On 9/28/06, carl guderian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Machine intelligence has always been "just around the corner," after > the next invention (Zeppelin Tube, Positronic Brain, holographic > chip, or quantum computer) or a refinement of present ones > (transistors, integrated circuits, silicon chips, etc.). "From 2020" > is meaningless because it's open-ended.
The concept of AI as "conscious machine" is, in my opinion, bogus. So often we hear terms like "machine intelligence" or "artificial intelligence" where "intelligence" is undefined, and the implication is that somehow machines will become "conscious." To me, that's like saying once we have a critical mass of light switches in the world, thrown in just such pattern, the electrical grid will become "conscious." So the reason machine intelligence is persistently predicted but never quite manifest seems clear to me. You can build the golem and you can assume that the more like a man you make him, the more likely he is to self-animate and do a little dance. However he n ever quite moves, because replication of human form is insufficient... just as machines that mimic intelligence are not truly intelligent, and machines that may seem to be 'conscious' really aren't, unless you redefine consciousness to fit machine reality. My friends Max More and Natasha Vita-More are more sensible about the singularity - it's not about machines becoming like humans, but about the increasing cyborgization of humans - we become increasingly closer to our machines, and we enhance our capabilities as a result. But we won't become machines and machines won't become human. Our robot fantasies are probably just an indication that we don't quite know what it means to be human. ~ Jon -- Jon Lebkowsky Consultant, Author, Generalist [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chairman, AssistOrg | President, EFF-Austin | Consultant to WorldChanging.com http://assistorg.org | http://effaustin.org | http://worldchanging.com Web site and blog: http://weblogsky.com amazon store: http://astore.amazon.com/swampdawg/102-0210044-6225726 # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net