual rise in intelligence, there is a plataeu which we will be unable to rise above without genetic or cybernetic intervention. Just as no amount of teaching or nutrition will ever make a chimp smarter than a human, so it is the same with us.

Are we smart enough to invent the tools to allow our continued ascent or are we reaching peak human?

Don't worry. Bosses aren't getting smarter. And that will keep the mean down.

 

[Traitorfish]

No amount of teaching or nutrition will ever make a boss smarter than a chimp.

 

[Takhisis]

No amount of teaching or nutrition will ever make a boss smarter than a chimp.

Ah, a fellow Dilbertian. I salute you, sir.

 

[Phrossack]

Well, yes, that's because the individual IQs of people might go up but collective intelligence is still calculated as that of the least intelligent person in the room divided by the number of people in the room IIRC.
And that's IQ. Our EQs are all over the place and there's no such thing as a consensus on ethics, morality, ‘a path’, or whatever you want to call it.

Our scientists may stand on the shoulders of giants, but much of what they do with that height is spot for the artillery of the ignorant and the greedy.

Humans really aren't any more clever, and our ethics barely advance at all, while our means of destruction improve dramatically every year. It's like children gaining access to increasingly deadly power tools that they really don't need when there are no adults around to teach them safety, or tell them not to feed their siblings into the circular saws for giggles.

 

[Takhisis]

Our scientists may stand on the shoulders of giants, but much of what they do with that height is spot for the artillery of the ignorant and the greedy.

Humans really aren't any more clever, and our ethics barely advance at all, while our means of destruction improve dramatically every year. It's like children gaining access to increasingly deadly power tools that they really don't need when there are no adults around to teach them safety, or tell them not to feed their siblings into the circular saws for giggles.

Well, yes, after all we do spend a lot on cosmetic surgeries and weapons instead of feeding the poor and having actual working healthcare.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Is it true that IQs are going up?
We know more stuff but that does not mean we have a higher IQ.

About three points a decade, or 10 a generation per this article.

Read about the Flynn effect.

He argues in favors of courts raising the IQ scores determining if somoene is mentally competent.

Our scientists may stand on the shoulders of giants, but much of what they do with that height is spot for the artillery of the ignorant and the greedy.

Humans really aren't any more clever, and our ethics barely advance at all, while our means of destruction improve dramatically every year. It's like children gaining access to increasingly deadly power tools that they really don't need when there are no adults around to teach them safety, or tell them not to feed their siblings into the circular saws for giggles.

We've actually gotten significantly less violent over time, despite the headlines that seem to show the opposite. When I say we are destructive, I mostly meant toward the environment. When it comes to our interactions with each other - we've gotten significantly better across the board. It's not been a straight line toward utopia, however.


And we are quite a bit more clever - more so than we've ever been. We run the same hardware as our ancestors but our education and improved nutrition have means you can I can work our way in world dramatically more complex than anything that ever existed before. I'm not saying that we're innately better than our forebears but we are smarter.

 

[Phrossack]

We've actually gotten significantly less violent over time, despite the headlines that seem to show the opposite. When I say we are destructive, I mostly meant toward the environment. When it comes to our interactions with each other - we've gotten significantly better across the board. It's not been a straight line toward utopia, however.


And we are quite a bit more clever - more so than we've ever been. We run the same hardware as our ancestors but our education and improved nutrition have means you can I can work our way in world dramatically more complex than anything that ever existed before. I'm not saying that we're innately better than our forebears but we are smarter.

I'm not sure the average person today is smarter than, say, a 15th-century person given the same diet and education. We may know more, but that is probably the extent of it.

Of course we have more spare time, better diets, and better education, so it's not really a fair comparison.

As for violence, like you, that wasn't the only kind of destruction I was talking about. Better state control means fewer clan vendettas, but states now have nuclear weapons and a loss of trade to fear. We're still as savage as ever and have much more ability to obliterate an ecosystem or a country than ever before. Increased power without increased responsibility ends in tears.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

given the same diet and education

Of course we have more spare time, better diets, and better education, so it's not really a fair comparison.

That they didn't have that stuff is exactly the point. I said they are the same as us physically but they don't have those specific things. Those things make us smarter than them, that's the point. It doesn't mean they were bad or we're inherently better. We're just smarter because we have those things and they didn't.

What is unfair about the comparison? It's not their fault and I don't imply that it is. It's not a value statement, it's a qualitative statement.

 

[Phrossack]

That they didn't have that stuff is exactly the point. I said they are the same as us physically but they don't have those specific things. Those things make us smarter than them, that's the point. It doesn't mean they were bad or we're inherently better. We're just smarter because we have those things and they didn't.

What is unfair about the comparison? It's not their fault and I don't imply that it is. It's not a value statement, it's a qualitative statement.

Ah, I misunderstood you. My mistake!

But human hardware is still hitting its limits. And to survive, let alone thrive, we need more than just intelligence. We must also work out and enforce the ethics needed to avoid killing ourselves off with climate change, war, or asteroid mining. We've made little to no progress there. Intelligence without ethics just leads to annihilation by ever more advanced means.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

But human hardware is still hitting its limits. And to survive, let alone thrive, we need more than just intelligence.

Yes!

We must also work out and enforce the ethics needed to avoid killing ourselves off with climate change, war, or asteroid mining. We've made little to no progress there. Intelligence without ethics just leads to annihilation by ever more advanced means.

I think maybe we can consider our social systems and norms as a technology itself, one that needs to be improved to allow us to advance and increase in intelligence along with cybernetics and genetic engineering. Maybe if we don't mature as a society at the same pace as the other technologies, we will wipe ourselves and everything out with us.