About Robots And Life.

 
Once again, I've been thinking about things that I know absolutely nothing about: artificial intelligence and biologic life. I've always thought that life forms were kinda computers. In a way, at least. I've talked about what I think is the basic code for life, and it consisted in multiplication and survival. From this basic code evolution developed many other sub-codes that we can find in the current forms of life that we know, but in the end, they were all developed to be able to follow the original primordial code. Everything we do has to do with this original code, even if we are not aware of this.

UPDATE: A few months after I published this blog Google hired Ray Kurzweil as a director of engineering.

Now we have the imminent arrival of the singularity, which Ray Kurzweil, one of the world’s leading inventors, thinkers, and futurists, with a twenty-year track record of accurate predictions, says will happen around 2028, (in his book The Singularity Is Near and in the excellent documentary Transcendent Man). I know there are many who think Ray is just crazy, but most people agree that the singularity will happen, maybe not in 2028, but probably in the next 100 years. Many of the biggest companies in the world, like Google, and maybe Apple and Microsoft too (not too sure, I need to research this), are investing money in a.i. and the research of the singularity. In my opinion, the singularity is unavoidable, the question is when will it happen.

It appears unlikely to me that computers (AI) could develop physical and psychological pain or pleasure without biological elements. It's just something they don't need to survive in the event they gain consciousness. Is this an advantage we have over computers or is it a disadvantage we'll eventually overcome? It seems to me that without it we would make a lot less stupid decisions. On the other hand, without happiness there wouldn't be a real incentive to continue life. Or is having the "basic code of life" programmed into them enough?

I really know nothing about this, and I really haven't researched the topic well enough, but I'd like to know what other people with more knowledge on the subject think about this.