Proof that machines will take over the world
 

London, England -- By the middle of the 21st century it will be possible to download your brain to a supercomputer, according to a leading thinker on the future.

Ian Pearson, head of British Telecom's futurology unit, told the UK's Observer newspaper that the rapid advances in computing power would make cyber-immortality a reality within 50 years.

Pearson said the launch last week of Sony's PlayStation 3, a machine 35 times more powerful than the model it replaced, was a sign of things to come.

"The new PlayStation is one percent as powerful as the human brain," Pearson told the Observer. "It is into supercomputer status compared to 10 years ago. PlayStation 5 will probably be as powerful as the human brain."

Pearson said that brain-downloading technology would initially be the preserve of the rich, but would become more available over subsequent decades.

"If you're rich enough then by 2050 it's feasible. If you're poor you'll probably have to wait until 2075 or 2080 when it's routine," he said.

"We are very serious about it. That's how fast this technology is moving: 45 years is a hell of a long time in IT."

Pearson also predicted that it would be possible to build a fully conscious computer with superhuman levels of intelligence as early as 2020.

IBM's BlueGene computer can already perform 70.72 trillion calculations a second and Pearson said the next computing goal was to replicate consciousness.

"We're already looking at how you might structure a computer that could become conscious. Consciousness is just another sense, effectively, and that's what we're trying to design in computer."

Pearson said that computer consciousness would make feasible a whole new sphere of emotional machines, such as airplanes that are afraid of crashing.

By 2020 Pearson also predicted the creation of a "virtual world" of immersive computer-generated environments in which we will spend increasing amounts of time, socializing and doing business.

He said: "When technology gives you a life-size 3D image and the links to your nervous system allow you to shake hands, it's like being in the other person's office. It's impossible to believe that won't be the normal way of communicating."

But Pearson admitted that the consequences of advancing technologies needed to be considered carefully.

"You need a complete global debate," he said. "Whether we should be building machines as smart as people is a really big one."

link to article: http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/23/b...oad/index.html

"a leading thinker"

just another idiot with an opinion.

hmm so idiots might be saved by the playstation 5 if I understand it well...

okey dokey kak

The whole brain? Or just the portion that we know how to use?

What if the human brain was actually 1,000,000 times more powerful than we know because somewhere in some microscopic section of the brain that is unused in 99999.999% of people (so they never recorded activity) there was something that was 1,000,000 times more powerful. Can you say for 100% certainty that it is impossible?

Playstations are made and completely understood by the humans that created them.

That's the difference between a human brain and a playstation.

A group of humans not one human now let's fast fwd 50 years it will take millions of people to understand the technology to stop it. It's relly only a matter of time before this happens but it will unless a nuke hit's or something and put a big delay on everything the cycle will start all over agine and then it still just a matter of time before it hit's agine I feel in some way this is what is suppose to happen mabe I am just crazy and like to beleave stuff like this but who relly know's.

scary shit

He can see the future. How else could he know it is called "Playstation 5"

lol!:1orglaugh

yay! we will able to download all Alienq brain on a Comodore-64 chip now.

at this moment of time we still don't know how exactly the brain works, stores and iterprets information.
by mid century we might learn how to emulate personality

:1orglaugh love that line

Fuck, I'm so scared now ! ! !

that is insane lol

Plus an interesting marketing technique by Sony.