07-15-2009, 09:44 AM
As an aside, a sentient computer would not be "artificially intelligent", it would just be "intelligent".
We probably misuse the term "AI". Artificial intelligence as we have today is artificial in that the computer is incapable of coming up with anything new. It approaches each problem with a list of pre-determined answers. It's like it comes to a T intersection and it only has 3 choices: turn left, turn right or turn around. It can make an "intelligent" decision about which of the 3 is best for a given result but it is not capable of making up spontaneous choices ("take a shortcut over the berm, I think I could make it", "sit here and eat a cheeseburger", "flag down passing car to ask directions"). It only has the options it was programmed with.
If it was really intelligent, it would be able to spontaneously invent new options.
You might say that the A in AI means intelligence made with man-made parts (as opposed to organic parts) but I think that's a less useful bastardization of the original meaning. "AI" means "not actually intelligent".
There's no particular reason to think that actual intelligence made with minerals is any worse than intelligence made with meat.
And we probably can't avoid it.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFZTAOb7IE[/youtube]
We probably misuse the term "AI". Artificial intelligence as we have today is artificial in that the computer is incapable of coming up with anything new. It approaches each problem with a list of pre-determined answers. It's like it comes to a T intersection and it only has 3 choices: turn left, turn right or turn around. It can make an "intelligent" decision about which of the 3 is best for a given result but it is not capable of making up spontaneous choices ("take a shortcut over the berm, I think I could make it", "sit here and eat a cheeseburger", "flag down passing car to ask directions"). It only has the options it was programmed with.
If it was really intelligent, it would be able to spontaneously invent new options.
You might say that the A in AI means intelligence made with man-made parts (as opposed to organic parts) but I think that's a less useful bastardization of the original meaning. "AI" means "not actually intelligent".
There's no particular reason to think that actual intelligence made with minerals is any worse than intelligence made with meat.
And we probably can't avoid it.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFZTAOb7IE[/youtube]