h+ Magazine

It seems to me there are essentially three main questions when it comes to human-robot sex. First, can we build a machine that anyone would want to have sex with? Second, how “intelligent” should that machine be? Third, is this just a fetish for weirdoes?

Today it is not inconceivable to imagine a race of extraterrestrials that, like brilliant computers, go gallivanting about the universe with the same finesse, capacity for self-knowledge, and manners as alligators in a wetland.

We generally do not want to fight or harm our friends, because we know them, feel kinship and understanding. We need to understand that everything we are, everything we experience, our very identities and our experiential universes are simply that which we are processing and generating in our minds. As we learn to understand these foundations of Being our civilization matures.

Look at the writings of alienated intellectuals. Listen to the people who say in song or story, “I don’t know who I am.” Almost always, what they are actually saying is “I don’t know who I am … in relation to the larger society.”

Space travel, particle physics, cosmology. These are just some of the endeavors humankind has embarked on, trying to understand the great mysteries of the universe. But why haven’t we been able to decipher those puzzles yet? Is it because they are vast and we are so small and insignificant? Well, yes.

Nanotechnology is very intertwined with the future of all technology.  But can we disregard the potential dangers it might pose?

It’s interesting to consider virtual communities as social groups of great potential. The way they are formed is shaped by many things: technological infrastructure, platform or program design, but also by the actions of the members themselves.

Singularity Institute’s Executive Director Luke Muehlhauser interviews AGI researcher (and Humanity+ Magazine Chief Editor, and Humanity+ Vice Chairman) Ben Goertzel on the nature and risks of AGI.

Before oblivion, before geology or cosmology; before Minimalism, Pink Floyd, Quantum Physics, Mind Control, Math Rock, Electronic Imaging; before Buddha, even before the cosmic microwave frequency; you only have to pose a single question;

“What was there before the Big Bang?”

Ask that and you’re immediately in trouble.

The idea of producing artificial or synthetic life has long fascinated mankind and from ancient times many human and animal-imitating “automata” or self-operating machines have been created for entertainment, instructional, and sometimes religious purposes. The creation of actual synthetic biological life only became possible with the discovery of the structure of DNA, the genetic code, and the development of the basic tools of molecular biology, such as the ability to isolate, sequence, and join different DNA sequences.