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To: betty boop
Wow. Such good news, tpaine.

I have a rather low opinion of the current state of A.I. research. Twenty years is dreamland. Of course a breakthrough could be made tomorrow, but it's not currently in sight.

4,586 posted on 01/11/2003 8:45:37 PM PST by js1138
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To: js1138
js1138, I wonder why so many people walking around these days seem to think that breakthroughs in A.I. conduce to any kind of human future.

Just between you and me: I dunno. In my more cynical moods (like right now), I imagine that human beings have "de-volved" to the state of lemmings; and all they really want to do is find a nice high cliff to run off of and thereby kill themselves, en masse.

This is hardly a cheerful or cheering thought.

4,591 posted on 01/11/2003 9:10:04 PM PST by betty boop (<P>)
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To: js1138; tpaine
I have a rather low opinion of the current state of A.I. research. Twenty years is dreamland. Of course a breakthrough could be made tomorrow, but it's not currently in sight.

js1138, sometimes I wonder whether the A.I. researchers have got their model wrong. They seem to have settled on the idea that mind is merely an epiphenomenon, or by-product, of the brain's physical processing. But what if this assumption is wrong? That would mean that they could understand each and every detail about the way the brain works and still not be able to isolate mind, consciousness. But you need to have consciousness in order to have intelligence, artificial or natural. My hunch is that the brain is the instrument used by consciousness. Of course, the brain does a whole lot of lower-level processing to keep the body functioning properly. But mind does not appear to me to be "controlled" by the brain at all.

I could be wrong about this; but if I'm right, then A.I. research may be barking up the wrong tree. And so I think it'll be a while before we have to worry about "cyborgs taking over the world." :^)

4,655 posted on 01/12/2003 4:27:37 PM PST by betty boop (<P>)
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