Computers, Consciousness & Thou...A Prolegomena to the Instantiation of Machine Intelligence.

Human beings have been exploiting technology and innovation to our advantage for longer than recorded history. Technologies can be survival-based, like the harnessing of fire, or social, such as music. I would like to address what I call:

Intelligence Enhancement Technologies: those innovations which have enabled us to extend our intellectual capabilities both as individuals and societies.

The Development of Language brought about the ability to share complex information between individuals as well as increasing the ability of the individual to conceptualize about the world. Obviously a critical step in the evolution of man and society.

Writing (any questions here?) allows the recording of information so that it can now be shared (between individuals) or maintained (by an individual) across time and space.
 

Libraries/Monestaries/Universities have served to aggregate information and knowledge on a formal basis, providing opportunities for cross-fertilization amongst scholars. Also supports a scholarly class whose function is to extend the scope of knowledge. Here I may be straining the definition of technology, but I consider forms of social organization to be essentially technological in nature (from the perspective of the meme).

Of course, you know where this is going...

Computers have already undone the way we approach intellectual challenges, and we're merely on the cusp of what will surely be as revolutionary in its impact on the development of consciousness (human and otherwise) as was the harnessing of language.
 
 

Intro

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Interface Modalities

The future history of consciousness

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