Re: Things I never thought would appear

On Fri, 11 Oct 2024 11:48:07 -0000 (UTC), Keith F. Lynch wrote:

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.

They have. One of the series of papers published in Nature says that
they presented the model with simulated sugar and got the fly to stick out
its simulated tongue.