Artificial intelligence

[infamous]

I just purchased my first computer about a year ago, and believe me "at my age", it's been a real thrash to learn to use one of these things. I must admit that this is something that I'd been putting off because I wasn't sure that I was up to the task. You know that we older people just don't learn as quickly as you younger folks. Anyway I made the plunge and I'm really starting to enjoy the usefullness of this technology. It wasn't too long after I purchased my XP that I was reading an article by a conputer scientist in Scientific American magazine about artifical intelligence. He really got my attention with his assessment of what he called the future threat that artificial intelligence might bring with it's final developement. It's been a while sense I read the article and I can't remember the man's name but he was concerned that if artificial intelligence were to become a reality that the consequences could be tragic for humanity. Does anyone at this forum have any current information on the progress of this technology, and what do you think? Are we just getting a little paranoid with this kind of conclusion.

[Aki]

That reminds me of the movie AI. Personally, I think whatever happened in the movie will happen in our world. Sooner or later, we will be scared of the strength of artificial inteligence, and the possibility of them taking over our world. Then like in the movie, the violent and evil nature of humans will be revealed.

[Tormod]

Originally Posted by infamous

Are we just getting a little paranoid with this kind of conclusion.

It's just paranoia. It took nature (or whatever agent one wants to credit) about 10 billion years to produce life on Earth, and then another 3.697 billion years (give or take a few years) to produce sentient beings. I doubt we will be able to mimic something with our intelligence in the foreseeable future.

Or if they do, lets hope they put in a mix of intelligence, stupidity and arrogance to make sure the machine is able to learn from its mistakes...

[TINNY]

Or if they do, lets hope they put in a mix of intelligence, stupidity and arrogance to make sure the machine is able to learn from its mistakes..

i dont get the sarcasm.

[infamous]

Hey Tinny; I think Tormod was pointing out that if an artificial intellect would be forth coming, we humans could hope for it to be balanced by a little self reflection. I think one of our finest traits as humans is our ability to laugh at our selves. Lets just hope that any success with this technology strikes such a balance. Just a note here; I'm sure that Tormod has an answer he would like to submit also, and I'll ask to be excused for jumping in here to voice my agreement with his last statement. Have a good day Tinny.

[Tormod]

Yes, infamous' assumption is correct. I was not being sarcastic. I do think that a certain level of articficial intelligence is possible to attain, but it does depend on how far we are willing to stretch the term "intelligence".

Self awareness is problematic as a concept. How do we know if something is self aware or not? If not, how can we be sure that the choices made by any machine will take into account the effect these choices will have on human beings?

Choice by calculation is very different than choice by sentiment.

I do not claim to have all the answers in this area, though. I think it's a very interesting topic.

[TINNY]

i still don't understand what was meant by that statement. Need to improve my verbal skills. Any suggestions?

What is choice by sentiment? How does it make choices. It somehow implies a free will. Something programmed cannot make choices, especially when it is made up of completely deterministic matter.

[infamous]

Yes Tormod; The subject of self awareness is the key word here. To establish some ground work for this debate, we must first define "self awareness". Is our own self awareness just an electro-chemical proccess, or does it rise to some higher level we can discribe in scientific terminology? And if we can't define it in scientific jargon, how then can we define it.? Any thoughts anyone?

[TINNY]

Originally Posted by infamous

Yes Tormod; The subject of self awareness is the key word here. To establish some ground work for this debate, we must first define "self awareness". Is our own self awareness just an electro-chemical proccess, or does it rise to some higher level we can discribe in scientific terminology? And if we can't define it in scientific jargon, how then can we define it.? Any thoughts anyone?

ah, seems like a job for me huh? *rubbing my hands* but i think it is off topic. unless you really want mine.
what are we supposed to get at here? it's the limits of AI right? whether it'll threaten us or not?

[infamous]

Tinny; I'm certainly interested in your view of this question. I don't understand however, why you would think that a discussion about self awareness is off topic. Isn't self awareness critical to defineing artificial intelligence?