A material program living in a material world
Thus, the only question which can reasonably be discussed at present is not whether robots can fall in love, or whether if they did we would say they were conscious, but rather ..
To what extent a digital computer can be programmed to exhibit the sort of simple intelligent behavior characteristic of children and sometimes animals, such as playing games, solving simple problems, reading sentences, and recognizing patterns
Dreyfus 1965
Julia and John are talking about the following article:
Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized
In this post the dialogue is realised by an interaction of virtual characters, for more information please check the page “Virtual characters“
Julia
In the beginning people thought General AI was just around the corner
John
Like in the ‘50s and ’60s? 😊
Julia
Yes, Newell and Simon were convinced that they already had a thinking machine (Computer Simulation of Human Thinking)
John
That does sound a bit ambitious, for the kind of equipment they had … 😅
Julia
Of course hype like that brought out many critics, famously Hubert Dreyfus
John
Not sure I’ve heard of him …
Julia
He was a philosopher, not an engineer, and wrote a book on “What Computers can’t do”
Julia
basically, that computers cannot understand the world like humans do
John
Oh, I remember Sam saying something about the world not being a chessboard , is it like that?
Julia
I think it is exactly that: computers lack the background knowledge about how things work
Julia
if it isn’t explicitly there in the algorithm, in the program, it doesn’t really exist for the computer
John
But that’s not how humans think, right?
Julia
Yep, Dreyfus was a phenomenologist and looked at how humans experience and act in the world
Julia
and AI’s lack the specific human way of “being in the world” as Heidegger called it
John
So that’s why AI’s would have a lot of trouble with stuff a little kid can do effortlessly? 😊
Julia
Indeed, but this also suggests a solution: put the AI in the world like a human 😊
John
Ah, of course, instead of a disembodied algorithm, you give it a robot body, and senses, and make it learn, and …
Julia
Bingo! Humans aren’t disembodied minds, so if you want human intelligence … 😊
John
Good stuff! But we should definitely check in with Sam about this too.
Julia
Sure, will do, and perhaps you can talk to Manuel, about the interview he did him?
John
Yes, and see if he has more material.
Julia
Great! Then we’ll catch up later 😉
John
See you soon! 😊
… Continue reading our conversations that are posted every Saturday …
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