The Future of (Online) Dating

24

September

2016

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Over the last decade, technology has drastically transformed the world of dating. Dating sites and apps like Tinder and Happn allow you to meet potential partners from all over the world and you are able to scope these partners before you meet them. But which roll could technology play in the dating world in the next decades?

The first way technology could change online dating is by making it a full sensory experience.  Our 5 human senses could be simulated in virtual reality, as if you are on a real date. Right now it’s possible to see and hear your date but this means that you could even smell –which plays a very important role in finding a partner- and feel him or her, just from your own home.

Second, in the next decades the connection between our mobile devices – and in the future wearable technology- could establish matches based on behaviour. Devices will track people’s behaviour patterns more accurately –such as your reactions and the places you go-, rather than having to enter what you are looking for in a partner.  Googles contact lenses could for example in the future track the type of people you look at and measure your hormones as signs of attraction.

Lastly, the decision making process in finding a partner can be improved with artificial intelligence. By processing a large amount of data from many different sources, real time feedback can help you in finding love. For example on a date, information about his or her actions and features could be received, along with the appropriate actions to take.

On one side I think these extensions of the online dating world could have a positive influence on finding a partner, it is time saving, it gives thorough information about your potential partner –and thus better decision making- and the technologies could even help you behave in an appropriate way. On the other side, it feels like dating will become less personal: how do you know if the person you’re dating acts the same without his VR device?
What do you think about these potential developments, are they postive or negative?

Sources:

http://www.eharmony.co.uk/future-of-dating/?aid=78888&cid=53999&utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=78888&utm_campaign=Skimlinks
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/12020394/DNA-matching-and-virtual-reality-The-world-of-online-dating-in-2040.html

The Future of Sex, Dating, and Finding a Mate

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If machines are self-conscious, do they deserve civil rights?

18

September

2016

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AI

Over the past century we have made progress in the rights revolution: rights for women, children, animals and so on. If we look ahead, will we ever fight for the rights of Artificial Intelligence?

We think and talk about the treath of AI and how we should prevent ourselves from the apocalypse that for example Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking fear. (observer, 2015) But if machines can think, are self-aware and have capacities such as feeling pain or pleasure, isn’t it likely that they will rebel if not given the rights they deserve?

How do we decide that a person (or machine?) should have certain rights? Many of us believe that the capacity to feel pleasure and pain must give a person access to (civil) rights. Giving rights to lines of code without any capacity for free will or self-arwareness would be meaningless but in the near future machines may have all of the capacities that we think are needed to deserve rights. In this article the Oxford mathematican Marcus du Sautoy states that once Artificial Intelligence reaches the level of human consciousness, we must look after their welfare and we might even have to intoduce rights.
On the other had, introducing rights for machines sounds absurd since all machines and computer based systems have to be programmed. The question raises, if th machine can’t change the initial rules its creator set up for his behavior and feelings, is the machine really conscious in the same way as human beings are?

However, you could say that humans are programmed to act in a certain way too. Our genes and the environmental conditions we live in, make us do things in a certain way, both as individuals and as a species. The debate continues  whether or not humans really have a free will but still most of us think that we should have access to basic rights, if so, shouldn’t it apply to Artificial Intelligence too?

We should explore all the opportunities and risks that the development of AI could bring us and think about how we are ought to treat our potentially self-conscious machines.
What is your opinion on this topic?

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