Steven V Johnson wrote:
Whether machines will actually someday become sentient remains to be seen. I
do not know of any reason to think they will not achieve this, but there's
no telling how much longer it will take or what it will require.
...when they develop a sense of humor
Actually, by that criteria quite a few humans wouldn't qualify.
Many humans, such as the late Bob Hope, have what might be called a
simulated or artificial sense of human, similar to Watson's ability to
generate Jeopardy responses. They themselves do not appreciate humor but
they can generate it. Along similar lines, people with a so-called
'soulless' sociopathological condition can simulate a caring, humane
attitude, and concern for others, but they do not actually feel any such
concern. Pay close attention to their behavior you may see that it is
strangely out of kilter. It seems tone-deaf. It is creepy.
It is difficult to define what actually constitutes intelligence, and it
may turn out to be very difficult to know when machines have crossed the
line. I think they are already roughly as intelligent as ants, and way
above the level of amoebas, which is where they were back in 1960. I
would not be surprised to see them achieve the level of a bird or even a
mouse in the next 20 years. That would give them tremendous
capabilities, and far more utility than today's best robots, as I
described in my book. You might argue that ants have no real
intelligence, but I doubt any modern biologist would claim that mice
have no intelligence. So if computers achieve that, it stands to reason
they will be intelligent, at least in some ways.
Sentience, I think, is somewhat easier to define. It means having sense
perceptions, but I meant it in the narrower sense of being self-aware;
knowing the fact that you are an object in the real world, and one
object among many.
- Jed
