Oh dear, at this rate we will have human-equivalent machines in 1990,
and in 2000 they will be beyond our understanding! ;-)
On Fri, Jul 20, 2001 at 06:58:10PM -0700, J. R. Molloy wrote:
>
> By any definition the present powers of AI machines are both impressive and
> worrisome. Cyberneticists have already created or proven that AI constructs
> can do the following:
>
> (1) "Imitate the behavior of any other machine."
> --J. von Neumann, The Computer and the Brain (New Haven: Yale University
> Press, 1974)
>
> (2) Exhibit curiosity (ie are always moving to investigate their
> environment); display self-recognition (ie react to the sight of themselves);
> and manifest mutual recognition of members of their own machine species.
> --W.G. Walter, The Living Brain (New York: W.W. Norton and Co, 1953)
>
> (3) Learn from their own mistakes.
> --N. Wiener, God and Golem, Inc (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1966)
>
> (4) Be as "creative" and "purposive" as are humans, even to the extent of
> "looking for purposes which they can fulfill."
> --N. Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings (Garden City, NY: Dobleday, 1954)
>
> (5) Reproduce themselves, in five fundamentally different modes, of which
> the fifth--the "probabilistic mode of self-reproduction"--closely parallels
> biological evolution through mutations (which in the case of [machines] means
> random changes of elements), so that "highly efficient, complex, powerful
> automata can evolve from inefficient, simple, weak automata."
> -- J. von Neumann, Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata (Urbana: University of
> Illinois Press, 1966)
>
> (6) "Can have an unbounded life span through self-repairing mechanisms."
> --M. Arbib, Brains, Machines and Mathematics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964)
>
> In short, "a generation of robots is rapidly evolving, a breed that can see,
> read, talk, learn, and even feel [emotions]."
> --D. Rorvik, As Man Becomes Machine (New York: Pocket Books, 1971)
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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