Isaac Asimov - Visions of the Future (1992) 4/4

[lordjavathe3rd]

@IDontHoldTheTruth Shut up.

[KraussHelmut]

I really like Isaac Asimov. Thanks for uploading this. It's always a privilege to hear him speak. Greetings from the Netherlands.

[plebshadowofra]

Its been a couple years now, where's the DVD eh?

[zozsoy]

I have such mad respect for this man. Thanks for the three laws of robotics, all of your amazing vision and showing people the way. Telling us what to expect from the future. I hope for our own good we never -ever,ever,ever- forget what you took the time to tell us.

[lordjavathe3rd]

@thefileclerk Sure pal. I hate people like Isaac because they don't do anything substantive. Yet society is geared toward celebrating their works rather than the works of leading scientists, engineers, and other innovators. You people love to quote him... Isaacs three laws for Artificial General Intelligence are what is silly. Will he make three laws for a car engine as well? You people are fools, you stand in the limelight now but your intelligence won't be celebrated in the future.

[moeskido]

@lordjavathe3rd So you're saying that teachers and people who publicize science are unimportant? Brilliant.

[lordjavathe3rd]

@moeskido He's a fiction writer. His ideas about robotics are ill founded and misleading*. His work and his name get mentioned far more in media and pop culture than do the names of real genius. Also, when did I mention anything about teachers? I was speaking only about fiction writers like the above. His contributions to the field have created extensive doubt about our ability to control an artificial intelligence. He has made negative progress. Go drink some gasoline.

[moeskido]

@lordjavathe3rd Yes, his "ideas" about robotics, as you say, were fiction. Period.

The rest of his massive body of work covered nonfiction subjects across entire disciplines of learning. He explained difficult concepts well to mainstream readers, which qualifies him as a teacher.

It'd be nice if individuals of true genius were better known, yes. But it'd be a real shame if people like Asimov, Sagan, and Neil deGrasse Tyson weren't around to make science interesting.

[lordjavathe3rd]

@moeskido Good point. But he does also obfuscates reality and give people the wrong idea. Just like "God of the gaps" fills in what we do not know, fiction of this kind will wrongly satisfy hungry minds, mislead them, and deter capable people from making progress where we need it.Did I mention that fiction writers are for some strange reason, far more well known than the people who actually make progress? Do you know of the people who created the internet and how they went about it? Pathetic.

[moeskido]

@lordjavathe3rd People who get the wrong ideas from fiction are suffering from something a lot worse than what you're laying the blame upon. These are people who've gone through what's become of our public education system over the past thirty years of systematic defunding and denigration. Don't blame fiction writers for grabbing attention; that's their business. Blame conservatives who want to return to a 19th-century oligarchy where the majority of the population are poor and illiterate.

[lordjavathe3rd]

@moeskido You're right. I'm sorry. I'm being irrational. But that doesn't make me any less infuriated. Humanity is more likely to celebrate film celebrities than respect the minds that built societies infrastructure. Someones head will roll... I just don't know who's.

[moeskido]

@lordjavathe3rd I'm angry, too. But I believe keeping issues separate keeps my anger focused on the proper targets.

No matter what goes through my mind every time I see, say, a ticker-tape parade for millionaires who throw rubber balls at each other.

[moeskido]

@lordjavathe3rd Asimov's fiction, whatever else you attribute to it, was full of people attempting to reason their way out of problems. That's valuable, whether or not you see harm in his exercises about fictional robots.

[lordjavathe3rd]

@moeskido It probably wouldn't surprise you to learn that I haven't read his works. You've proven your point to me. I want to turn this problem into something solvable, rather than it being something beyond recovery.

The way I see it, problems and solutions in science and technology, should be well integrated into popular culture to the point of saturation. Humanity is supported by those things, and like one is aware of what supports their continued existence, we should be aware of these things

[moeskido]

@lordjavathe3rd Science and reason are very threatening to belief systems and industries that have built huge fortunes on shame and fear. It's difficult to tell a mob how thoroughly they're being manipulated when they come after you with pitchforks and torches. Asimov even wrote a science fiction story about that, called "Nightfall." But I'd sooner point you at the science writing he did.

All we can do is be vocal and on-topic about the differences between empirical facts and childhood beliefs.

[help4343]

@lordjavathe3rd

So you were insulting this guy's influence without reading his work. " The way I see it, problems and solutions in science and technology, should be well integrated into popular culture to the point of saturation" Well, Asimov did help integrate science and technology into popular culture. Why were you bashing Asimov? You are a strange strange man.

[help4343]

@lordjavathe3rd

Yeah, all art obfuscates reality, gives people the wrong idea, and deters people from making progress. Artists should not be well known. Why do you make such stupid comments?

[help4343]

@lordjavathe3rd

Are all of those scientists capable of explaining their research clearly to a layman audience? Is that not a think of substance to do? What of substance have you done? Think before you type.

[lordjavathe3rd]

@help4343 Hello dear fan.

At the time I was feeling enraged that the public was more influenced by the work of a fiction author than the work of people actually helping us progress. I know you are a fan of Asimov, but understand that I'm not trying to insult him, but the people who choose to know nothing about our technological foundation and the minds responsible for it.

Aside from that, when people think about robotics, his very much fictional laws are treated like fact. And that upsets me.

[help4343]

@lordjavathe3rd

People like Asimov help us consider issues that might come up as we progress. Who treats his 3 laws as facts? I would imagine that they are treated as interesting ideas to consider.

[lordjavathe3rd]

@help4343 No one in particular. I tend to read robotics articles, artificial intelligence articles, just stuff I find on google news so I can't recall. One group of people have created an organization in the pursuit of developing an ethics system for future "smarter than human" artificial intelligence. It's absolutely ridiculous to build software to manage an intelligence that doesn't currently exist. It's not interesting as you suggest, but misleading.

[lordjavathe3rd]

@help4343 Because fiction is the only wide spread information on this topic, it has influenced the way people approach it. An intelligent agent can be conscious about what is important to humans, but it does not have to have the same motivations. No robot uprising I'm afraid, humans behave this way because of primal urges which don't need to exist in an intelligent agent. Anyway, I'm sure you can tell that I like what I have to say on the topic but don't care for the popular stance on this.

[lordjavathe3rd]

@lordjavathe3rd I'll end with saying that I'm frustrated from hearing arguments and worries that stem from fiction. People want to hear about this topic so they read what is available to them, but the ideas they read about might as well be talking about unicorns and gods battle against satan. These fictional ideas do not in the least pertain to reality and I would appreciate it if they would stop being brought up. I know this is crazy, I know its obvious, but the simple truth is being ignored.

[hhhhhhyy]

And he was Russian.

[theoddsender]

what was the original filming date of this interview?

[jltambosi]

Thank you cybersputnik for the video!

[matheusazd]

thank you for this.

I'm reading my first asimov's book and he´'s truly amazing.

[753hill]

jeniuz

[oker59]

This probably isn't the isaac asimov video to comment about this idea of his, but it seems that his Sci-Fi story Foundation may have more bearing on the coming human reality than maybe even he thought; that of the Mule and mind reading; scientists have now started to make mind-reading a reality.

[oker59]

I'm surprised Mr Isaac Asimov didn't know about nanotechnologies by the time of this video interview . . . oh well.

He's right about the affect of superconductors on human life; i've seen that superconductivity with all these knew metamaterials will make all those cloaking devices and other miracles from matamaterials . . . practical.

[lordjavathe3rd]

You guys are such brown-nosers. I bet you wouldn't pay so much as half the respect to real intellectual giants like charles babbage or alan turing. Morons, the lot of you.

[vipez666]

thanks for the upload ! :)

[dunderpl]

It'a amazing that many of those ideas came true in today's world.

[gilraen789]

Its the greatest regret of my life that I never got to meet this marvelous man.. He will continue to be a great source of inspiration, not just for his science fiction or his popularization of science but also for his humanism.

[SETIat1420MHz]

@gilraen789 Wow, you took the words right out of my mouth!!!

[fishslappingdance]

@gilraen789

Exactly how I feel.....such a great man!

[moeskido]

@gilraen789 I can tell you that it was worth meeting him. My little science fiction fan club at college held a couple of mini-conventions in our student union building in the late 70s. His appearance as a speaker—with no stated topic—was a highlight for fans and curiosity-seekers alike.