RoxyRollah

This is a harder question to answer than I originally anticipated. And that's because of the internet. Alone I am not afraid of a wheat thresher, but connected to the internet it could turn deadly. I have thought for years that the internet was it's own entity a living organism. I said this when we were still working with dial up. Now it's becoming an integral part of the human consciousness, it feeding off our emotional highs and or lows, even creating them itself and dispersing it on our devices. I recently read an article written from some tech conference hosted by Mark Zuckerberg and it gave me the creeps. The way article was written it was based on the hive mind, and being able to control the hive mind with it thus disconnecting us from ourselves, by finding ways to keep us on there, little nuances masking as convenience. That is one way of merging with machines that I am not ok with, the prostitution of my inner most thoughts, emotions, and feelings, being rewarded with likes and keeping me hooked, a slave to my own vanity. Or the adrenaline rush you get when you are soo sure you are right and you just have to tell this one person they are a jackass and get the last word in. And your computer, phone, tablet or whatever responds to that. It learns your patterns and how you are enough so that if you weren't here tomorrow, I am fully confident that your consciousness could replicate a version of you that would almost spot on except the whole living thing.

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The Batlord

Until it starts showing a personality that can pass the Turing test, then all we have to worry about is social media making us all into self-absorbed douchebags. Not saying it couldn't potentially happen, but I think the internet would need to absorb some actual code written specifically to develop a true artificial intelligence.

And in the meantime it's providing a repository of human knowledge, history, accomplishments, and, yes, personality traits, the like of which no library could ever hope to replicate. The internet is simply the greatest human achievement since agriculture. And its revolution of the way in which we disseminate pornography is nothing short of a miracle.

You really should keep a more balanced view of things. Nothing is all good or all bad. The civil rights movements of the sixties and seventies provided women and minorities with rights and a voice which they had never had, but it also mobilized the conservative right to take a more prominent role in politics than they had practiced since Prohibition. The Holocaust resulted in millions of deaths and untold atrocities, but it also contributed to the marginalization of anti-Semitism and prejudice in general to an extent that would have likely taken decades longer. For all we know, you might still not be able to sit at the front of the bus if not for Hitler.

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RoxyRollah

Please dont ever tell me what I should and shouldn't do again.

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RoxyRollah

Also I never argued the validity of the net nor its awesomeness...all I said was its it's own entity capable of controlling the emtions of billions. I also said with the amount of data we all put out. It could recreate our consciousness after death. What is wrong with any of those statements.....

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The Batlord

Do what I say before I have to say it and we won't have a problem.

On an unrelated note, I've been thinking about sandwiches a lot today. There's really no reason I mentioned it.

Well, considering just how complex human consciousness is, I think that's a rather over-the-top statement.

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RoxyRollah

No.

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The Batlord

Yep. And at least I respect you enough not to pull my punches. Plenty of people I would just condescend to cause they're namby pambies. So take my bluntness as a compliment. Not so much to your logical arguments, but you know what I mean.

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RoxyRollah

Stop drinking your tap water.^

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RoxyRollah

The consciousness isnt as complex as we might imagine it is. You are everything that is and ever was, you are infinite possibility HAVING a human exsperience...why wouldn't it be possible to re create said consciousness without the humanity.....Cyborgs....litterally.

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Frownland

Sure it's possible. That doesn't make it a realistic possibility though.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.