Yesterday afternoon, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak spoke to Michigan State University graduates as he received an honorary doctorate of engineering from MSU for his many accomplishments in the personal computing industry. However, toward the end of his mostly positive commencement speech, he warned graduates that the computers he’s helped create will soon make us irrelevant as a species.
“Every time we invent a computer to do something else, it’s doing our work for us, making ourselves less relevant,” said Wozniak, in his usual upbeat tone. “The cyborgs are winning! The androids are winning!”
Wozniak continued: “Artificial intelligence will in the future become more and more like a real person, like a friend you would want to go and meet. Somebody that can talk to your face; somebody that can understand things [and] knows the kind of jokes you like; [somebody] that knows what sort of things to say depending on how slowly you’re talking then; a real person.”
“One of the things is, you’ve got to have human senses,” continued Wozniak. “How does a computer ever create art, for example, if it can’t sense things that a human understands, like the wind on a beach. Well, our computers have gotten hearing and seeing, they’ve got feeling, touch sensitive; they can sense motion, just like our inner ear. Pretty soon we’re going to have holograms, which are much better than what you call 3D television. We’ve created a new species; no question. We’re creators and, like I said, we’re making ourselves less relevant.”
Strangely, though Wozniak spoke in an upbeat tone, he seemed a bit bothered that his creation, the personal computer, was going to make us all irrelevant. Yet, he seemed joyful and wanted graduates to help computers learn to speak and write poetry. I imagine any creator would have mixed feelings about his creation.
The first portion of the speech, which is embedded below, painted a much less bleak future for the human graduates. The Apple co-founder detailed his own college experiences, being one of the only Silicon Valley pioneers who went back to college, and told encouraged graduates to do things because they’re passionate, not for the cash or fame.
And in the end, The Woz has a simple equation for happiness: H = 3F. It stands for “Happiness equals food, friends, and fun.” Just try to have the fun while we’re still relevant. Oh, and Go Spartans!
I’ll believe that as soon as my flying car shows up…
susanslayer, there's only one thing that Woz might be kind of forgetting, which is energy! What I mean is this — cheap energy is the foundational layer to all of this AI singularity-like world. Woz might be making a logic error because even as his colleague Steve Jobs once said way back in the 1970s, the silicon era wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for cheap fossil fuel (which fuel lets us move around be it in cars or jets and do things more rapidly, which gets food shipped to us cheaply, which at times powers the data centers where servers and routers hum 24×7). Don't underestimate the possibility that oil becomes more and more expensive which could put a dent in human progress!
“Every time we invent a computer to do something else, it’s doing our work for us, making ourselves less relevant,” said Wozniak, in his usual upbeat tone. “The cyborgs are winning! The androids are winning!”
This is only true if our personal value revolves around work. Because we identify ourselves with "what we do" instead of "what we are" the future looks nill when computers absorb our daily grind. But many of us futurists look at this as a very bright light of future possibilities.
Wozniak continued: “Artificial intelligence will in the future become more and more like a real person, like a friend you would want to go and meet. Somebody that can talk to your face; somebody that can understand things [and] knows the kind of jokes you like; [somebody] that knows what sort of things to say depending on how slowly you’re talking then; a real person.”
We will become more and more "hooked up" and "linked in" to this Artificial Intelligence. It is not necessarily a situation of "we against the machine." It is better understood as "we and the machine."
“One of the things is, you’ve got to have human senses,” continued Wozniak. “How does a computer ever create art, for example, if it can’t sense things that a human understands, like the wind on a beach. Well, our computers have gotten hearing and seeing, they’ve got feeling, touch sensitive; they can sense motion, just like our inner ear. Pretty soon we’re going to have holograms, which are much better than what you call 3D television. We’ve created a new species; no question. We’re creators and, like I said, we’re making ourselves less relevant.”
Again, this paradigm is just one left-brain way of looking at it. The right-brain way of looking at it is that we are unified through a global system of AI which is capable of knowing our deepest feelings and intentions and finding solutions and options for us. It will hook us up to every other person working on the same things and help us collectively achieve increasingly incredible things. Global AI will take the place of government for the good of mankind.
Strangely, though Wozniak spoke in an upbeat tone, he seemed a bit bothered that his creation, the personal computer, was going to make us all irrelevant. Yet, he seemed joyful and wanted graduates to help computers learn to speak and write poetry. I imagine any creator would have mixed feelings about his creation.
Bottom line, there is two ways to do this. One is based on scarcity paradigms and the other is based on a resource-based economy of abundance. Take your pick. AI can be a wish-machine that grants your every desire.
I for one welcome our new multi-core overlords…….
^^ Only a matter of time
I’ll believe that as soon as my flying car shows up…
Steve's speech, so close to the anniversary of the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Skynet implementation date. Coincidence, or is Steve secretly working for Cyberdyne? We will know soon enough.