Gigaom AI Minute – October 3

Transcript

Technologies come along that change the course and direction of human history. They are few and far between, but, in addition to changing the direction we're going, they actually physically alter our bodies. When we obtained fire, for instance, we were able to cook our food, and therefore we could consume an enormous number of calories, and we could grow our brains to the point that they use 20% of the energy that we consume, unlike the animals where it may be 8 or 9%. And those bigger brains gave us language and sent us in another direction.

Ten thousand years ago when we got agriculture, we settled down and built cities and got the division of labor, but agriculture changed us as well. It changed our bodies, our teeth, our bones and our jaws all became different once we became farmers. Five thousand years ago writing came along and writing was something that allowed what you knew to live after you died, but writing change their bodies as well. It made our memories dramatically worse because back before writing if you wanted to know something you had to remember it. Plato even had mixed feelings about writing and he said that writing is an invention not for remembering anything only for reminding you of things.

So, the question I would like to pose is, when we develop artificial intelligence and it sets humanity off on a different course how are we then going to change?