I'm deeply fascinated by the computational limits of biological life and how these compare to the processing power of machines. A separate and equally compelling question is whether machines can ever possess what we might call "real" intelligence—by which I mean not merely the ability to process information or mimic human behavior, but the capacity for understanding, self-awareness, and genuine agency.
In my view, we are rapidly approaching a point where machines will be able to convincingly simulate real intelligence in everyday interactions—effectively passing a modernized version of the Turing test. They will appear intelligent to most people in most contexts. Yet despite their impressive performance in specialized domains—such as surpassing humans in solving the protein folding problem—I believe the current AI paradigm lacks the conceptual foundations needed for true general intelligence. Today's models excel at pattern recognition and statistical inference, but they still fall short of the flexible reasoning and deep understanding that define human cognition. Unless a breakthrough in AI architecture occurs, I don't believe the current framework will take us all the way to real intelligence. On Sun, 4 May 2025 at 18:59, Marcus Daniels <[email protected]> wrote: > There are already electrostatic interactions in organic chemistry that > could > trigger conformational changes or polarization changes that operate on > femtosecond or picosecond timescales. The photons would soon be absorbed > anyway, so it isn't like it is a mechanism for distributed computation like > carefully controlled entanglement of a quantum computer. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Prof David West > Sent: Sunday, May 4, 2025 9:37 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [FRIAM] computational limits - supersized mind > > oft accepted limit of the human brain computational limit - 10^16th > computations per second. > > Interesting article challenging that limit, and a lot more. > > https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1077836 > > davew > > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / > ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / > ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >
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