In contemporary science fiction, we often see robots passing themselves off as humans. According to a [University of Stavanger] researcher, the genre problematises what it takes to be accepted as a human being and provides a useful contribution to the debate about who should have the right to reproduce.
Science fiction culture has prospered and gone from being for nerds only in the 1970s and 1980s to becoming part of popular culture in the last two decades. This particularly applies to the TV series genre, which has become mainstream with Battlestar Galactica (2004), Heroes (2006) and Fringe (2008).
"The genre has evolved from depicting technology as a threat, to dealing with more intimate relations between humans and machines", says Ingvil Hellstrand. In her doctoral thesis, she points out that science fiction today is often about humanoid androids that are trying to become "one of us". According to Hellstrand, this is not incidental.
What is SN take on this issue??
(Score: 2) by microtodd on Saturday August 01 2015, @02:01PM
So as I write this comment, the two highest-rated comments don't even really answer the questions, which is "What is SN's take on this issue?" I suppose I should RTFA but my first thought is, from an engineering and pragmatic sense we are so far away from this issue that it doesn't even really deserve too much of my brain cycles. Because first of all, you need androids with strong AI that pass off as humans and despite what all the "futurologists" think and say, I think we are sooooooo far away from that right now (as in, 100 years) that I don't think this really matters. For that matter, I strongly suspect we may never get there. We might be able to replicate strong AI like a dog or even a chimp but a human?
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday August 01 2015, @07:09PM
I either have a higher opinion of dogs or a lower opinion of people than you.
I think that if we had AI as smart as a dog* then we would soon have AI as smart as people. And very soon after that, Singularity (godlike AI).
* I mean an AI that is actually as smart as a dog, not a set of canned responses that mimics a dog.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.