Re: Things I never thought would appear

Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:

I don't think "human-level machine intelligence" is meaningful,
because computation to carry out tasks and cognition to further the
existence of a living organism aren't commensurable.

I'm not convinced of that.  Nobody has come up with a task that a
person could do but that no computer could ever do.  There are tasks
that it's been proven computers can't do, but no person has proven
able to do them either.

So I think it's not at all unlikely that computers, some of them in
humanoid robot bodies, will someday be able to do every task that
a person can do, better and less expensively.  At that point the
unemployment rate will increase to 100%.  Those who don't own stock
in the AI companies will have financial problems.

Or, of course, the intelligent machines may decide we're a nuisance,
and wipe us out.

A third category is uploaded people, i.e. human consciousnesses copied
into a computer.  Simply completely map a human brain and then emulate
it in software.  It would of course have the same memories and
personality as the original person.  By cranking up the clock
frequency, it could work must faster than us flesh people, get a
full night's sleep in a few seconds, or a lengthy vacation in a few
minutes.  And it could work for much less income, since it could
enjoy realistic virtual entertainments.  It would be potentially
immortal.  Or at least last as long as our civilization.

But present-day computers and programs are nowhere close to
human-level intelligence yet.

I understand there is a complete brain map of a fruit fly.  I haven't
heard whether they've emulated it in software and gotten fly-like
behavior out of it.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.