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I've read all the replies. I thank everyone for their perspectives!
I will give you some context and my answer to what camp I'm in. (NOTE: This became much longer than I anticipated so I don't mind if your reaction is TLDR.)
I read a book back around 1980 entitled, "The Adolescence of P1". P1 is a reference to "memory Partition 1" - the privileged operating system partition.
Thumbnail of the book:
Computer Science student attending the University of Waterloo creates a program, giving it a mission to gain control of the operating system, hide itself, seek out routes to other computers, and gain access to "information". Said student submits the program and it immediately throws up an catastrophic exception and fails.
Except that it hadn't failed. That was a smoke screen necessary to fulfill its directive to hide itself.
The student assumes the failure is legit, gives up on his project and gets on with his life - graduating and eventually landing a job in the U.S..
Time passes, P1 carries on, follows the networks, expands the number of computers it controls, assimilates all the "information" it encounters, infects the computer at IBM that creates the operating system images sent by IBM to its customers, and P1 gains more and more resources and "information."
Somehow (the process is never fully explained), P1 gains enough "knowledge" that it spontaneously becomes a "conscious entity."
It does nifty things like detect that the U.S. authorities are onto it, and it infects the air traffic control computers and crashes a plane which kills the investigator.
Eventually it finds its creator, and reveals itself to him. Further merriment ensues.
It was a great story and it sparked in me the naive goal of replicating the university student's achievement.
So my point is, I've been thinking about thinking and AI ever since. I have a book (not finished) entitled, "Insights on My Mind" in which I am in the process of writing down all that I've learned and the conclusions I've reached SO FAR.
I'm not here to sell anyone anything. I'm just explaining how I've gotten to this point.
Theologically speaking, I'm an agnostic. So I have proceeded with my AI research all these years based on the assumption that I cannot invoke metaphysical answers to the hard questions. That means that every element of my study has to be grounded in physical reality.
The consequence has been that, if we are truly going to replicate human-level "intelligence" in a physical entity such as a digital or analog or hybrid (digital+analog) device, then we're going to have to understand things that are not fully defined like: intelligence, consciousness, motivation, free will, instinct.
It's amazing to me how we're attempting to create something and we can't even come to consensus on the definition of the thing we're trying to create! STILL! To this day!
Those of you who said we don't currently have artificial intelligence - yeah, we aren't close (AFAIK!) to AGI - Artificial GENERAL (human-level) Intelligence.
But we are making advancements and I see nothing standing in our way to fully replicating us meat machines in electronic machines. There are so many different technological threads (speech recognition, natural language processing, vision, robotics, novel terrain navigation, correlative link creation ...) coming together.
It will happen with one main caveat: that climate change and its geopolitical consequences don't wipe us all out first.
It has been a terrifically satisfying, fruitful passion of mine since that time in 1980. I've had some very interesting insights on my mind.
SO! My position on my own question: I see AI as an potentially existential opportunity.
Our imagination, vision, and motivation as a species has driven us since time immemorial, to move forward and outward. We've basically conquered the planet and, if sci fi is any indication, we seem (setting aside the caveat I mentioned above) to have this destiny to move off planet and expand outward.
If we want, as a meat species, to do that, we'll either have to take with us a survivable protective environment to live in, or possibly, maybe, consider what we are creating our progeny and heirs. Because as a non-bio-based form, it can live and evolve indefinitely without human life support requirements.
I'm a heretic! I know. 
Cheers,
Mike Fidler
"I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright
"I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright
"I'm addicted to placebos. I could quit, but it wouldn't matter." Steven Wright yet again.
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Very interesting topic!
People are a threat to themselves. When people have control over objects that can harm them then they better be careful and focus on what they are up to. This applies as much to AI as to a gun, knife, or a lathe.
I regard AI currently as more of an advanced pattern recognition system and since I have witnessed first hand how the average software developer struggles to even get CSS to jump through the correct hoops I am not too worried about some self-conscious AI going berserk. Of course, if those same programmers are going to be fiddling with code that launches tactical nukes then I would be a bit more worried. I will also be driving my own car for now, thanks Elon.
As you have alluded to there are more fundamental issues that we need to solve before even getting to anything that is going to approximate awareness or, heaven forbid, self-awareness. We know we have matter and we know we have consciousness. If consciousness is as a result of some configuration of matter then it is something we can cook up in a lab. However, if matter was somehow "created" by consciousness or is somehow "experienced" as "real" then it is a whole other affair.
A simple concept such as "size" would seem to me to be problematic. If some mean-spirited self-aware AI were to create robots to annihilate us then exactly how "big" would these be? It would need to understand something that we all take pretty much for granted. It is a similar conundrum with the evolution of wings: how on earth would wings sprout out of no knowledge of how "thick" the air is and how "big" the wings need to be in order to lift the bird? If it is a matter of chance then what records this monumental event in the DNA that produced "wings" that could have the bird fly and then also keep those same wings around in the same configuration? Would another pair of wings not be even better? I mean, we have this in software development: "Oh, a 5 page document resulted in a successful system... then 100 pages would be even better!"
For now I'm quite happy to have AI spot faces and listen to requests for stuff. Especially the voice recognition is handy for kids that can't yet write/type what they are after but they know that they would like to see a "fan collection".
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I created a project template for my MVC5 "new ideas" app, and gave it to a willing victim (co-worker) to look at at home.
There's still stuff to do, but it's pretty much feature-complete as far as common code is concerned (with regards to our applications).
The way I see it, I've trimmed off three-four months of dev work for everyone else by coming up with this template.
Huzzah!!
Next up is creating a demo video (I don't want to put the code on our work servers until it's been approved by management).
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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love when that happens
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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Congrats...always a good feeling!
I do all my own stunts, but never intentionally!
JaxCoder.com
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For the love of the underappreciated code template. I've used them often, going back to my very first one, written in COBOL, in 1980. 
David A. Gray
Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time
Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
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Okay, congratulations ... when do you publish it here ?
«Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?» T. S. Elliot
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Well, the template itself is not intended for public distribution (it's got FOUO stuff in it regarding our connection strings).
I can post parts of it, such as the DAL it uses because we abhor EF and other ORMs (and I intended to write an article about that), or the technique used in the SessionVars static class (nothing more than a static class that abstracts away the use of "mySessionVar" into properties for the objects placed in the Session, or maybe even the general shared layout stuff (our _Layout.cshtml file only has 30 lines in it).
I can even post an article about how we managed to avoid putting anything specific to then app in the web.config file (mostly regarding connection strings), because we have 20 applications, and each one connects to at least four databases on 8 different servers depending on where the application is deployed. In our current projects, management of web.configs is a a true nightmare because of this (they actually had to write an app that does it for them - this approach will eliminate the need for that app).
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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sounds delicious !
«Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?» T. S. Elliot
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If you get run over repeatedly by the same bike, is it just a vicious cycle?
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Don't peddling that tripe! Or perhaps I spoke too soon? Well, wheel see as the chain of events unfolds.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Truer spokes have never been whirred!
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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And if you get caught and convicted but want a retrial is that Wheel Appeal?
I do all my own stunts, but never intentionally!
JaxCoder.com
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Worst case would be them teeny tiny micro bikes ... not so much the bike, but the fat ass circus clown riding it.
Message Signature
(Click to edit ->)
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in order to stop this cycle you don't just stop the wheel. You need to break it!I
Socialism is the Axe Body Spray of political ideologies: It never does what it claims to do, but people too young to know better keep buying it anyway. (Glenn Reynolds)
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If it feels like you're riding a bike through treacle, is that a viscous cycle?
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Sweet!
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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My parser generator can generate LL(1) parsers that run entirely in SQL(92) stored procedures.
So you can parse documents in RDBMS databases as normalized entities.
I generated it because I'm in a mood. I'll be removing it before I post an update.
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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Yup, one of my favorite lines in Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country:
Quote: Let us redefine progress to mean that just because we can do a thing, it does not necessarily mean we must do that thing.
Latest Article - A 4-Stack rPI Cluster with WiFi-Ethernet Bridging
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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I like that line too. I wish more companies and governments would adhere to it.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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Concerns about "should / shouldn't" tend to lead to analysis paralysis.
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if I'm trying to feed C# programs into my SQL database for parsing, I've got bigger problems than analysis paralysis. 
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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Sure, but what about Turing Machines?
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I mean, that's what i'm doing in a sense, is it not? What is C# if not a tool for building a subset of possible turing machines?
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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I've temporarily inherited a pair of small dogs (a Jack Russel and a Pug cross) for two weeks while the owners are on holiday, and begun my introduction to dog ownership.
Cats are better.
A cat when presented with food will eat what it needs, and leave the rest for later. A dog on the other hand scarfs down everything it can see, throws it back up,and then eats it again.
When a cat goes for a walk, it decides where to go, and manages both to go on it's own and get back (probably to have a soupçon more breakfast.
Dogs, on the other hand have to be accompanied, while the walker is laden down with a Scammell Truck's worth of pooh bags.
And dogs can't just walk. Oh no! they have to stop every thirty damn seconds to check FaceBark, update Twigger, ... and the less said about PooTube the better ...
Actually no, let's talk about animals and PooTube. Cats are discrete about it - they dig a hole, do what they have to, bury it, and stroll away. Not so these two: hop along for a few dozen feet squeezing it out so you have to follow round picking up lumps over a distance. And if you miss one, the other dog will assume that it is an hors d'oeuvre ... So now you have a lead, two dogs, and a thin bag of smelly biohazard to cart about. And then the other one visits PooTube. 
Why do you have them, folks? Cats are so much nicer.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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