Tomorrow night I’ll be watching a documentary on Artificial Intelligence. I am very exited already. The topic has been a welcome teaser for any birthday party discussion, getting everyone well on their way to explain to me, in a very emotional manner, as to why the human intelligence, the best known non-artificial kind, should be more valuable and less fearful than the ‘plastic’ one.
Well, I don’t know. I am a follower of the writings of Daniel C. Dennett on this. I regard the human being as nothing more – or less – than a bio-electrical machine. An elaborate engine made of flesh and blood, stocked with a very complex brain which, by it’s mere complexity, generates conciousness and with that, complex behaviour.
Contrary to the suggestion enclosed in the title of this BLOG, derived from the famous one-liner of René Descartes’ “Dubito Ergo Cogito, Cogito Ergo Sum (I Doubt Therefore I Think, I Think Therefore I Am), which I transformed into “Carlito Ergo Sum”, I do NOT think that we are equipped with a spirit. Descartes did, and he was wrong.
An often heard objection against building an artificial human is the danger it would pose against ourselves. It would make us obsolete. According to Michio Kaku, in his book “Visions”, we should be able to achieve that wonderful feat within one hundred years or so. I myself estimate that it might be even sooner.
But what do I know…
The purpose of the exercise to actually synthesise one of our own species, of course, is to serve as proof of the fact that we are indeed machines.
I wonder why people are so afraid of Artificial Intelligence. Why would it be more dangerous than the real thing? My kids are intelligent and man made (by me and my wife) but by no means less dangerous than any other intelligence. That is why I have to raise them to be good men. And as far as I am concerned, the same has to go for any other intelligence, artificial or not.
A machine that becomes concious, deserves human rights instantaneously. I understand that the Big Thinkers on this subject agree on this. The machine could not be turned off any more, not even out of convenience, for that would constitute murder, wouldn’t it? As a matter of fact, I agree on that too.
Maybe it should be allowed to pull the plug on itself though. Like we are as well.
I suspect that most people are desperately maintaining a position of ‘specialness’ when it comes to themselves or their species. Mostly, some non-physical component is assumed, that takes us beyond the world of what we can understand and make. We assume some “god” or a “spirit” so that we can “understand” the things we actually don’t. I despise that, because it opens the way to religion, which in its turn opens the way to inequality amongst people. You’ll find more on that in this BLOG.
Many have already reproached me for not seeing the beauty of creation, or for the absence of the ability to appreciate anything non-rational. That’s a load of crap. I, like any other, appreciate and cherish all that. I just don’t need a god or a spirit. For me, my hardware and the very complex and super elaborate and well written software running on it, my platform, does it all. It does it by perceiving things, by learning from its environment and by growing up.
