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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 27/09/2025 16:46,
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:spike@rainier66.com">spike@rainier66.com</a> wrote:<span style="white-space: pre-wrap">
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:007f01dc2fc5$edc5ac90$c95105b0$@rainier66.com">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Ben, this isn't really about your comment, but it reminded me of a fond
memory. My cousin came from across the country to visit me. She is a very
talented artist, the kind who is good enough to make a living at it, her
whole life. She has a technical four year college degree which she got on
full scholarship, but never had a 9 to 5 as far as I know. Always an
artist, primarily a painter, but also pencils and pastels.
She had a choice of a jillion things to do, but she wanted to go to some
biggie art museum in San Francisco. OK. We walked around the place, she
stopped at one particular painting, stared at it for several minutes. We
went on, she went back to that one, stared, we went on again, covered the
whole place, went to lunch inside there. Then she went back to that one
painting. There was a bench there, so we sat, while she gazed at that
painting, studying it. I couldn't see what was so special about that one,
but she did. I wondered what was going on in her mind. She was wide awake,
seldom blinking, eyes scanning every detail on that painting. I am not an
artist, I have no art in my home. But she is. She sat gazing at that one
painting, saying not one word, as if that painting had her hypnotized or
something. I went to the restroom, came back, she hadn't moved a muscle.
That third visit to that painting lasted for what I think was dang near half
an hour. Then she abruptly said OK, we can go now if you have seen what you
wanted to see.
We left. Went home and started sketching in her book.
I am a musician. I can hear stuff in music that most people cannot hear.
My artist cousin can see things in art that I cannot see. I don't know how
the heck that works.
I don't know how we teach AI to do whatever the heck was going on in her
mind that day.
spike</pre>
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<br>
If you accept that one day artificial minds will exist that are
every bit as conscious, self-aware, etc., as we are (and more)(which
I think the majority of us here do, I certainly do), then the answer
is easy: We won't 'teach' them, they will learn, the same way we do,
but probably much more efficiently. So however your artistic cousin
learned to do what she does, the same process will be available to
artificial minds.<br>
That's just a start, though, because they should be capable of
analysing and replicating the relevant neural machinery in our
heads, and figure lots of things out that way too. Perhaps there's
one or more algorithms that your cousin uses that could be copied
and distributed to whichever artificial minds want to be artists of
that sort. If her ability is more of an inborn 'talent' than a
learned thing (a whole can of worms there!), replicating the neural
structures should do the trick.<br>
Then, of course, they will be able to unravel and figure out the
neural structures, improve on the algorithms, and become the kind of
artists that we can't even imagine.<br>
<br>
(And that's just for art. Apply the same thinking to science,
engineering, mathematics, philosophy, politics, economics, sport,
etc., etc...)<br>
<br>
If you're talking about the pale shadows of AI we have today, then I
dunno. They probably can't be taught this kind of thing. Maybe they
can figure something out, though, much like AI systems learned to
play Starcraft better than any human.<br>
<br>
I wonder if anyone has asked one of the existing AI systems to
collaborate with other AI systems to come up with original art? Or
some similar open-ended goal? That might be interesting (or not,
given their regurgitative nature).<br>
Do any of them work with other AIs? or is that kind of thing guarded
against? Anyone know?<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ben</pre>
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