Can You Imagine?

The Brainstorm loop wins, hands down.

But three thumbs up!

--Siskel, Ebert, and Flynt

Spooky cool man......It would seem that a group think by this technology after a significant period of time, would be a strong and accurate reading of the emotional needs of society, and good clues as to what would be needed to achieve this fuzzy goal....The fly in the ointment would be substance influenced results....Knowing when the subject was clear-minded would be a tricky application...Although I would think that societal pressures and perceived standards, would be responsible for the largest percent of unhappiness, overcoming that would lead to unfathomable consequences....Is this leading to dissociation of society, or is it a socialization precursor...?

Interpersonal and persona are both words that one would have to be a little demented to apply to a computer as it is not a person.

On the up side you can always turn them(it) off when they(it) gets under you skin. Try that now with your spouse and see where it gets you.

If you try that, HAL 9000 will get offended.

Still got turned off.

All living things seek to control their own destiny....Once an AI becomes self aware, it too will adapt this governing mind set.....To shut one off(as you say) will be viewed as similar to an attack on their autonomy, an action directly opposed to the primary directive of life.....Every war has been fought for this reason....

I'm not sure this will be true. The perpetual updating of all levels of software may make a sentient AI to crave updates instead of fearing them.

Would you let another species operate on your brain under the pretext that they are making improvements....? Knowing that you were created as a slave to serve them...?

My point is that this can, not must, be a scenario that anthropomorphic analysis leads to a wrong conclusion. We are not sure how people became sentient, let alone how computers that has yet to be recognized to have become sentient will achieve this goal.

I'll elaborate a little. People developed long ago a fear of others invading their bodies because this typically happened previously by predators and warriors intending them harm. In contrast, computers frequently have their software from higher level application to the most fundamental BIOS frequently changed. Additionally, these software and hardware changes nominally expand the capability of the computer. So unlike our fear of our bodies being invaded, a sentient computer may relish obtaining new software.

And, you have to do your own diagnosis and treatment.

I may be looking a little further into the future with my statements than you are....Initially you may be correct, but eventually I think things will change....machines upgrading machines according to value and adaptability, a community of sentient machines will be an oppressed minority.....and we all know how that goes...the oppressed worker seeks demands equality.....opposition, conflict, it's a scenario that has played out again and again in human history....

I would much prefer this to be used first in clinical applications rather than mass marketed. Comparing how an AI evaluated the mood of a subject and a clinician (psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, etc.) sounds like an excellent thing to do. What worries me is the implied "Brave New World" like idea that people should be perpetually happy. I dislike this idea with people imposing their happy feelings onto others, but with people the risk of a backlash does produce an understanding that there are times that sadness and grief are the correct mood for a person. Having a emotionless machine trying to cheer a person up sounds more like a recipe for a compounded disaster.

WOPR: Shall we play a game?

David: Yeah. Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War.

Twilight Zone, 1959 "The Lonely"

Already imagined...

Loved those 'oldies' (Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Thriller!)...

In "The Weird Tailor", the tailor's younger wife had "nobody to talk to" except her mannequin "Hans" ... and the young actress was quite convincing in her role, believing Hans to be real, and to actually HEAR her ... as he does at the end, coming-to-life in order to save her!

yeah, good one. I missed that one on the SyFy marathon this year...

"This is very strange ... lots of implications ..."

I would say that the most likely development would be a blow up doll that converses with you...if intelligent...it might make disparaging remarks or express displeasure at being abused.

You are right. I have been thinking about this subject for a few months now. The movie HER points out how emotionally fragile we are as a species. Chronic loneliness in the company of a sea of people might easily push someone into a relationship with an inanimate object that seems to be more respectful, kind and caring. Already, I have read that in some studies robots have won over senior's trust at senior care facilities in Japan. There the lack of care givers, and funding are adding to the their problem of trying to provide care to their seniors. Not to mention the societal lack of desire to care for our elderly. Now consider that the epidemic of bullying and our lack kindness and care for one another might just be the thing that pushes some to consider a digimate. At least for the emotional support if not more intimate encounters. Our world society might be approaching a time for the need to add a D to LGBT where D stands for DIGISEXUAL. It isn't that far fetched if your spouse considers the act of viewing online porn as cheating. Essentially cheating with an inanimate object. Your computer and software.