The Computer and the Brain

[Nakosis]

Your Brain Is 10 Million Times Slower Than a Computer—So Why Are You Smarter?

The advantage the brain has is its ability to massively parallel process. This ability to take all of this information and feed it to an interface creates a wholistic experience for the brain which gives rise to this feeling of consciousness.

One thing I've read is that brain activity when we are asleep vs when we are awake is the massive parallel activity they can monitor. I suspect if we were ever able to duplicate the massive parallel process capabilities of the brain in computer hardware we may see the rise of conscious AI.

 

[Bear Wild]

Your Brain Is 10 Million Times Slower Than a Computer—So Why Are You Smarter?

The advantage the brain has is its ability to massively parallel process. This ability to take all of this information and feed it to an interface creates a wholistic experience for the brain which gives rise to this feeling of consciousness.

One thing I've read is that brain activity when we are asleep vs when we are awake is the massive parallel activity they can monitor. I suspect if we were ever able to duplicate the massive parallel process capabilities of the brain in computer hardware we may see the rise of conscious AI.

Being smarter is not what it is all about. We evolved with our affective neurosystem which is the driving force behind our creativity. We sense things and feel thing thus respond to our environment. We were set up to be sexual, curious, cautious, fearful, loving, and can react with disgust.
The critical difference between humans and computers is that we feel things. We are emotional/affective which challenges and drives our cognitive side. Computers only have a hard drive.

In western society we have long praised the triumphant cognitive side of our brain as the ultimate in life. Yet out cognitive side is completely lost without out affective/emotional side. The idea of the ultimate brain is a fallacy and computers represent this cognitive side and lack the messy emotional side that makes us a part of the living world. What would motivate a computer? To compute more, but why? I once thought that the ultimate evolutionary creature would be a pure cognitive rational creature with infinite wisdom. Finally I am rejoicing in my sometimes irrational emotional self that computers lack. Being smarter is not everything. Although I do hope humans can become smart enough not to completely destroy the world we live in. Will keep up the hope.

 

[Brickjectivity]

...One thing I've read is that brain activity when we are asleep vs when we are awake is the massive parallel activity they can monitor. I suspect if we were ever able to duplicate the massive parallel process capabilities of the brain in computer hardware we may see the rise of conscious AI.

I agree with that suspicion, however I am sure it would never arise by accident through simply having massively parallel processes. For such consciousness to be made will require successive attempts and modifications, and there will have to be more than just random massive parallel processes going on. There will be a lot of hours of work put into it, and there will be failures and changes. It will be quite dangerous, too, both for the consciousness being made and for us once it is made.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Basic operation calculations only matter in a certain context. For example, a less powerful unit specializing in AI processing, could likely beat out the most technologically advanced graphics card available, for AI processing. A $100 specialized AI processor sipping a few watts power, beating out a $1000 graphics card consuming 300 watts.

 

[atanu]

Your Brain Is 10 Million Times Slower Than a Computer—So Why Are You Smarter?

The advantage the brain has is its ability to massively parallel process. This ability to take all of this information and feed it to an interface creates a wholistic experience for the brain which gives rise to this feeling of consciousness.

One thing I've read is that brain activity when we are asleep vs when we are awake is the massive parallel activity they can monitor. I suspect if we were ever able to duplicate the massive parallel process capabilities of the brain in computer hardware we may see the rise of conscious AI.

The part in red is a faulty premise that parallel processing creates experience -- that consciousness is a created epiphenomenon.

A cycle or a car moves many times faster than poor humans. A computer processes certain operations many times faster and with absolute precision than humans. But what of the subject "I am"? Is a computer specialist going to create the subject "I am" too? How ambitious and how naive.

The access consciousness processes can be modelled and made almost infinitely more efficient. But the phenomenal consciousness, also called the first party qualia, cannot be modelled. Furthermore, to even declare that a computer is performing at a speed 10 million times faster and has human-like emotions, you will require a human.

...

 

[Bear Wild]

Basic operation calculations only matter in a certain context. For example, a less powerful unit specializing in AI processing, could likely beat out the most technologically advanced graphics card available, for AI processing. A $100 specialized AI processor sipping a few watts power, beating out a $1000 graphics card consuming 300 watts.

What would motivate the AI to function without someone programing it. The human brain is not just about intelligence including homeostasis, reproduction and responses to the environment. In the end they are not the same and are driven by entirely different mechanisms.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

What would motivate the AI to function without someone programing it. The human brain is not just about intelligence including homeostasis, reproduction and responses to the environment. In the end they are not the same and are driven by entirely different mechanisms.

Yes. I was expressing my opinion against a statistic in the OP. We seem to possibly agree.

 

[Bear Wild]

Yes. I was expressing my opinion against a statistic in the OP. We seem to possibly agree.

So nice to hear someone agrees with me. Thanks!

 

[shunyadragon]

My only comment is that the criteria for computers is a little dated considering the next generations of computers that will be available soon. The human advantage of being more analog is significant now, but will soon fade.