Hugo de Garis

Hugo de Garis (born 1947, Belgium) is an associate professor of computer-science at Utah State University. He is known for his work on artificial-intelligence. His work has attracted many critics, most of whom object to his view of eventual AI dominance over humans.

De Garis's early studies were on theoretical-physics, but he abandoned this field of research in favour of artificial-life and artificial-intelligence. He invented a new field of this science known as evolvable-hardware. This involves evolving neural net circuits directly in hardware at hardware speeds to build artificial brains.

His current project is to assemble thousands of these 'brains' into a larger artifical intelligence architecture to make a functioning AI. He predicts that one day these machines (he calls them 'artilects') will be far more intelligent than humans and even threaten to dominate the world.

Quote

"Humans should not stand in the way of a higher form of evolution. These machines are godlike. It is human destiny to create them." -Hugo de Garis, as quoted in New York Times Magazine of August 1, 1999, speaking of The Singularity.

External link

http://www.cs.usu.edu/~degaris/ is the professor's American mirror web site.