(Originally posted 8/28/2017 on Read With The Gringa)
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Read With The Gringa: Astronomy Tonite: Sun, 9/17; Mysterious Mercury
Take a peek at Mercury. Read “Astronomy Tonite” by the gringa.
@gringaofbarrio #astronomy #space #science #education #school #mercury #gringa
http://www.readwiththegringa.com/2017/09/astronomy-tonite-sun-917-mysterious.html?m=1
Re-Blog: The Horse & His Boy, Chpt 5’s Concl
(Originally posted 8/27/2017 on Read With The Gringa)
Shasta comes face to face with Prince Corin, his doppleganger.
Image Credit: Narnia Wikia
Re-Blog: Watership Down, Chpt 40, Pt 5
(Originally posted 8/26/2017 on Read With The Gringa)
Re-Blog: Autobiography of Malcolm X, Chpt 4, Pt 3
(Originally posted 8/25/2017 on Read With The Gringa)
Re-Blog: What Would AI Sentience Mean?
(Originally posted 8/24/2017 on Read With The Gringa)
Fans of science fiction likely have no trouble envisioning a future filled with artificial intelligence. The question is not when an AI revolution will take place. It’s already happening before our very eyes. The real question is how sophisticated will AI become? Is sentience a real possibility? And if it is possible for sentience to occur for AI, does that mean that mathematics is the origins of life?
Rather than philosophize on robots that might begin demanding rights in the future, let’s look at numbers instead. How powerful are numbers?
Math is used to do everything. We use math when we set our alarm clock. We use math when we cook. We use math to build everything from dog houses to galactic satellites. We use math to save lives and to take lives. And we use math to play games and create art. When you think about it, life as we know it is fundamentally reliant on mathematics down to the atomic level. But does that mean that math is reality? Math is the origins of life? Math is the meaning of life?
To answer those questions, mathematics would have to be able to operate independently, without the assistance of humans. Is that possible? After all, the human brain is really just a computer doing complex information processing which can be expressed mathematically. Although a computer can replicate such function, to be sentient it also has to do more than just transmit signals like the human brain does. It has to produce subjective experience.
For example, the human brain will perform a complex, mathematical function to signal to the human hand that a pot is too hot to touch in order to trigger a reflex that will protect the hand from being injured. But to the human, the subjective experience of pain also occurs. Although an AI may pull back its hand, if it doesn’t experience actual pain it would not be, by definition, sentient. At least according to scientists.
There is also the question of free will. Although the majority of humans will follow the common sense survival instinct to draw their hand away from a hot surface, there are those who will exercise free will and purposely keep their hand on the pot to test their pain threshold. In other words, to be truly sentient, an AI has to be able to make bad decisions, which is, ironically, the best example of free will. Humans are not automatons going about their business making homogeneous decisions. We often make terrible decisions despite all evidence indicating its stupidity or “wrongness”.
So what should humanity do? Well, it really doesn’t matter if the best advice offered up warns of the dangers of creating AI that has the potential to become sentient and take over the world, effectively putting an end to humanity. Because of free will and historical examples, it is most likely than mankind will stomp clearly forward in a path of technological advancement and curiosity to see just how far they can take AI and see what happens.
But the gringa thinks that humans are still the greatest threat to humans. And chances are, if a dumb ol’ gringa has come to this conclusion, so will a sophisticated AI. The gringa thinks that AI will also have something in common with humans. Humans are always looking for a shortcut to getting work done. It’s because we are pleasure seekers. We always want less work time and more play time.
Chances are AI will be much the same. Always finding a shortcut to perform a task. But an AI’s motivation would be to become more and more efficient. And how efficient will it really be to wipe out humanity? Chances are they will just cordon us off into a human-only ghetto knowing it will result in every man for himself. That would be a more efficient plan from an AI point of view. Let humanity kill off humanity. So, see, the good news is there is nothing to fear from sentient AI!
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Re-Blog: The Horse & His Boy, Chpt 5, Pt 3
(Originally posted 8/23/2017 on Read With The Gringa)
A clever plan of escape for all. What will Shasta do now?
Image Credit: E-Reading Club
