Thread: Sentient Computer ?????

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    My diaper's full....... stevey's Avatar
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    Sentient Computer ?????

    does anyone think, like i do, that a computer will eventually be built that will be so complicated and smart, that it will become a sentient being in its own right ????
    Steve

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    yes and cheese will one day get up and kick mice and tell them to ........ off.

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    It's full of stars adrianxw's Avatar
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    >>> that it will become a sentient being in its own right ????

    They may already be. Without a common frame of reference to establish a meaningful dialog, how would you know?
    Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity unto the dream.

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    The Artful Lurker Deckard's Avatar
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    I am a sentient computer. Caffeine is my bootstrap loader.
    Jason Deckard

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    The Earth is not flat. Clyde's Avatar
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    "does anyone think, like i do, that a computer will eventually be built that will be so complicated and smart, that it will become a sentient being in its own right ????"

    Machines that are "aware" are possible since you and I are examples of them. Quite what "aware" means and how it comes about is still the subject of heated debate. Though it must be said neurology is making remarkeable progress along those lines.

    A computer/software will most certainly be created that APPEARS to be aware, whether or not it actually IS, and whether or not the previous question is actually valid, remains to be seen.

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    The Artful Lurker Deckard's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Clyde
    Machines that are "aware" are possible since you and I are examples of them. Quite what "aware" means and how it comes about is still the subject of heated debate. Though it must be said neurology is making remarkeable progress along those lines.
    Initial self-aware systems will have a very limited concept of reality, much like GovtCheez. Over a number of years they will progress to the arguably improved state of "xterra". These systems will tend to spout nonsense at times, and the BSOD will be replaced with "wut?". Far surpassing the xterra model will be the Prelude system, which work perfectly unless you declare main() as returning void.
    Jason Deckard

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    My diaper's full....... stevey's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Brian
    yes and cheese will one day get up and kick mice and tell them to ........ off.
    take it you disagree then ?
    i wish mice would get up and tell my cat to ........ off, instead of letting him bring their half eaten remains in, and leaving them under my sofa !!!
    Steve

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    computers perform instructions

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    I don't think that computers can become like us. Can a computer have an opinion? Could a computer be able to discuss on the GD board? If a computer can have an opinion, it would be self-aware, creative and have a personality. I don't say it is impossible, but I think it is impossible.

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    Code Goddess Prelude's Avatar
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    >that a computer will eventually be built that will be so
    >complicated and smart, that it will become a sentient being in its
    >own right ????
    Perhaps, I have no opinion since my cynicism concerning the average programmer makes me biased towards no. However, the above average programmers that I've met keep alive the hope of greater things.

    >Far surpassing the xterra model will be the Prelude system,
    >which work perfectly unless you declare main() as returning void.
    How true, the result of declaring main as returning void on the Prelude system is undefined, but most standard implementations will smack the user silly.

    >Could a computer be able to discuss on the GD board?
    A head of cabbage could discuss on the GD board.

    -Prelude
    My best code is written with the delete key.

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    The Earth is not flat. Clyde's Avatar
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    "I don't think that computers can become like us. Can a computer have an opinion? Could a computer be able to discuss on the GD board? If a computer can have an opinion, it would be self-aware, creative and have a personality"

    Building a concious machine MUST be possible, since we are concious machines, the brain works on good old laws of physics and maths, there's no "magic" ingredient in there. When someone throws you a ball and you catch it your brain performs a calculation to predict where the ball will land.

    Of course whether or not we will actually be able to build such machines is another question........ we WILL certainly (at some-point) be able to build a computer that does all the things you list, and will appear to be aware.

    They can already make AI that when spoken to via a chat window mimicks human responces extremely well. I don't think they are yet at the point wher it is impossible to tell the difference but its close.
    Last edited by Clyde; 04-09-2002 at 01:07 PM.

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    Hmm. A computer having an opinion. So that means that a computer can make an interpretation of happenings, a book, a painting and think about it? It can also think: I don't like that music? And it is also possible that a computer creates a painting? A painting which expresses some feeling?

    So you think that it is possible that we can recreate the brain? Perhaps in a technological way, we will be able to recreate the brain. But in my opinion a person is not just a brain. A person also has a personality, built up through the years. This requires a lot of biological processes which I think we can't recreate. And if we are able to, then biological would turn out to be technology. Which implies that also evolution can be recreated.

  13. #13
    My diaper's full....... stevey's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Prelude

    >Could a computer be able to discuss on the GD board?
    A head of cabbage could discuss on the GD board.

    -Prelude
    there are certainly some cabbage heads here !!
    of course some would say that about me.......
    but personally i think my head more closely resembles a turnip....


    >>>>computers perform instructions

    i personally think that our brains are just very complicated biological computers. we have evolved from slime and are still evolving.

    i dont think we have a soul, and go on to some lovely fluffy afterlife.............pity..............

    so we are all computers ourselves, its just that we're staggeringly complicated.
    but i don't see why the complexity cant be replicated artificially, if we can get a computer to learn for itself it may keep leaning till its sentient, and we have to give it Computer Rights and not make fun of them or their beliefs in their god.....The Almighty Bill.......
    Steve

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    >we have evolved from slime and are still evolving.

    Altough some are arguing we are not. I've read a book about degeneration. The counterpart of evolution. The author stated that specialisation implied the loss of general things and this would mean that specialisation is nothing but degeneration.

    I don't know what is right. Both seems valid to me.

  15. #15
    My diaper's full....... stevey's Avatar
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    >>>>So you think that it is possible that we can recreate the brain? Perhaps in a technological way, we will be able to recreate the brain. But in my opinion a person is not just a brain. A person also has a personality, built up through the years. This requires a lot of biological processes which I think we can't recreate. And if we are able to, then biological would turn out to be technology. Which implies that also evolution can be recreated.

    i think biological life IS a form of technology, i think your personality is programming albeit incredibly complicated.

    and i think that evolution could be created. wasn't there a famous experiment that had amino acids and other stuff (all just chemicals), in a test tube or whatever, and pass a current through to simulate lightning.....the result was supposedly primitive life.....ie the slime from which we evolved......
    Steve

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