Is Google part of a new human evolutionary strategy

[pscot]

That's the argument made in the August Atlantic. Our networks will help us transcend the energy, environmental and economic crises. We will collectively think our way out of trouble. This is a long article, but the central premise is suggested in these two paragraphs:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/intelligence

But here’s an optimistic scenario for you: if the next several decades are as bad as some of us fear they could be, we can respond, and survive, the way our species has done time and again: by getting smarter. But this time, we don’t have to rely solely on natural evolutionary processes to boost our intelligence. We can do it ourselves.

Most people don’t realize that this process is already under way. In fact, it’s happening all around us, across the full spectrum of how we understand intelligence. It’s visible in the hive mind of the Internet, in the powerful tools for simulation and visualization that are jump-starting new scientific disciplines, and in the development of drugs that some people (myself included) have discovered let them study harder, focus better, and stay awake longer with full clarity. So far, these augmentations have largely been outside of our bodies, but they’re very much part of who we are today: they’re physically separate from us, but we and they are becoming cognitively inseparable. And advances over the next few decades, driven by breakthroughs in genetic engineering and artificial intelligence, will make today’s technologies seem primitive. The nascent jargon of the field describes this as “ intelligence augmentation.” I prefer to think of it as “You+.”

[imdjh]

1. Oh please, academics embarrass themselves sometimes.

Star Trek called this one long ago:

[hunter]

2. No, it's not.

Google is taking a snapshot of our civilization before the oceans start burping up hydrogen sulfide and we all die.

It was inspired by the Star Trek TNG episode "The Inner Light."

If you wish to be remembered consider uploading your family photos to a Picasa web album.

Have a nice day.

[GliderGuider]

3. Sorry, I just don't buy that view.

The electromechanical augmentation of human mentation has been going on for at least a century already. If it was going to work the way the singularitarians tell us it will, we'd already be seeing some evidence of a qualitative change in human behaviour as a result. So far it has conferred little on us beyond an increased ability to plunder the planet faster and easier.

Getting out of the hole we're in isn't a quantitative exercise, it requires a qualitative shift in human values and motivations. Despite the massive increase in networks and processing power, our underlying motivations have remained intact, and as long as that remains true all the networked CPU cycles in the world aren't going to alter our trajectory.

There is one way in which the interwebs may help us change the qualitative underpinnings of human decisions, but it has nothing to do with an evolving intelligence. It has to do with increasing the bandwidth of connections between individuals. That is already permitting the rapid, organic formation of communities of interest, and facilitating the exchange of information at conversational+ speeds. Paradigm shifts can go viral very easily in such an environment, and that is what holds the promise of fundamentally altering how humans deal with each other and the world around them.

In large measure this networking is the lifeblood of the "Blessed Unrest" movement that I believe holds the key to the human future on this planet.

[phantom power]

4. I'm pretty sure I read this article in Wired, circa 1997...

it was right next to the advertisement for "Dow 36000!"

[Nederland]

5. Off the mark

The author seems to believe that technological improvements will result in smarter people. While this is marginally true, the real game changer is the advent of smarter machines. The ultimate result of artifically intelligent machines is so radically different from anything we've seen so far in human history is is impossible to visualize or predict what the future will look like after their creation. They may choose to help us out or they may go all SkyNet on us. Who knows. All that is certain is that the future won't look anything like what anyone here is saying it will look like.

[The2ndWheel]

6. "Our networks will help us transcend the energy, environmental and economic crises."

A) We don't get to escape physical reality, no matter how much thought goes into it.

2) The result of our multiple attempts to transcend our various energy, environmental, and economic problems over thousands of years is...Tuesday, July 14th, 2009.

[pscot]

7. I thought the premise was kind of silly

Even assuming our complex digital networks will survive what's coming seems like a reach.

[Nederland]

9. You have it backwards

Even assuming our complex digital networks will survive what's coming seems like a reach.

The question is whether what's coming will survive complex digital networks.

[XemaSab]

8. Survival is ultimately predicated on having offspring who survive to reproduce

While our fat asses are all sitting here wanking on DU, trailer park hicks and gang bangers are busy having unprotected sex.

/depressing thought for the day

[pscot]

10. Try to think of them

as the future of the race. Oh, wait. That's what you're doing.

[Nihil]

11. This sub-thread is more depressing than the OP ...

... mainly because it contains more truth and is far more likely
to be an accurate prediction ...

[GliderGuider]

12. The "Idiocracy" premise

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2682654/idiocracy_opening_sequence/