Re: Sentience

From: David Steuber (david_at_david-steuber.com)
Date: 04/14/04 

Date: 13 Apr 2004 23:47:00 -0400

Randy Yates <yates@ieee.org> writes:

> I also should comment that I've wondered if, like our Creator has
> done for us, there may be a way for us to infuse into our created
> machine a piece of ourselves that would give it this "soul" or will.

See Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. I believe the idea was that the good
doctor could not create life per se, but he could put a bit of his
soul into it.

I've more or less discounted the existence of a divine creator. But
there is a certain appeal to a sci-fi idea that we are simply a part
of the universe that has broken itself apart into many pieces in an
attempt to understand its self. Not that I actually subscribe to that
idea.

Set aside the philosophy and theology of the issue, I think the
apparent existence of the mind to be the most fascinating thing about
the universe. I don't think The Big Bang holds a candle to it by
comparison.

Unless the laws of mathematics are mutable, it seems that everything
is the way it is without the need for any kind of creation event. If
we solve the problem of creating a machine mind that is as good or
better than the human mind, I expect there will be some controversy.
How long it will take to do that I don't know. It may also be that we
can never fully understand it. I already find it to be quite magical
that the letter 'e' shows up on my display when I, or someone far away,
types an 'e'. Yet all that is has been engineered. Math has not. So
far as we know, it is only discovered.

One of the coolest things I've read was in Carl Sagan's book Contact.
I made sure to read it before the movie came out. In it, there is a
rather interesting discussion about the constant Pi. As far as I
know, Pi can't be anything other than what it is. But in the book,
there is a "message" buried deep down in the number. I won't spoil
it here. Read the book. It is better than the movie.

There is an exit strategy for people who wish to cling to a creator.
In physics, math is really a tool for creating models. The models are
no good until they have been confirmed by experimental observation.
Even then, if you buy into Hume, that empirical evidence is of limited
value. Math may be immutable. But math != physics. Math is just a
tool.

I leave this as a small room for doubt in my own philosophical world
view. That said, I think Roger Penrose is seriously stretching things
in his book, "The Emperor's New Mind." I find his arguments against
the possibility of AI/SI whatever you care to call it (I prefer
synthetic over artificial because the synthetic is indistinguishable
from the natural) to fall strongly into the wishful thinking camp.

Currently the weight of scientific evidence that I am familiar with
leads me to conclude that a human-like synthetic intelligence is quite
possible and perhaps even likely. It just requires deeper
understanding on our part to achieve it. I think once that happens,
the sales of anti-depressants will truly skyrocket.

My only real fear is that people will trust synthetic intelligence
more than the real thing. Just because the machines will be smarter
doesn't mean they will be infallible.

"Teach it phenomenology" --- Dark Star 

-- 
I wouldn't mind the rat race so much if it wasn't for all the damn cats.

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