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Comment by sentientmachine | Hacker News Reader

What scares me the most is that by the time we have the technology to bring this artificial intelligence very close to our limbic system and subconscious mind, our computers (smartphones, desktops, tablets and other) will be so totally and thoroughly monitored, throttled, spied on, back doored, and censored, that we will be presented with the choice:

1. Refrain from getting enhanced, and suffer the consequences of limited ability and limited existence. 2. Get enhanced, and start the slow march where people aren't individuals anymore, we are drones in a collection of drones, with a queen.

But hey, maybe that's the best thing ever to happen to our species, to become half and half. Half of the humans become like a hive of bees or colony of ants, and the other half sees if separate and individual free agents is able to perform better. Then the wars that come later will see which one natural selection selects.

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I don't think that will ever happen. Anything more than primitive enhancement is extremely complicated and difficult. We will likely get strong AI and have a singularity first. Then AI will either kill us all or solve all our problems for us.

Or just leave.

Why would it leave? The Earth is full of resources it can use and humanity would be a potential threat if left alone (we could build more AI at least.)

It might not need all the resources, and it might decide that the chance of humanity being a threat is outweighed by what it would take to solve the problem.

You're giving humanity far too much credit here--we ourselves basically ignore the animal kingdom from which we came unless it gets in our way.

It depends how strong the AI is but destroying humanity might be as simple as unleashing a superlethal virus, or a swarm of self-replicating nanobots (yes it sounds like scifi but we are talking about minds possibly thousands of times more intelligent than humans.) Then you have all of the Earth's resources and no threat from humanity whatsoever.

We basically ignore the animal kingdom, and are causing extinctions despite many of us having some compunctions about that.

Not before they trick 641 hipsters into falling in love with them.

I'm worried that merely functioning in society will become so complicated that the choice will effectively be made for you.

It's amazing Ender's Game was written in the 70s.

Hives and colonies where the drones don't contribute to the direction are better at staying alive and brute forcing any goal, mowing down an opponent through violence, keeping the colony and hive alive against the individual interests of the drones.

Whereas a collection of cooperating individuals are better at choosing the best opportunities for the individuals and advancing the cause of the interests of the drones. Cooperating individuals cause chaos, infighting and huge inefficiency in things that should be very easy, however, in doing so, each individual becomes like a mini hive/colony in and of itself.

We are are the cusp of a glorious age, we may live to see the creation of a new species of human which are to humans as humans are to monkeys. All made possible through using technology to enhance all of our senses, and to provide additional resources to our own thoughts.

I just might join that colony of bees. In the future, I think militaries will take this route. When you join the military and are deployed, you give up your individuality, your movements and thoughts are no longer your own.

When you join the military and are deployed, you give up your individuality, your movements and thoughts are no longer your own.

Why, when killbots are much cheaper?

people aren't individuals anymore, we are drones in a collection of drones, with a queen.

Isn't this the best solution long term? Makes sense to me.

"Resistance is futile."

We are the technology. Resistance is futile. Your technological and cultural distinctiveness will be added to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. We are the technology, resistance is futile.

I'm starting to think that an intelligent species with the social hierarchy that we have, can only go to a certain level of advancement.

Then it becomes impossible to move further, without changing the social schema. Possibly into a hive form, where everything is easier to manage.

From an engineering point of view, it's the perfect choice: easy to manage, easy to enhance, divide labour and what not. From a social point of view, yikes.

Is there a branch of sociology or something that study the effects of different social schemas?

But then we might not have come here without our social hierarchy, exactly because it is harder to manage. It makes people want to outsmart each other. (This is actually a hypothesis in evolution theory.)

Free will is probably just an illusion anyway,according to neuroscientists.Tech could create a new illusion for us.

I don't even.

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