Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com>: > On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 1:28 AM, Marko Rauhamaa <ma...@pacujo.net> wrote: >> What is needed is an automated methodology to derive algorithmic >> solutions to formally specified features. Since there are only a >> handful of tools in a programmer's toolbox, that objective doesn't >> seem at all impossible. The big question is, is it possible to >> specify features formally without actually coding them? > > If you're specifying them formally, you're probably coding them. Any > form sufficiently well-defined for a program to analyze is basically > code already. It might be a goal-based syntax rather than action-based > (eg contrast SQL's way of saying "these are the rows I want" with > classic imperative programming), but it's still code, it's still > software, it's still not the Singularity.
Yeah, I believe truly conscious machines will arise without being designed through technological evolution. First they'll develop electronics that can simulate brain cells; the clumsy gadgets will be used to replaced cells damaged by Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. Then, healthy people will start enhancing their brain functions by using the same technology. Over time, wetware will be replaced by hardware, and the hardware, in turn, will migrate to the cloud. Steven Lisberger saw this already way back: <URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron>. Once we run on Google's server farms, we can back ourselves up as snapshots and clone ourselves indefinitely. That will be one big identity crisis. Even further along, maybe the intercommunication between the virtual selves will blur the lines between individuals, and we'll merge into a pantheistic Nirvana (or infernal pandemonium). Marko PS Long before, though, we'll likely get direct communication ports to our brains and be liberated from mice and keyboards (first) and speakers and displays (a bit later). -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
