Turn it up, tone it down: gamified life
This morning I had an interesting client meeting where we were talking about AI, automation and mental development. One thing that came up was whether or not it would one day be possible to significantly increase our intelligence, something that I am interested in (but don't personally need of course 😉 ) as I think that it would not only fundamentally change our personal experience of the world, but also our collective growth. If we were all significantly more intelligent, would we still compete for resources in the same way or, would we collaborate more, would we be more or less violent?
As discoveries are made and our understanding of the brain is developed, it is going to get increasingly common to have various suppressors and triggers possible that control various functions of our brain, much like the students who take Adderall to help them study.There could also be surgeries or implants that could help with this. It could even be possible that there will be more accessible non-chemical or invasive brain hacks we could learn.
As an offshoot thought of this, I brought up an idea for a future app that was able to control personality aspects of our experience, a set of dials that we could tune up and down whether we are angry or, when we want to focus, perhaps we could dial up empathy at certain times while at others, increase our competitive spirit. Would you use the app?
What it would do is be able to introduce personal controls that could overcome the nature and nurture components of our being, the things that make us behave the way we behave. For example, some people are born with a more sunny disposition than others and in social cases, it is often an advantage as it is easier to engage and be accepted into a group. Would a pessimist wind back their pessimism? Would an introvert increase their level of extraversion?
It would be interesting to see how people would use it as I suspect it would ebb and flow in the same way as trends do where certain personality types are popular and then fall out of usage in favor of others. The difference is that it would happen quickly and have an effect on culture and society very quickly.
Would we all start to resemble each other even more closely? Would there be outliers who do the very opposite? Then of course, there is the ability that if we can control it ourselves, there is an increased risk of it falling into hands that might want to hack us into behaving in various ways (as if that doesn't happen now).
We all would like to change things about ourselves, to be better at this or that as well as control various aspects of our nature and behavior, but given the real possibility to change the way we think and act, what would we change? We could gamify our very existence, tweak our character code, remove what we consider flaws ad introduce strengths. Would we be better off for it or would our human limited understanding of random chance mean that we would overweigh our desires and forget the power of unique and different? Would we all have personalities equivalent to the ubiquitous duckface that appears in so many selfies?
If you had a chance to use the app and change parts of your personality, what would you dial up or down? What traits do you think would benefit you and which harm you?
Can you do anything about these things without an app?
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
All v. Philip K Dick ! Sounds like the Mood Organ from 'Do Androids Dream..' . The problem was that it detracted from the 'work-reward' mechanism that is integral to all living things.
My view (and PKD's) was that it would result in 'unreality' and dystopian depression or malaise. In fact, I think this was the point of the whole book (and film I guess): to highlight that cyberculture and technology was removing us from reality, but in a very subtle way. Replacing our reality.
However, if it manages to empower us, or to contribute to motivation, that in turn helps towards personal reward and self-esteem... then technology can work with this, and be a good thing.
Then, there is the whole thing about memory, and how memory makes us who we are. Another thing that Blade Runner, explores.
Interesting post!
I think so too, we are already part way there with the avoidance of negatives through entertainment.
I'd say that the people who do the best now will use it to enhance, those that avoid will use it to enhance avoidance.
Memory is something I find interesting as mine is very poor for things like remembering for tests yet, I still function well in the moment.
While we always would want to improve ourselves, I feel it should be more a evolution of sorts than something purposeful as human nature would find the selfishness of it all and could lead to worst problems. Given we supposedly use only a small portion of our brain, we need patience for evolution to take its course which may come as a survival instinct given our horrible history of doing things on the earth.
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I agree, I am not an advocate for this for everyone although, everyone should have access. Imagine giving a team of the most benevolent and talented of minds in the world the chance to supercharge themselves, what would they do?
For example, what would someone with the vision of Einstein do with a 300 IQ? I have a theory that on average, the extreme high-end tail of IQ is mostly peaceful. If everyone had an IQ above 150, what would we do with it all?
I am all for increasing intelligence yes...but not at the expense of compromised DNA , conscience or soul. There often is a trade off in life example we may have increased security in this world to protect us ...but at the expense of giving up privacy. Often the expense of what is given up is not realized until it is too late and there is no return. Thanks @tarazkp
I think this is a false trade off but I take the point ;)
This is why AI needs to be handled with such care.
I like the questions you raise in this post but especially the last one...
If I had such an app, I would increase my focusing skills and diminish my laziness, among many other character traits.
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Among other issues, I have a thyroid problem that went undiagnosed for probably 20 years. It made me lethargic and unmotivated and with a simple pill, things changed and I started my business, I can work 12 hours straight and haven't enough hours in the day to get all the things I want done. What would have happened if diagnosed early? A slight hormone imbalance can have massive impacts on who we are and how we behave. Poor diet, pollution, plastics, chemicals as well as moods all play their role.
I see no benefit to trans humanism. (the machines will eventually eradicate humans as we know the human being to be). - so is ultimately a self defeating endeavor.
It's a form of self hate.
go out with a bang :D
but only if the machine lets you...lol
I think that's a bit extreme though.
it is a spectrum thing perhaps. People take medication and have surgery to beat being human and getting sick or dying from something like heart disease or drugs that regulate hormones. That would be much the same at a lower level wouldn't it?