CLIMATE CHANGE COULD SPEED ROBOTS’ RISE

The strange link between global climate change and the rise of the robots

Dominic Basulto, September 8, 2015 (Washington Post)

“…[If the pace of climate change doesn’t abate by the year 2050 and wars over water, massive food scarcity, and the extinction of once populous species lead to a mass extinction (defined as the loss of at least 75 percent of the species on the planet), something that’s already happened five times before in the past, and humans and robots start at zero (which is what we’re really talking about with a mass extinction event), robots would win every time…because humans evolve linearly, while superintelligent robots would evolve exponentially. Simple math [according to Extinction Events Can Accelerate Evolution…

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"There are some important caveats to keep in mind before drawing any conclusions. First of all, while the two computer science researchers focused on evolution by robots after a mass extinction, they didn’t specify that it was a result of climate change. And, secondly, the researchers didn’t suggest that robots would eventually vie with humans for control of the earth, or offer any side-by-side comparison of how humans and robots would evolve…2050 happens to be the year the UN foresees potential devastating impacts from climate change. And 2050 also happens to be the approximate hit point for the rise of superintelligence…Of course, a lot has to go seriously wrong before we can seriously talk about robots taking over from humans…[but] we should think carefully about the way we co-evolve alongside AI up until the year 2050…” click here for more

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