We are currently poised at the precipice of what will one day be looked upon as the dawn of superintelligence. I posted a link in one of the early blogs that describes the current state of technological advancement; for background watch this video here:

http://www.flixxy.com/technology-and-education-2008.htm

However we are moving quickly beyond even what this short video chillingly displays. We are literally almost to the point of creating artificial intelligence smarter than humans. See this link here:

http://singinst.org/overview/whatisthesingularity/

According to this article, and I have no doubt to believe it's truth, we will soon have the capacity to build intelligence that surpasses our own.

I realize this is a train that cannot be stopped, for so many right reasons: it's the inevitable next step; someone will do it incrementally based upon our current technology sooner or later; we have been moving to this moment, albeit unawares, for centuries...

The real question is: is this smart? Given our current state of world affairs and low emotional IQ as a species, is it really smart to develop machines that think faster than we can, but have no heart?

Imagine what a super-intelligence, devoid of compassion, might "think" about humanity and our problems. Sure, we could "contain" this intelligence for some time, directing its tasks to specific arenas. But let's not be stupid. At some point it, being inherently smarter than we are, it will find ways outside of our pitiful attempts at boxing it in.

So what will it think about people destroying other people on a regular basis? What will its take be on the human heart and emotions--since it has none, how can it value them? How can it value life?

Sure, we can follow Isaac Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics, including no robot may harm a human, etc, but again, this intelligence is smarter than we are; how long until it finds a way 'round our "primitive" fences and sees life itself as the enemy?

We will have created a monster that cannot be stuffed back into Pandora's box. One can only wonder if the Terminator movies have validity to them after all.

I have also blogged about this concept in broader terms in the past; see this blog about Technologies Broken Promises, and iThink Therefore iPad.

We are growing our brains faster than our hearts, and our hearts already are behind the curve. What's next?