This could perhaps be relevant to understanding human level intelligence. One interpretation here is that the brain of primates considers tools as part of their body, which makes them good at using them:
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/128/2 This of course, still leaves the question of how a generally intelligent system uses its body in the first place, and what special hardware there is to deal with this problem. :-). Personally I believe that a general intelligence, such as the human mind, still have some specialized processors to deal with very common situations. Another thing that I guess could use some special hardware, is the ability to feel empathy and understand other human beings or animals. To understand other intelligent beings is so important for humans, yet if done in a general way it seems so incredibly expensive and difficult. Also, a human is in many ways very similar to the intelligent beings it tries to simulate, so it is my firm belief that a human uses parts of its own cognitive process to simulate other intelligent beings. I think that a social AGI system needs to be able to instantiate its own cognitive process in a kind of role-play. Assume that I know this, that I want this, and that I am in this kind of situation, what would I do. And then use this role playing to assess others actions. The fact that empathy seems to be more strongly connected to biological heritage, rather than by social influence could indicate that the ability to feel empathy needs special hardware in our brain. I think I heard of a study that showed a very strong correlation between the empathic ability of identical twins, which should indicate that their social upbringing has less influence on this particular ability. However, I don´t remember the source of that that information. /Robert Wensman ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=91461624-5f7744
