Again, a Blogtitle from Emanuel Derman's Blog. It links to an NY Times article, A First Church of Robotics , by Jaron Lanier.
One of the key characterizations in the article: technology is essentially a form of service (suggesting, IMO, shall be nothing else than ....). We work to make the world better ... and bring more beauty into the world ...
I don't agree with this. I rather see the chance of co-evolution.
Technology might help me to transform knowledge into margins or aesthetics. But it can also drive me to understand the nature of margins and aesthetics better. We might use our brain different, when communicating with another intelligence?
Intelligence is a huge subject, I do not want to discuss here, but Math Plugged touches mathematical intelligence, and why it would be quite poor without computers?
We thought computers are strong in algorithmic math whilst we re unbeatable in axiomatic math. But symbolic computation, automated theorem proving, quantifier elimination, ... show that this is not true any longer. OK, this might be still not be intelligence, associated to the idea of consciousness, ..... but enough to prevent me from doing stupid things (human proofs are often made with a nice taste, and even, if they are flawed, if widely accepted they are pushed into the mathematical knowledge base).
How will I use my brain during my little sessions with Wolfram|Alpha, now and in 5 years?
