There has been many triumphs of science and technology by accidental discovery. Mistakes and accidents made in the lab have sometimes led to incredible discoveries. Mistakes made during DNA combining also leads to new traits which have helped drive evolution. As we create mechanical life, we may have to engineer error potential into the core of the machines so they may use chance and accidental occurrence to advance their existence. Imperfections distributed among the members of a population collectively increases the perfection of the whole. We much inevitably endow machines with this potential.

There has been a recent media surge regarding the need for technically skilled labor, and alternatives to four year degrees where students would get hands on technical skills, skill which are currently in high demand. All we actually need is an education system with the capability to keep pace with current technology, and by that I don’t mean a computer in the back corner of the classroom. Our society has already determined there is value in a compulsory free education system, but this system needs to be updated. Knowledge is changing faster than ever but our public schools remain mostly the same year after year, drifting further and further away from the currently reality of our technological society, and becoming ever increasingly irrelevant to our children and our future.
There is a treasure trove of existing ideas, techniques, and research widely available on how our education can be modernized, the only barrier is leadership and some loyalty to our children and our future.

I sense the predominant culture among people as they age to be increasingly less likely to adopt new technologies. The sources of this resistance are complex and numerous. When generational knowledge once remained relevant across multiple generations, wisdom and experience possessed more true value and commanded more social capital. Today technology is driving an invisible wedge and communication barrier between generations. The wisdom and experience of our elders is not irrelevant in the modern new high tech landscape, in fact, it is needed now more than ever! New technology needs to emerge which generates new ways to tap this latent resource and reintroduce the exceptional value of wisdom into society, while simultaneously evolving this wisdom into a contemporary context.

If identical twin machines were manufactured with advanced artificial intelligence, and from the moment they were activated they began to become different from one another due to their unique existances, doesn’t it stand to reason they would diverge from one another in similarity?

There is a serious possibility that when technology extends our intellectual capabilities, we will no longer regard biological beings as having meaningful utility. This includes human beings of course.

Perhaps a modern approach to the Turing test would be a machine that could have an insight into a phenomenon and the machine could not determine the internal source of the insight.

Critical thinking is portrayed, especially by “critical thinkers” to be a positive thing. Especially indirectly in the converse, how terrible not critical thinking is.

The application of critical thinking isn’t always positive in fact it can often be unhealthy. Remember you can’t un-ring a bell, you can’t un-know something. You may come across a truth which in direct conflict with your beliefs, or the beliefs of your peers. The revelation may cause mild to severe distress and conflict in your life, especially in your social life.

Interestingly we interface with our world cognitively through our senses while physically we interface with our world in an incredible number of ways. Our bodies do an enormous number of metabolic and autonomic functions completely isolating our cognitive functions, in a way liberating out minds from perpetual maintenance mode.