Simplicity itself
Tommi:
It's fun to toy with the idea of singularity, but perhaps the most important reason that prevents the future development of an artificial intelligence is that we will realize that it is unnecessary.
I have often pointed out the fact that bank tellers weren't replaced by a robot that has light bulbs for eyes, speaks with a crackling metallic voice and sits on a chair behind the counter, but a simple ATM machine. Even more dramatically, maids and other servants were replaced in the industrialized world by a bunch of mud-dumb household appliances such as microwave ovens and washers.
The idea that intelligence and consciousness would be the best way to handle things is perhaps a form of superstition similar to the idea that the universe is ruled by a white-bearded man who lives in clouds. Certainly there are many places where the final battle between human intelligence and machines has not even started yet, but it would certainly seem that a relatively simple little machine in the right place designed to do certain essential things has, almost without exception, triumphed over unique and conscious humans who are valuable and able to feel.
The death of personal computer has been predicted for a long time, and I have no idea how it will turn out, although the familiar computer in its very flexibility and adaptability might very well one day start talking and making its own decisions. But even so it would be good to remember that of all the microprocessors in the world, less than one percent is inside machines that we generally think of as "computers". The rest are inside various embedded systems, such as cars, cell phones, VCR's etc.
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