Leading Futurist Predicts Technology that Many Candians Say they Want to
Avoid
The finding was just one among many collective thoughts on the future, unearthed in an informal survey developed by WHE to promote the launch of its blockbuster movie Terminator Salvation, on Blu-ray and DVD. Interestingly, almost as many Canadians who believed artificial intelligence would become a reality also said artificial intelligence was what they wanted to see the least.
"Within 10 years, we'll have computers that are as powerful as the human brain," says author and futurist Robert J. Sawyer, who is among the world's leading Sci-fi thinkers and one of only seven writers in history (and the only Canadian) to win all three of the world's top Science Fiction awards for best novel of the year. "And within 30 years, we'll have computers that will behave indistinguishably from human beings in terms of creativity and intelligence. They will, for all intents and purposes, be conscious."
Other survey highlights include: - A majority of Canadians said the technology they cannot live without were their computers and cell phones, respectively. - Television and iPod technologies were considered the most disposable. - The majority of respondents identified the television (37.1%) with iPod being the second most popular choice (32.3%) as technology that will be obsolete in the next 20 years. - Flying cars, artificial intelligence and chips embedded in human bodies were the most common responses when asked what the next biggest technology would be. - Although the majority (38.5%) of respondents said that they would want to be trapped at Skynet's headquarters with their spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend, Bill Gates (20.5%) received more than twice the votes as US President Barack Obama (6.8%) and Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt (0.9%) (Skynet is the computer software-based defense system in Terminator Salvation that gains self-awareness, perceives humans as a threat and retaliates against humanity.) - Among the responses to the question of which technology Canadians would never want to see created, the most common were robots with artificial intelligence and microchip implants for humans - 63.2% of respondents said that they do not believe that man will ever go to war with machines
Sawyer disagrees with the majority of Canadians, saying, "The big question is whether humanity can survive the advent of machines that are more intelligent than we are. That will be the defining question of the 21st century because, if we can't, we won't be here for the 22nd."
TERMINATOR SALVATION blasts its way onto Blu-ray and DVD on
For further information: For further information: Carley Tietolman, LexPR Canada, (416) 542-9140 x 3370, [email protected]
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