If you’re like me, you are looking forward to the predicted singularity and the inevitable major advances in technology that will occur this century. However, there’s always the thought that things could go horribly wrong – self-replicating nanomachines could create “gray goo,” AI could turn against its creators, and so on.
According to Mike Treder at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), malevolent AI and gray goo may be legitimate threats in the 21st century. On the bright side, they’re fairly low on the scale of things to worry about – according to Treder, although hostile AI ranks even higher than an asteroid impact as far as severity goes, it ranks almost as low as an asteroid strike on the certainty scale, meaning there’s little chance of it happening in the next 90 years.
In other words, don’t lose sleep over fears of being consumed by out-of-control nanobots or Skynet declaring war on us meatbags – instead, start sweating global warming and worldwide pandemics, which we’re far more likely to see in our lifetimes. Feel better?