Oct 14, 2009

Philosophical Phun - Artificial Intelligence :o)

The Chinese Room argument, devised by John Searle, is an argument against the possibility of true artificial intelligence. The argument centers on a thought experiment in which someone who knows only English sits alone in a room following English instructions for manipulating strings of Chinese characters, such that to those outside the room it appears as if someone in the room understands Chinese. The argument is intended to show that while suitably programmed computers may appear to converse in natural language, they are not capable of understanding language, even in principle. Searle argues that the thought experiment underscores the fact that computers merely use syntactic rules to manipulate symbol strings, but have no understanding of meaning or semantics. Searle's argument is a direct challenge to proponents of Artificial Intelligence, and the argument also has broad implications for functionalist and computational theories of meaning and of mind. As a result, there have been many critical replies to the argument. For the full original entry, click here.

I found this concept very interesting in our current information and technological age. While we may joke about people we know with faux intelligence, applying the true artificial intelligence question to computers is interesting. We have built cell phones that have more computing power than the first Eniac computer, and computers can out chess the masters. Will we ever be able to build a computer that will really be able to think, or feel, or reason. What makes our synapses so different than the silicon and gallium connections in the ever increasing powerful microprocessor?

7 comments:

  1. I agree with you. Didn't some one from harvard developed a artificial computer already that can predict scientific outcomes with more than 98 % accuracy?

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  2. I seem to recall reading other stories about AI research, and they really are making inroads. Hard to believe that we're seeing the reality now of science fiction stories we read as kids. Wow!

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  3. I am not so 'wow' on the science fiction cum reality scene. If they can reason, why wouldn't they come to the same conclusion of Agent Smith in the first Matrix and treat humanity as the 'virus' that is plaguing the earth?

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  4. I just caught up reading all your entries... and please update us with your cholesterol reading so we all can see if your oatmeal works! That Morning Glory thing was way cool. I hate people who talk or text on cell phones while driving, and AI is getting scary isn't it? Did you read the latest Dan Brown?

    be well...

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  5. The Chinese Room argument is a famous counterpoint to Alan Turing's ideas on artificial intelligence and how it would be possible. For what it's worth, my money is on Turing! :) I think it might be possible.

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  6. I'm with Stan on this one. I believe it is possible, eventually, we will create AI or AI will be created(spontaneously) from our tech activities. I don't think it will come about in our lifetime and I'm not sure it will be the best thing for humanity when it does finally happen.

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  7. I came back to this ... and Kyle's hypothesis that AI happens spontaneously would seem to be most possible, but what would it mean to Theology? Wouldn't that at once put the end to a Surpreme Being who created everything?

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Tell Me What You Think, Don't Make me go Rogue on you :o)