Artificial Intelligence (evolution, sex, convention)

[Lightkeeper]

Robots, computers, etc. can do our thinking for us in many cases. Are these items an aid or a hinderance to our evolution? Will these items in the long run destroy our thinking abilities and us?

[Rex]

AI should only be used in some circumstances. Computers will never be able to reason.

[jewscout]

All i know is that "I, Robot" has taught me one valuable thing. In case of robot takeover just call Will Smith!

[huajiro]

Anything that makes us think less is bad....the problem with all this technology is that it seems not only to make us think less, but to feel less as well.

[Druidus]

AI should only be used in some circumstances. Computers will never be able to reason.

I'd be careful of what I predict. It was once predicted that man would never be able to fly. I think that it will be a next-to-impossible feat to get a human-like AI to work with conventional computers. If we ever develop a quantum computer, it should be rather simple. Also, biological computers (biological neurons used as a computer; the field is very much in it's infancy) would work as well, but also raises the question of whether or not this is really an AI or just the neurons developing a conciousness. Perhaps we could let it evolve. In evolution simulations, the computer will start with various bits of code (programs). Certain "good" codes will be defined, and the programs containing these codes will be more "successful" then others. An artificial death is also created. Perhaps even an artificial sex (to gain better diversity). Random mutations will be programmed into the overlying master program. This has been used before, and was able to successfully "evolve" programs similar to "Wordpad". Maybe nanotechnology will give them true conciousness, but as a hive-mind. Nanos with radios that communicate with eachother, and work together to replicate themselves from the environment, each one having slight differences to the code. Perhaps they would draw energy from the sun. Eventually, their evolution could develop true conciousness.

Why is it hard to concieve an "organism" with a different base than carbon could develop intelligence?

[Ceridwen018]

Those are good points, huajiro. Technology can also make us think more, however...

[cardero]

We have had the new EZ-Pass systems installed in our toll booths for quite some time. This allows patrons driving on the New York State Thruway to place a small mechanism in their car that gets scanned as they approach the toll booths. These devices can tell what exit on the Thruway you entered and charge your prepaid account when you exit the Thruway (Big Brother?). Over the years the NYS Thruway has accommodated EZ-Pass owners with un-manned lanes of their own to drive through so that they do not have to “wait” longer than they have to. This has caused the Thruway to put a freeze on hiring new employees (because you do not need people to calculate tolls or process traffic in these lanes).

Problems:

1:No one really knows how to use this mechanism. E-ZPass customers must affix the mechanism with special stickers underneath their rear view mirror on the front windshield. Most of them do not and the mechanism does not read.

2: No human element. There are people who go through designated E-ZPass lanes (un-manned) and shout for directions to places they want to go across the lanes to collectors. Also E-Pass cannot say Thank You or Have A Good Day or give road conditions or inform people of traffic conditions.

3: It doesn’t really work. The idea was probably nice in theory but what happens is the mechanisms malfunction a lot. Eventually patrons with malfunctioning mechanisms that do not want to turn them in for new ones come into manned lanes where we have to scan them manually by punching in a 15 digit barcode number which defeats the whole purpose of E-ZPass and takes longer than if the patron paid in cash.

THE BOTTOM LINE: I remember stories like John Henry (hmmm… there is a hero for huajiro’s hero thread) everyday I go to work. There are many examples of “E-ZPass” like revolutions in our daily lives but the bottom line is that a machine will really never take the place of a human BEing.

[Pah]

THE BOTTOM LINE: I remember stories like John Henry (hmmm… there is a hero for huajiro’s hero thread) everyday I go to work. There are many examples of “E-ZPass” like revolutions in our daily lives but the bottom line is that a machine will really never take the place of a human BEing.

I think it depends on the task. I have no doubt that someday computing machines will reason - even to the "eureka" insight. It's a question of matching patterens from retrieved data. Speed seems to be the greatest handicap.

Bob

[No*s]

Originally Posted by Lightkeeper

Robots, computers, etc. can do our thinking for us in many cases. Are these items an aid or a hinderance to our evolution? Will these items in the long run destroy our thinking abilities and us?

Why not both?

It certainly helps us. How much of what we can do now would be possible without computers doing some of our thinking? I wouldn't want to live in a world where medicine didn't use some form of AI, for instance. I think they've improved our quality of living significantly.

Another example here is the internet. While it may give information overload, it enables a new, more novel way of communicating. How many of us on this board would honestly say that it hasn't had a positive impact on our thinking processes?

A third example is the political process. Our techonlogy has enabled us to keep our leaders in check as never before. It's harder to manipulate and control information. Cameras brought Vietnam to people, and simple digital photos exposed Abu Grhaib. I think greater accountability is definately a good thing.

It's pretty easy to see how they've hurt as well. After all, not many people do their own math anymore. Some of it has hurt our reading skills, because as a population, we tend to skim rather than read.

Another is information over-load. Seneca once said, that reading "many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady. You must linger among a limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind." I think he's right, and it's a symptom of our technology-induced overload. We flit from one thing to the next and concentrate on little. Heck, even our entertainment reflects this shift...an older movie is always less fast-paced than the newer ones.

A last point is Huajiro's. It does seem to make people cold. The more we deal with machines, which have no emotions, and the less we deal with people, the more we will reflect the machines. It really is a disturbing thought...

While I don't put much stock in a future AI, I won't rule it out. What I will say is that tech is a mixed bag. It's not utopian, and it's not a plague on society either...

[robtex]

Originally Posted by jewscout

All i know is that "I, Robot" has taught me one valuable thing. In case of robot takeover just call Will Smith!

Read the book sometime it has some very deep theories on the nature of religion..