Could a computer be our next President?

Image the possibility of a super computer, comprised of ever logical situation in history and the best possible solution for each problem. This computer is protected by flawless firewalls (it would have to be provenly flawless for this to work so don't use this as an exuse to discredit please) and is set up to make decision based on logic and equality. There is however still a human VP that will probably be the butt of a few late night jokes, but he will remain in the public eye for constant firm stability in washington. My purpose for this thread is to one see if anyone thinks this is a possibilty in future, also it is to find a way to keep special interest out of the whitehouse and giove the focus back to the interest of the civilians.

What do you guys think?

Sure it may be possible, but the fact is that no computer system ever created now or ever in the future will be flawless. Computers are made by man and programmed by him, and we are all flawed. While it might seem an alright idea to put the decision making of the country in the hands of a machine, its really far from it.

Computers have no compassion, love, caring, or any emotion for that matter, so in situations where having a sense of humanity is required they would bungle the issue completely. So far nobody has been able to make a computer with that level of capability, and I honestly doubt it could ever happen since few people understand their own emotions enough to convey them appropriately most of the time, let alone convey them into a piece of software for a computer.

A computerized president wouldnt really keep special interests out, because someone could just play to the people who maintain the system...and dont fool yourself into thinking the computer gets setup and turned on then its all on its own. Any system of value (speaking security wise) must be constantly maintained and monitered not only for threats to it but health issues such as faulty hardware, etc.

I may not trust people and I definately despise the current government for its policies but I would be 100% against ever turning over control of the country to a machine, I've seen enough BSODs and kernel panics to make me quite leary of letting machines do any task where a human life is involved.

Excellent idea! I'm going to call it Skynet.....

On paper - great - but in reality a human created AI is going to be as flawed as us or worse.

How does this thought relate to the New World Order?

Image the possibility of a super computer, comprised of ever logical situation in history and the best possible solution for each problem.

I think the best possible solution to every logical situation is a matter of debate itself. There are so many different ways to handle different situations, and so many people who think one way is better than another, and vise versa. There's no way we all would be able to even agree on how to program the computer... should it be conservative? liberal? pro-choice? pro-gay marriage?

Even if we could agree on how this computer would "think" and handle situations, there is no way we would ever put a machine, no matter how "intelligent", in charge of our country. We will always be a nation governed by the people, not by things we create.

Furthermore, even if we programmed it with every situation in history- it still leaves open the kinds of situations which are outside of the box when it comes to thinking. Situations will always arrise that no one could have ever possibly imagined would happen. If we already had this kind of technology 5 years ago, I really doubt anyone would have programmed the computer to respond to multiple hijacked civilian airliners crashing into buildings. As a human, I will settle for nothing short of a human being in charge of my home country. The only substitute for a human that I would accept is God, but I don't see him campaigning for office anytime soon...

Originally posted by alternateheaven
Sure it may be possible, but the fact is that no computer system ever created now or ever in the future will be flawless. Computers are made by man and programmed by him, and we are all flawed.

Instead of Politicion's, who are created by their political party and P.R. groups.

Originally posted by alternateheaven
Computers have no compassion, love, caring, or any emotion for that matter, so in situations where having a sense of humanity is required they would bungle the issue completely.

I don't think many politicions do either, do they?

Originally posted by AgentSmith
Excellent idea! I'm going to call it Skynet.....

Computer A.I in charge of nuclear weapons in a bad m'kay

"Would you like to play a game?"

There indeed might come a time when computers are millions of times more powerful as the human brain, infact some people think in about 50 years.

Machines will become our superiors one day I just hope its a long way off.

[edit on 22-9-2005 by ShadowXIX]

DUDE you're gettin a DELL.

This is just weird. It would be a great State of the Union.

- It will never happen because a computer is Not a natural BORN citizen. IT is not 35 years old and can a computer actually hold residency for 14 years. Doubt it.

Originally posted by alternateheaven
Computers have no compassion, love, caring, or any emotion for that matter, so in situations where having a sense of humanity is required they would bungle the issue completely. So far nobody has been able to make a computer with that level of capability, and I honestly doubt it could ever happen since few people understand their own emotions enough to convey them appropriately most of the time, let alone convey them into a piece of software for a computer.

Hmm.. I know some politicians who show no compassion, love, caring or emotion for anything but what they believe.. also... So does that also make them machines?

The point is politicians are physically human, they share all the same traits of carbon-based life that the rest of us normal folk do, thus its possible to identify, where as a computer doesnt care if your fleshy and enjoy staying warm during the winter months.

As for the idea that a computer can surpass a human I don't believe its possible. Sure a computer can calculate every possible outcome of a situation based on the ruleset of reality defined for it, but the fact is that as humans we each have the capability to skirt the boundaries of possiblity when the need arises. They dont have determination, spirit, heart, or any of the other things that makes us different from the machines. We dictate their capabilities to them, not the other way around, nor should it ever be.

Originally posted by AnAbsoluteCreation
Image the possibility of a super computer, comprised of ever logical situation in history and the best possible solution for each problem. This computer is protected by flawless firewalls (it would have to be provenly flawless for this to work so don't use this as an exuse to discredit please) and is set up to make decision based on logic and equality. There is however still a human VP that will probably be the butt of a few late night jokes, but he will remain in the public eye for constant firm stability in washington. My purpose for this thread is to one see if anyone thinks this is a possibilty in future, also it is to find a way to keep special interest out of the whitehouse and giove the focus back to the interest of the civilians.

What do you guys think?

/remembers WOPR from "wargames"

"the only winning move is not to play."

[edit on 22-9-2005 by purelogik]

Sounds unconstitutional and even if it was constitutional i still wouldn't like it. Bit scary if you ask me. bad idea

All the concerns are valid, but problems that need to be arbitrated would fall on human VP and administration. Let's talk about diplomatic decisions and their reactions. Every diplomatic situation aalyzed from every different angle and the most non-invasive answer will be given. I'm not chanting for this to happen by any means, I just think that in a world where "the people" are supposed to be in charge, our idea of that is jaded because our leaders are so obvious in their antics of favoritisms. Let the computer handle the foruegn affairs with the support of the VP, and the us citizens handle internal affairs, that's all I'm saying.

Sounds alot like that old short story by Isaac Asimov, "All the troubles of the world". I won't say too much about it as not to spoil it for anyone who wants to read it, but it's basically about Multivac, a supercomputer that runs the world. It wasn't a half bad story if i remember correctly

Originally posted by alternateheaven
The point is politicians are physically human, they share all the same traits of carbon-based life that the rest of us normal folk do, thus its possible to identify, where as a computer doesnt care if your fleshy and enjoy staying warm during the winter months.

Do they?

I can think of many instances when politicions don't care about what happens to other people during the Winter month as long as they are O.K...

If there was a computer system that could control the fiscal resposibilities of the government, diplomatic equality with foriegn leaders, and be programmed with enough situational foresight to prevent things from getting worse before there is time for action. The the Human VP would be there for all of the public appearances, emergency compassion releif, etc... Would you vote for this system? Because really, what has GWB done in the whitehouse that wasn't there before him, beside all the favortisms that he keeps around him. I say nothing too significant. And I'd definitely say the pro's don't come anywhere remotely close to the con's. If it was up to me, I'd atleast want to see the system software before making my decision.

What makes you think that a computer is NOT our president?

At least we won't have to worry about the Super Computer President sticking his hard drive into any White House interns!

Yeah, but if a computer was president, he'd never mis-pronounce his sentences.

Wait!

Don't we have the pong version now???