Hugo de Garis
Australian AI researcher (born 1947)
- 3 min read
- 3 chapters
Related on Lably
Through Artificial intelligence, Neural network (machine learning) and Computer science
Career
De Garis originally studied theoretical physics, but he abandoned this field in favour of artificial intelligence. In 1992 he received his PhD from Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
From 1993 to 2000 de Garis was a researcher at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International in Kansai Science City, Japan. At ATR's Human Information Processing Research Laboratories (ATR-HIP), he aimed to create a billion-neuron artificial brain he called a "cellular automata machine brain" (CAM-brain) by the year 2001. He predicted CAM-brains could scale indefinitely and could be used to create asteroid-sized brain-like computers. De Garis moved to Starlab in Brussels in 2000, and the HIP laboratory was closed in February 2001. Starlab went bankrupt in 2001. De Garis published his last "CAM-Brain" research paper in 2002.
He was associate professor of computer science at Utah State University from 2001 to 2006. Starting in June 2006 he was part of the advisory board of Novamente, a commercial company which aimed to create artificial general intelligence. After 2006 he was a professor at Xiamen University and Wuhan University where he taught theoretical physics and computer science. In 2008 he received a 3 million Chinese yuan grant (around $436,000) to build an artificial brain for China as part of the Brain Builder Group at Wuhan University. He served on the editorial board of Engineering Letters. De Garis retired in late 2010.
Sign in to keep reading
2 more chapters are free with a Lably account.
Beliefs
During his work on CAM-Brain, De Garis began publicly expressing concerns about existential risk from artificial intelligence. In 2005, he published the book The Artilect War: Cosmists vs. Terrans: A Bitter Controversy Concerning Whether Humanity Should Build Godlike Massively Intelligent Machines. In his book, De Garis predicts that by the end of the 21st century artificial superintelligences, which he calls "artificial intellects" or "artilects", will threaten to attain hegemony over the Earth. He foresees a major war between supporters of artilects and their opponents, resulting in billions of deaths. The supporters he calls "Cosmists", who will support artilects that they expect to colonise the universe, leaving Earth and humans behind to a sooner-or-later extinction. The opponents, "Terrans", will focus on the fate of Earth and its inhabitants, and the existential risk posed by artilects. Differences between the two groups will be irreconcilable, leading to war. He also predicts a third group, "Cyborgs", who aim to become artilects themselves by altering their own human brains, rather than falling into obsolescence. Although de Garis makes arguments in favor of each side throughout the book, he concludes that he is a Cosmist.
Religious studies professor Robert M. Geraci describes The Artilect War as a religious apocalyptic scenario.
Writings
- de Garis, Hugo (28 February 2005). The Artilect War: Cosmists vs. Terrans: A Bitter Controversy Concerning Whether Humanity Should Build Godlike Massively Intelligent Machines. ETC Publications. p. 254. ISBN 978-0-88280-153-7.
- de Garis, Hugo (18 March 2010). Multis and Monos : What the Multicultured Can Teach the Monocultured: Towards the Creation of a Global State. ETC Publications. p. 514. ISBN 978-0-88280-162-9.
- de Garis, Hugo (November 2010). Artificial Brains: An Evolved Neural Net Module Approach. World Scientific. p. 400. ISBN 978-981-4304-28-3.