With all of today's technology, it is hard to differentiate ourselves from our computers. Some philosophers would say that computers are programmed just like their creators: mankind. Is artificial intelligence that artificial anymore?
John Searle's Chinese Room theory presents a valid point. If someone in a room was translating Chinese script, it would appear to the people outside as if the whatever was in the room spoke and understood Chinese. However, that is not necessarily the truth. We can be taught (or "programmed") how to do something without actually understanding in full detail what it is we are doing.
Take multiplication for example. In second grade, we are taught our multiplication table through charts, worksheets and even songs. We learn our "twelves" simply by memorization, then we use that memorization to reason what the next multiple must be. We do not add 12 + 12 + 12 + 12+ 12 to get 12 times 5 every time we need to come to that conclusion. We know it because the process has been "programmed" into us by our second grade teacher.
Here is where that theory comes to a halt:
Certain things cannot be programmed. We are not programmed to react a specific way to a kiss, or a fight, or a song. Every reaction can be different and random, every time to each person. Those feelings certainly cannot be programmed into a computer or artificial life source.
And here is where that theory turns right back around:
As a species in a highly cultural society, we are automatically programmed by hundreds of years of traditions and morals. Humans are programmed to know right and wrong, even though parents do have to enforce it. That can almost be compared to a software tutorial. Sometimes the hard drive can go bad when it comes to having morals, but it is generally the same in everyone. We are programmed to want to accomplish something in our own lives. Whether that be succeeding in a career, having a family, or robbing a bank. Everyone has that ingrained in them from the start.
I know I have been all over the place on this topic. Are we programmed the same way as computers? I believe the answer is yes and no.
'Certain things cannot be programmed. We are not programmed to react a specific way to a kiss, or a fight, or a song. Every reaction can be different and random, every time to each person. Those feelings certainly cannot be programmed into a computer or artificial life source.'
ReplyDeleteThat's an excellent point. All these examples are precisely the kind of thing that is incomprehensible to AI systems