[ExI] Is the brain a digital computer?

[Gordon Swobe]

Stathis,

In my last post I mentioned false assumption #2. I meant to send this post 
first:

It dawned on me that you hold two false assumptions, and that these 
assumptions explain the supposed problem that you present that leads to 
the supposed conclusion that no distinction exists between weak and strong 
AI.

1) In your arguments, you assume that for the weak AI hypothesis to hold, 
your supposed unconscious components/brains must follow the same physical 
architecture as organic brains. No such requirement exists in reality. AI 
researchers have the freedom to use whatever architecture they please to 
create weak AI, and it will come as no surprise to anyone if a successful 
architecture differs from that of an organic brain.

and

2) In your arguments, you assume that your supposed artificial 
components/brains must "behave identically" to those of a non-AI. No such 
requirement exists in reality. The Turing test defines the only 
requirement, and just as you and I behave differently from one another 
while passing the TT, an AI might pass the TT while behaving quite 
differently from a human or another AI.

It looks to me then that you have burdened AI researchers with two 
unnecessary and imaginary constraints. These assumptions of yours also 
explain why you have reached the unusual conclusion that no difference 
exists between weak and strong AI.

It seems to me that we have spent a lot of time thinking about an 
imaginary problem.


-gts


--- On Sat, 2/27/10, Gordon Swobe <gts_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Gordon Swobe <gts_2000 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Is the brain a digital computer?
> To: "ExI chat list" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Date: Saturday, February 27, 2010, 8:45 AM
> --- On Fri, 2/26/10, Stathis
> Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > The task is to replace all the components of a neuron
> with
> > artificial components so that the neuron behaves just
> the same.
> 
> No, this sentence above of yours counts as a sample of
> false assumption #2. 
> 
> AI researchers in the real world seek to replace all the
> components of a brain with artificial components such that
> the complete product passes the Turing test. Period.
> 
> It does not matter to them or to me, nor should it matter
> to you, whether the finished artificial neuron or the
> finished AI behaves "just the same" as it would have behaved
> had it not been replaced. Nobody can know the answer to that
> question.
> 
> -gts
> 
> 
> 
> 
>       
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