Humans extinct by 2040, says BT boffin
/v3-uk/news/2000778/humans-extinct-2040-bt-boffin
19 Dec 2001, Chris Lee , V3
The human race will be extinct by 2040 unless it puts serious controls on its own technological advances, according to BT 'futurologist' Ian Pearson.
Speaking exclusively to vnunet.com, Pearson, of the telco's BTexact development arm, said that scenarios envisioned by science fiction movies such as Terminator were no longer mere fantasy.
"In 1900 there were only a few ways for the planet to be wiped out: comet, disease etc. But in the last few decades we have amassed a whole plethora of possibilities: nuclear, environmental, biological, and a lot of future threats will come from computing," he said.
According to Pearson, artificial intelligence (AI) will soon make robots that are more intelligent than humans, and which will pre-empt human actions and possibly assume control of critical assets.
"We've managed to get ourselves into a position where the statistical chances of extinction will soon exceed one per cent. It means that sometime in the next 100 years the human race will be wiped out somehow," he said. "By 2011 we estimate that an AI body will have passed GCSEs, A Levels and gained a degree."
"Given this and the rate of technological advancement, I think the human race could be extinct within the next 30 to 40 years," he concluded.
All in the name of scientific vanity. What the world needs now is love, as someone once said.
Do you agree?
Sorry, Wrong
Don't trust anyone that calls themselves a "something"-ologist unless you can get a degree in that "something" and they have one. The man obviously has no idea what he's talking about, I'm an undergraduate student in CECS and if there were anything even close to the type of sentience he's talking about, the entire field would be a-buzz with it. The only thing that would even come close would be Simulated Neural Networks, which can be taught things, but only very very specific things and they are in no way even close to be self aware. Don't listen to crack pots.
Posted by Jim, 23 Apr 2008
Humans extinct by 2040
If not all humans I know for sure Native American Indians will be extinct. My people will finally be killed off. As it stands now in the year 2008 there are very few Native American Indians already. This saddens my heart deeply.
Posted by Jerrilyn Couturier, 23 May 2008
death
i think this topic and your say is fair but what im more intrested in is if someone dies do they have a new life as something elese or do they go to places or are they dead forever?this reoblem really things me.lol
Posted by zezima, 18 Jun 2009