Thread: Ai

Science is philosophy.

Ah, perhaps. But, philosophy is not science. The field of philosophy does not use the scientific method... My philosophy class didn't have a lab! I suspect, Zach, that you have not yet taken a philosophy class.

I like the definition of philosophy as "The love of learning". But, when I took a philosophy class, my definition was "Humans asking questions that humans can never answer." It kinda drove me crazy... I much prefer the science & engineering fields.

If we define intelligence as "The thing that IQ tests measure", then it's just an engineering problem to build a machine that can walk-in and pass an IQ test. I have little doubt that it will be done someday. We could even simulate emotion by programming-in the fact that a high score is preferred... But, can we make the robot really "give a damn?" That's a question for the philosophers.

Originally Posted by vasanth

Dave well neural netowkrs aims at reproducing how the way the "grey" stuff you mentioned works....

http://www.e4engineering.com/story.a...d-a7bd9b6a4258

I think in another say 200 years breakthrough in technologies should lead to systems which are self aware...

This ties in nicely with a previously expressed opinion that "it can't be intelligent if it just executes code". With neural networks, the entity learns from experience and essentially rewrites its own code (like our little gray cells do). The thing that makes me "me" is not the collection of chemical compounds in my brain and central nervous system; it's the connections that are made during the life process.

Regards,

Dave

As for the expression "self aware", I'm never sure what people mean when they use this term. A cat is aware of its environment. Is it aware that it is aware? It recognizes itself in a mirror, so it is aware that the mirror image is not another cat. Is it aware that it knows this?

Originally Posted by vasanth

damn the philosophers.

"God help us, we are in the hands of engineers!"

--- Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park

I think about what others think about me therefore I am...I think. Does this scanner bed make me look fat?

Originally Posted by Hunter2

>>I think about what others think about me therefore I am...I think.
I'm sure cats try to impress each other too.

Yes, but does that mean they're self aware, or just self conscious?

Originally Posted by DougDbug

Ah, perhaps. But, philosophy is not science. The field of philosophy does not use the scientific method... My philosophy class didn't have a lab! I suspect, Zach, that you have not yet taken a philosophy class.

I like the definition of philosophy as "The love of learning". But, when I took a philosophy class, my definition was "Humans asking questions that humans can never answer." It kinda drove me crazy... I much prefer the science & engineering fields.

If we define intelligence as "The thing that IQ tests measure", then it's just an engineering problem to build a machine that can walk-in and pass an IQ test. I have little doubt that it will be done someday. We could even simulate emotion by programming-in the fact that a high score is preferred... But, can we make the robot really "give a damn?" That's a question for the philosophers.

What I meant was just what I said, science is a subset of philosophy (in more precise language). And, indeed I have taken philosophy classes. There is, however, a difference between philosophy and random-people-whining-because-they-don't-know-anything-and-don't-want-to-make-a-rationaal-attempt-to-figure-it-out (tm). From my experience, philosophy courses can turn into that if there is no focus on what you are really doing. And, philosophy, if done right, does use the scientific method (granted, some of the conclusions are open-ended, but the principle of choosing axioms, and then making logical inferences from them and evaluating the implications to test the axioms is still there).