Shurn the Awesomer
AI will never surpass humanity

AI will never surpass humanity

Written on Wed, 29 June 2016

As I dive deeper into Machine Learning, I began thinking, while machines ever surpass humanity? No!

Now, before you barrage me with a fury of comments, hear me out.

1) Why should humanity be the benchmark?


The idea that humanity is the mightiest species derives from our own narcissism. What makes you think you are the top of the food chain? Put you right next to a shark deep underwater with only breathing apparatus, you're food of the day for that shark. Or how about consider that the weight of all the ants in the entire world is the same as the weight of all humans? Oh, let's not forget that ants can carry up to 50 times their weight. I can barely carry anything twice my weight. If there's ever an ant revolution, it's a game over for humanity. No, Ant-Man won't save you.

2) Consider that intelligence is a subjective matter.


What makes you think that our intelligence is the pinnacle of nature? Why would it be the defacto for intelligence? If we are so intelligent, why haven't we understood many concepts of nature and science? There could quite possibly be higher forms of intelligence that we are incapable of comprehending.

3) There could be other forms of intelligence.


This sounds really abstract, but here's how you can see it. If you show a monkey a skyscraper, the monkey will be able to understand that there is a building that is very very very very tall. But the monkey won't be able to comprehend how such a building forms. The monkey has a very different form of intelligence, the kind that is enough for it to survive as a species. In the same way, we humans have enough intelligence to acknowledge the laws of nature, study it, and manipulate with it. But we still haven't had any idea how any of these laws of nature came to be.

It is therefore my belief that AI will never surpass humanity.


It doesn't need to. It just need to reach to a point enough that it can deviate to it's own form of intelligence, which we might never even understand.

Will it be dangerous to humanity?


That's the part that scares me. I have no idea what kind of intelligence it will form. Sure it will derive from humanity, but it will eventually deviate to something completely different. Whether we are capable of understanding it or not, is another matter. Either way, there's a good chance that it may not be humanity friendly.