I don't agree with you on this topic. In your blog you say "just imagine that you have all that computational power right now [..] how the hell do you program a human mind in there" It is perhaps easier than we think: the brain delegates its own construction largely to the environment. All you need is therefore a suitable environment (which is complex enough) and an adaptive system with a high capability to learn, including advanced learning rules (something as simple as the delta-rule for neural networks, Oja's learning rule or Hebb's rule). Then connect it to the real world (through a robot) or a realistic virtual world (through an agent) and start learning. The drawback is of course then you might end up with an artificial mind you don't understand anymore. It is for instance very hard to understand even simple neural networks that have been trained with backpropagation and the delta-rule.
-J. ________________________________ From: Carlos Gershenson Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 2:08 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] singularity "How the hell do you program a human mind in there??? It takes us several years just to learn to talk!" ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org