Re: "true" AI Hardware Development

jalegris@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 25 May 2006 20:2:
Try making a car that is functionally equivalent to a horse.
But intelligence is assumed to be different - it is the only natural
phenomenon that is assumed to be equivalent to its own simulation. Why
should this be?

Perhaps this quote will shed some light on your confusion:

The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting
than the question of whether a submarine can swim.
-- Edsger W. Dijkstra

The goal of (most of) AI is _not_ to make a machine that "simulates a human
brain". You are correct that a simulation of a human brain is just as
different from a real human brain, as a weather simulation is from real
weather.

But that's not the goal of AI. Instead, AI's goal is to produce a device
which can function in society in a place where mental intelligence is required.
Secretary. Receptionist. Mutual fund manager. Fast food cashier.

All that matters is whether the device can accomplish the task, to the same
level of performance as the current humans who do it. Just like, when tractors
began replacing horses on farms, nobody was confused that a tractor was a
"poor simulation" of a horse. What mattered is that you could plow the fields
cheaper and faster than you could before.

A submarine doesn't "swim" the same way a dolphin or whale does. Nobody cares.
What matters is that it functions underwater and can move quickly.

Successful AI will transform society, without being a "mere simulation" of
a human brain.

-- Don
_______________________________________________________________________________
Don Geddis http://don.geddis.org/ don@xxxxxxxxxx
If you eat a live frog in the morning, nothing worse will happen to either of
you for the rest of the day.
.