Intelligence Stairway – Jaan Tallinn lecture

Overview

Jaan Tallinn, founding programmer of Kazaa and engineer of Skype, knows technology well. It's because of this that Tallinn knows exactly how rapidly it's expanding.

Soon, technology won't just be tablets and smartphones and little luxuries for consumers; Tallinn argues that this explosive growth in technology has replaced human evolution in the way that it will shape our world — the intelligence stairway. At some point, technological developments will be self-sustaining — that is, that they will no longer require the input of humanity — and this can lead to a Skynet-esque situation.

There are two solutions to this. The first is not really a solution; it's more clinging to the hope that the self-spawning robots will follow Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. The second is much more practical, and involves a mass coordination of technological development to limit the growth of artificial intelligence to prevent this.

Think about it: this is a real threat. It's a little bit cool, but mostly frightening.