Man - Amplified (Artificial Intelligence)

Member Name: Ian Proudfoot

Product:	Artificial Intelligence
Date:	08/08/01 (197 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Mankind leaps into the future

Disadvantages: Like any human tool it coould be misused

Artificial Intelligence(AI), one of the staple concepts of Science Fiction, the ultimate dream for those who worship the cult of the computer, the dystopian nightmare for the technophobe. Like genetic technology and cloning , AI is one of those complex scientific ideas that has been thrushed into the public consciousness, but what is the reality behind the much talked about concepts and how will it’s future development effect us the human race.

The concept of inanimate objects having/developing some form of sentience has been with mankind from the dawning of civilisation. Pythagoras said that “Everything Is Sentient” and the ideas of statues and machines gaining intelligence has been a common thread of literature throughout history. Be it the golems of Ancient Jewish beliefs who were come to life to save the Jews during times of crisis or Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein a creature created from the parts of the dead and brought to life with an intelligence of it’s own. With the arrival of mass industrialisation the ideas that machines could develop their own form of sentience blossomed, talk grew of machines acting on their own accord (the deus ex machina or ghost in the machine concept).At the same time clockwork mechanisms became more and more complex reaching the pinnacle with Babbage’s Difference engine, a prototype computer capable of processing massive complex equations. Of course their has always been the hand of man with in these concepts and creations, but with the development of increasing complex and powerful computers post World War II the ideas of computers becoming sentient intelligent entities themselves has swept through modern culture.

Although popularised in all manner of popular media from the Sci-fi writings of Asminov and P.K Dick and William Gibson to the world of trashy B-movies and the futurist visions of a thousand TV programs. Artificial Intelligence isn’t just a concept for the dreame
rs and artists of the world. It is exists in the mass of scientific research and debate about it’s reality and potentiality.

One such area of debate is over the way that computers deal with raw data and how they process this data. Currently the majority of computers process data using the Turing system. In which data is purely fed into the computer and this said to be it’s source of intelligence, this is like saying a library is a form of AI purely because it contains a great deal of information. Thus the old adage of ‘Knowledge is Power’ could used to describe AI systems within computers. However those trying to advance the concept of AI reject this notion of intelligence and base their study on Heuristic understanding of intelligence. The Heuristic approach looks at the ways a computer deals with the information that it is given as a means of understanding a machine’s AI. A machine could be filled with a kinds of useless information but if it could be programmed to sort the wheat from the chaff then it is argued that the computer could be seen as developing some for AI. If then the computer could learn from this process every time it dealt with new data inputs it has the potential to develop a stronger intelligence of it’s own. The crux here lies in programming a computer using Heuristic codes rather than ones based on the Turing Test system if computers are to really gain AI. Of course it could be argued that the computer is still just running off more human originated commands and simply following the procedure that it has been fed (no matter how complex it may seem for the layman)

Which brings me nicely on to another concept in the race to achieve AI in computer systems. The idea of the ‘Final Program‘. The idea of the ’Final Program’ is based around the concept of the ultimate piece of software. A piece of software than once programmed in will “expand indefinitely, redevelopi
ng it’s own structure and evolution, designing new systems so it can activate new forms of existence, outgrow its own limitations as it proliferates to new states of being” (1) . All sounds a bit far fetched does it? However research is being carried out by researchers including W.D Daniel Hills (co-director of The Thinking machine Corporation) who has worked on the idea of parallel processors (two computers linked together and working off each other system and data). Mr Hills has stated “A parallel computer with a billion processors might provide the basis for computational utility analogous to the existing electrical utilities”(1). In other words a central processor could feed information to loads of smaller processors to produce a system with multiple entities all capable of dissecting and feeding masses of information as a collective. Another analogy for this is the way the brain works by firing off neurons into different sections of the brain in order to process the constant flood of information it receives.

These are only a couple of the ideas that are leading the way forward in the understanding and development of AI. Other ideas include cybernetics and bio-mechanics. Linking humans straight to computer systems in order for the computer to learn more about the way human intelligence works and at the same time amplifying the abilities of humans to higher levels. These ideas are slowly seeping into the technology that is hitting the high streets. Forthcoming blue chip technologies will react to human and environmental conditions and suggest solutions i.e.: Fridges that will automatically reorder you favourite food from the local supermarket.

Most of the time AI has been demonised in popular culture. Be it Hal 2000 in 2001, the Terminator or the replicants in Bladerunner but is AI the threat to human life is has been portrayed as? In my opinion no. Why? Because apart from being a long way of reaching high levels of inte
lligence computer systems will always be the result of human input. Of course this wouldn’t stop a AI system being fed with the corrupt morals of the human race, but it the end AI is just another tool to increase the potential of human life. Since the first man picked up a stick to use as a tool, mankind has used various mechanical devices to make life easier and AI just another tool.

Also AI will never be able to emulate one human trait and that is the soul. Yes it could be argued that the Soul (or whatever you want to call it) is the result of the chemical balances, environmental experiences of a man and social rules and regulations, but it is my belief that no AI or computer system could ever truly be formulated to understand this.

To sum up, I believe we are still a long way of achieving true AI in computer systems and when we do achieve it there is nothing to fear as it will be the ultimate tool for mankind. Then again I could be completely wrong and maybe its time to destroy all the computer systems before they……<click>

Footnotes : 1 - Taken from the Sleeve notes for the Song Final Program by Clock DVA from the album Man Amplified (And who said Music can’t be educational)

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