Will a Machine Ever Think?

Last week I discussed the prospect of humans marrying robots (see http://gordonfeil.blogspot.ca/2017/01/brave-new-world.html).  There have for decades been discussions of whether a machine can ever obtain sentience. Will there ever be a machine that can feel, understand, and form opinions?  Will a machine ever be aware of its own awareness?  Think about that. In the series of posts I am doing on love, I am eventually going to suggest that your programming and you are not the same thing. Your programming can change, but you will still be there. You are simply awareness. That’s it. You are different from other species of earthly life because you not only are aware, but you are aware that you are aware.

Will a machine ever be able to be that way? That’s like asking if a machine can ever have a soul, if that term refers to personality.  (Now that might be a good discussion one day: “What is a soul?”) So I pose the question of whether a machine will ever be sentient, but is it even relevant? How could we ever tell?  Alan Turing suggested that it is not useful to ask whether a machine will ever be able to think because we don’t have a way of knowing (I think). He proposed a test based on the Impersonation Test.

That one works like this. A man and a woman each go into a separate room connected to a third room by a texting modality. In that third room is someone who knows neither and who does not know which room contains each, but does know that only one of them is a woman.  This third person asks questions of each and tries to determine which the woman is. The problem is that both are trying to convince the interrogator that they are the woman.

The Turing test has a machine in one room and a human in the other, while the interrogator might even know which is where while he tries to determine via texting which is which. Both try to prove they are the real human.  The machine that can go undiscovered as a machine for a predetermined amount of time or number of questions is deemed to have intelligence.

How does simulated intelligence differ from the real thing?  How does a shadow differ from the thing that casts it?  But is that really the right question. Consider a flight simulator. Is that computer actually flying?  You give it throttle and the simulated airplane gains speed (if you have released the brakes). You extend flaps and the simulated plane gains lift and slows from the extra drag. The results are the same as flying a real airplane (well, not really…real flying does not feel like any simulator I’ve ever used, but let’s pretend that there is one that is 100% reflective of real flying.)  How does the computer’s experience differ from the real pilot’s?  Well, of course it IS different. The pilot is aware. The computer is electronic signals. But so is the pilot’s brain. Back to the reductionism we challenged at https://gordon-feil-practical-living.blogspot.ca/2017/01/creating-reality.html.

There are no clear-cut answers on these issues, so it becomes evident why the notion of a human marrying a machine makes sense to some people.

(next post on this topic is at

https://gordon-feil-practical-living.blogspot.ca/2017/01/machine-sentience.html)

Creating Reality

There is present in the discussion of various sciences the notion of reductionism. For example, some see biology as simply actions of chemistry and physics. Some see psychology as the result of biology, and therefore the predictable result of physics: your mind is simply a programmed expression of physical chemical and electrical reactions, and freewill is an illusion.

At the same time, students of quantum physics tell us remarkable things. For example the state of many processes is not definite until observed. Imagine a tap being fed by two pipes. One feeds red liquid to it and the other feeds blue liquid to it. When liquid is flowing out of one into the tap, the other is shut off completely. The position of a lever determines which liquid is flowing, but the lever is right in the middle. A micro-movement in one direction or the other determines which liquid flows. There is no middle spot that will allow both or neither to flow. Which color is flowing? We don’t know. But according to the studies of quantum physics, the reason we don’t know is not because we haven’t observed; it’s because both or neither are happening. Or in our reality one is occurring while on a parallel timeline, the other is happening.

Apparently the act of observing triggers one or the other to happen….and does so quite randomly. So we are taken to the notion that consciousness determines physics.  This is suggestive of what is discussed at http://gordonfeil.blogspot.ca/2016/11/what-is-reality.html and at https://gordon-feil-practical-living.blogspot.ca/2016/12/where-is-sanity.html.

It’s a confusing world sometimes. Consciousness shapes physics while physics determines consciousness.  Can both be right? Can both the blue and red flow at the same time?  How small we are!  How deficient is our understanding!

Young and Frustrated With Life?

I appreciate the critical condition of youth. The time from roughly ages 16 to 26 is packed with junctions in life’s road that offer options that are high impact. The choices made in that time set a pace and tone that can dictate many of the circumstances of the remaining years. If you are in that age group, you may have already turned down the wrong road many times. Don’t despair.  Sometimes a bit further down that wrong road is a junction with a street that can take you back over to a better way. Sometimes you can retrace your steps back to the last wrong turn. The trouble is that at that age, you don’t always know what the wrong turns were because you aren’t sure of your destination or what roads to take.

So, how can you chart your course?  First, determine your values.  What are the important attributes of a person’s character and conduct? What is important in life? Then align your goals with your values. In doing this, you may find you have goals that don’t seem to support those values. Ask yourself why they are even goals.  Maybe a particular goal will illuminate your ACTUAL values.

Maybe your values aren’t quite what you thought. Then determine what they should be and align your goals with them. These goals should address all areas of life: mental, social, emotional, physical, educational, spiritual, and any area I forgot to mention.

Once your goals are set, analyze how you spend your time. Get rid of everything that doesn’t support your goals. If you are reluctant to eliminate something, it could be that it is because it actually supports a value you didn’t know you had. Then go back and start the process again.  Aim to streamline life….simplify it.

There are many young people whose lives consist of lows punctuated by artificial highs (drugs, alcohol, sex) with the occasional worthwhile high (romance, athletics, intellectual achievement) thrown in. You don’t want that way, do you?  Maybe it’s time to take charge of your life by making premeditated decisions instead of letting life happen to you. Living by acting instead of reacting. A great way to do that is to associate with people who have that wisdom and have applied it to their own lives.  Spend time with them. Get to know them. See how they think.  Listen to advice and get it from many advisors, but find at least one mentor that is willing to spend time with you and cares about you and your outcomes, and then treat them like precious jewels. Be humble and teachable, but don’t be afraid to intellectually challenge what you are learning.  Ask questions, not to disprove everything, but to prove all things.

Refer to http://gordonfeil.blogspot.ca/2016/11/the-millennial-muddle.html for similar advice.