Half Man/Half Robot?

I very rarely find myself pondering the questions and uncertainties of "whats next?" Not that I live in a box or live as a follower, I just like to react and roll with the punches as they come. There are too many variables and possibilities to call any long term shots in the world today. What does the future hold for us? Hopefully a 2010 Celtics NBA championship, but I digress. The best sports analysts in the nation could places bets all day, but the bottom line is that their insights are all just assumptions.

For Marvin Minsky to say that one day machines will replace the human brain and eventually rule the earth is absurd. I understand how competitive nature can drive individuals to take extreme actions for the upper hand, but lets not forget that a machine is only as good as the human who designed/programmed it! There are no possible further advancements to be made in the absence of humans. I was shocked that some were willing to defend this as an accepted "fact" of the future of mankind. While Minski's foretelling chewed my mind for the remainder of the week, I was intrigued to find several quotes throughout my readings that seem as if their were written in response. However, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein caught my attention best: "In other studies you go as far as other have gone before you, and there is nothing more to know. But in a scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder." Machines do not have this ability to adjust their reasoning; their are simply series of circuits that have a predetermined response for a given circumstance.

Using a machine to replace a human mind will bring an end any further advancements in knowledge; not to mention the issue of immortality that accompanies Minski's cyborg future. If for every action there is a direct and opposite reaction, then what happens when you eliminate the reaction? My argument is when you eliminate death from the equation can you still have life?

So what is next? CEO's with a Pentium chip in their noggin????.... Lets hope not.