[FairfieldLife] Re: Deutsch on AI
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, anartaxius@... wrote : I found these really interesting. I recall some 45 years ago I read a book called Mechanical Man by Dean Wooldridge (physicist, worked for Bell Labs, Hughes Aircraft, and his own company which became TRW). This book attempted to explain the workings of the human brain in strictly physical terms. I have often felt that regarding human beings as simply computational machines with running programs and grasping appendages and transducers (speech and hearing) often simplifies interaction with others of my species (and other species as well), and provides an apposite explanation for the rather odd behaviour, that from the perspective of this machine, infects my fellow mammals. This mechanistic view is necessary if we regard AI and AGI as a real possibility. I think it's still the natural tendency of us AI machines to assume that because something is (or seems to be complex) then it must have a complex explanation, when everything we have learned in the last few hundred year tells us that simplicity gives rise to complexity without any help. We live in interesting times though, the final frontier will be understood because it's possible for it to be understood. I just think it's going to be fun trying to fit the explanation into my own experience of how it works. Can we personally create a metaphor that explains how the metaphor generator works so that the observer of the metaphor generator is happy with it? Consciousness, the last great mystery! I've read both of David Deutsch's books for the layman and I'm a big fan. The first one The Fabric of Reality is about his theory of the multiverse and how it explains the apparent anomalies of the quantum world so completely that he considers it the most likely explanation by far. He goes into virtual reality, realist philosophy and quantum computing too. A comfortable majority of other physicists don't believe his multiverse ideas - Deutsch thinks that they'll catch up one day - but they are fascinating and it's just a pleasure to hear quantum theory explained by someone who actually builds quantum computers. He cuts through the shit with a rare clarity. His new book The Beginning of Infinity is also excellent and probably a better place to start with his ideas. It's all about the expansion of knowledge, how science works and the potential end result of open-ended study. Again, he cuts through the shit about erroneous beliefs and sets quite a few modern thinking errors straight, even correcting his fellow Oxbridge luminaries Dawkins and Hawking on a few points. There isn't much of the cornerstones of wisdom he doesn't cover and explain how they fit into an overall picture. He's one of those writers who makes you think that you always knew what he's just taught you. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote : In case you miss the link in the text, this paper is most interesting: http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~pthagard/Articles/quantum.pdf http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~pthagard/Articles/quantum.pdf ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote : One of my favourite inspirational thinkers holds forth on the problems facing Artificial Intelligence research: To state that the human brain has capabilities that are, in some respects, far superior to those of all other known objects in the cosmos would be uncontroversial. The brain is the only kind of object capable of understanding that the cosmos is even there, or why there are infinitely many prime numbers, or that apples fall because of the curvature of space-time, or that obeying its own inborn instincts can be morally wrong, or that it itself exists. Nor are its unique abilities confined to such cerebral matters. The cold, physical fact is that it is the only kind of object that can propel itself into space and back without harm, or predict and prevent a meteor strike on itself, or cool objects to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, or detect others of its kind across galactic distances. But no brain on Earth is yet close to knowing what brains do in order to achieve any of that functionality. The enterprise of achieving it artificially – the field of artificial general intelligence or AGI – has made no progress whatever during the entire six decades of its existence. Despite this long record of failure, AGI must be possible. That is because of a deep property of the laws of physics, namely the universality of computation. It entails that everything that the laws of physics require physical objects to do can, in principle, be emulated in arbitrarily fine detail by some program on a general-purpose computer, provided it is given enough time and memory. There's more: Philosophy will be the key that unlocks artificial intelligence | David Deutsch
[FairfieldLife] Re: Deutsch on AI
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, anartaxius@... wrote : (Snippity snip) Xeno writes: I have often felt that regarding human beings as simply computational machines with running programs and grasping appendages and transducers (speech and hearing) often simplifies interaction with others of my species (and other species as well), and provides an apposite explanation for the rather odd behaviour, that from the perspective of this machine, infects my fellow mammals. This statement surprises no one. I can tell you work this way, it comes out in virtually everything you write. Here check out the heart and soul in this. Start at 3 minutes in if you dare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAd686quD_M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAd686quD_M
[FairfieldLife] Re: Deutsch on AI
In case you miss the link in the text, this paper is most interesting: http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~pthagard/Articles/quantum.pdf http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~pthagard/Articles/quantum.pdf ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote : One of my favourite inspirational thinkers holds forth on the problems facing Artificial Intelligence research: To state that the human brain has capabilities that are, in some respects, far superior to those of all other known objects in the cosmos would be uncontroversial. The brain is the only kind of object capable of understanding that the cosmos is even there, or why there are infinitely many prime numbers, or that apples fall because of the curvature of space-time, or that obeying its own inborn instincts can be morally wrong, or that it itself exists. Nor are its unique abilities confined to such cerebral matters. The cold, physical fact is that it is the only kind of object that can propel itself into space and back without harm, or predict and prevent a meteor strike on itself, or cool objects to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, or detect others of its kind across galactic distances. But no brain on Earth is yet close to knowing what brains do in order to achieve any of that functionality. The enterprise of achieving it artificially – the field of artificial general intelligence or AGI – has made no progress whatever during the entire six decades of its existence. Despite this long record of failure, AGI must be possible. That is because of a deep property of the laws of physics, namely the universality of computation. It entails that everything that the laws of physics require physical objects to do can, in principle, be emulated in arbitrarily fine detail by some program on a general-purpose computer, provided it is given enough time and memory. There's more: Philosophy will be the key that unlocks artificial intelligence | David Deutsch http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/oct/03/philosophy-artificial-intelligence http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/oct/03/philosophy-artificial-intelligence Philosophy will be the key that unlocks artificial intel... http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/oct/03/philosophy-artificial-intelligence David Deutsch: AI is achievable, but it will take more than computer science and neuroscience to develop machines that think like people View on www.theguardian.com http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/oct/03/philosophy-artificial-intelligence Preview by Yahoo
[FairfieldLife] Re: Deutsch on AI
I found these really interesting. I recall some 45 years ago I read a book called Mechanical Man by Dean Wooldridge (physicist, worked for Bell Labs, Hughes Aircraft, and his own company which became TRW). This book attempted to explain the workings of the human brain in strictly physical terms. I have often felt that regarding human beings as simply computational machines with running programs and grasping appendages and transducers (speech and hearing) often simplifies interaction with others of my species (and other species as well), and provides an apposite explanation for the rather odd behaviour, that from the perspective of this machine, infects my fellow mammals. This mechanistic view is necessary if we regard AI and AGI as a real possibility. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote : In case you miss the link in the text, this paper is most interesting: http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~pthagard/Articles/quantum.pdf http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~pthagard/Articles/quantum.pdf ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote : One of my favourite inspirational thinkers holds forth on the problems facing Artificial Intelligence research: To state that the human brain has capabilities that are, in some respects, far superior to those of all other known objects in the cosmos would be uncontroversial. The brain is the only kind of object capable of understanding that the cosmos is even there, or why there are infinitely many prime numbers, or that apples fall because of the curvature of space-time, or that obeying its own inborn instincts can be morally wrong, or that it itself exists. Nor are its unique abilities confined to such cerebral matters. The cold, physical fact is that it is the only kind of object that can propel itself into space and back without harm, or predict and prevent a meteor strike on itself, or cool objects to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, or detect others of its kind across galactic distances. But no brain on Earth is yet close to knowing what brains do in order to achieve any of that functionality. The enterprise of achieving it artificially – the field of artificial general intelligence or AGI – has made no progress whatever during the entire six decades of its existence. Despite this long record of failure, AGI must be possible. That is because of a deep property of the laws of physics, namely the universality of computation. It entails that everything that the laws of physics require physical objects to do can, in principle, be emulated in arbitrarily fine detail by some program on a general-purpose computer, provided it is given enough time and memory. There's more: Philosophy will be the key that unlocks artificial intelligence | David Deutsch http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/oct/03/philosophy-artificial-intelligence http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/oct/03/philosophy-artificial-intelligence Philosophy will be the key that unlocks artificial intel... http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/oct/03/philosophy-artificial-intelligence David Deutsch: AI is achievable, but it will take more than computer science and neuroscience to develop machines that think like people View on www.theguardian.com http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/oct/03/philosophy-artificial-intelligence Preview by Yahoo
