Can Machines think?

Originally posted by AllIsOne

Originally posted by andersensrm

Originally posted by AllIsOne
reply to post by andersensrm

 

Re your thread title: you are either assuming that the human brain is not a machine, or the human thinking doesn't happen in the brain. The human brain is a machine too! Albeit a very sophisticated one. So I question your thread title. What other "thinking" is there, but from a machine? I've never encountered a human that can think without a brain ...

depends on what you define as a machine. In that sense your right. But generally we don't regard our brains as machines. I'm talking about computers. But I like the connection and that is what I am going for, that we are similar to machines, and where is that line from machine to life start and end

BTW: We already have computers that are able to accomplish in hours what took scientists centuries ...
Please note that the software program was not retrieving any stored data. It literally observed a phenomenon (pendulum) and came up with the correct law of physics.

www.wired.com...

edit on 21-3-2012 by AllIsOne because: (no reason given)

Even more, millenia. If you take for example that people like Erastothenes (don't know if thats spelled right) used information in the library of alexandria, some of it dating back thousands of years. Calculating things precession, and cycles etc., you need to observe for long periods of time. Now we just plug the function into the computer, and it models it out for us so we can just rewind, FF, and pause to watever we want

Originally posted by blocula
reply to post by SplitInfinity

 

I agree and so that person who came back with an arificial limb is actually a real "cyborg" and do you remember when the bionic man fought bigfoot?!

LOL!...YES! I DID! LOL! It was one of my favorite ...I think two part episodes where Bigfoot was an Alien Android! WOW! We are showing our age! But fun times!

What is being developed now for U.S. Soldiers....artificial Feet and ankles and legs...as well assholders and arms, wrists and hands....are SO GOOD....that these Soldiers are back in the field FIGHTING AGAIN! What I saw...was a Bionic Foot with toes and an ankle and a partial calve connected to the muscles and nerves which was powered by a Highly advanced Long Running ...High Output Battery that you body itself charges. Theonly set back is the battery only lasts for about 1 to 2 months then has to be replaced. Not because it runs out of power but it can no longer be charged by your body anymore.

I was sad to find out this soldier is dead now...not because of the war but because of some Drunk Driver Hitting his Motorcycle....a fine young man and a definite HERO! The New Bionic Limbs will be covered by Geneticly Sampled and engineered Skin Cells with Hair Folicles. The isse of toe or Finger nails is still on going and they are fake. These programs would not have existed a few years ago or have gotten to this level without the LEGAL USE of STEM CELLS as a Fertility Clinic throws them out by the tens of thousands or more and our las were archaic...plus to get around this...genetic Engineers in the States figured out how to grow Human Stem Cells from just a sample of a persons Blood Cell or other cells.

I have been meaning to read up on how they connect these Titanium and Carbon Fiber Limbs to the Muscle and Nervous system as the Body will NOT REJECT THE LIMB...as U.S. Military Geneticists have solved that issue...but connecting a Machines Electrical System to Partialy Grown No Rejective Nerves that connect to the Muscles...is something I want to learn about. One of my Families Companies is in Medical Equipment and things like MASTECTOMY fittings and other PROSTHESIS. So I find this subject fascinating! Split Infinity

Consciousness is much more that processing power, it is creative force, it is creative impulse and much more.


Who cares about processing power, when in our essence we have the potential to do anything?

I recognize Kurzweil research and his work, but all that he proposes to offer with his tech can be enhanced without chips, our own brain has the potential to become as intelligent as we push it to.

Many studies have shown that people with brain damage would respond on occasions to its environment in an intelligent way, yet his nervous system was supposed not to be able to process it physically, also people who has lost portions of their brain, has been able to recover lost fuctions (due to lost tissue) by rewiring intelligently their own brains.

My point is intelligence in humans is much more that brain based, we have to occupy ourselves more with unlocking our natural abilities that, designing macnines to perform certain functions for us.

All that it is not used is lost, we humans have an incredibly valuable DNA, we have to tap into our natural abilities.

reply to post by SplitInfinity
Some day cyborgs and androids from different countries may actually go to war against eachother and it might be on the moon where it happens and what a movie that would make.I wonder if any screenwriters ever take a look through some of the awesome threads here at ATS and discover great ideas for movies?i know i could come up with some mind blowing scenarios and screenplays for all types of science fiction and horror movies...

reply to post by Marco0Aurelio


We do not know what consciousness is. It might be an illusion all together. Some recent research suggests that free will does not exist.

It might very well be that God is a super computer. Maybe we are on an evolutionary path to get there in a few million years when man and machine will have merged. QM physics suggest that the ultimate building block of reality is information and not matter.

Wouldn't it need a brain to think

Originally posted by Jace26
reply to post by chr0naut

 

An internet search bar doesn't have self recognition though. It doesn't think, it is programmed to do set tasks.

I wasn't talking about the search bar (which is an application which runs in your browser), I was talking about the processes data-basing, indexing and categorizing the Internet. Processes which also happen to be running on thousands of interlinked computers across what are possibly the largest group of data centers in the world.

It is programmed to refine and evolve its own responses to our queries and is hardly doing just what it was initially programmed to do. It self modifies its own programs (with the help of us humans too).

No, it doesn't have self awareness, but is that required to think?

One of the attributes of advanced meditation and other altered states of consciousness is a loss of our sense of self. If humans are achieving the opposite of self recognition and remaining intelligent, thinking beings by definition, don't you think that this "mental selfishness" is actually just a prevalent misconception that individuality is somehow special and advanced?

Originally posted by AllIsOne
reply to post by Marco0Aurelio

 

We do not know what consciousness is. It might be an illusion all together. Some recent research suggests that free will does not exist.

It might very well be that God is a super computer. Maybe we are on an evolutionary path to get there in a few million years when man and machine will have merged. QM physics suggest that the ultimate building block of reality is information and not matter.

It is known that there is a singularity at the centre of a black hole and a black hole may actually be an informational phenomenon and so a black hole's central singularity is an informational singularity and so our universe is a black hole and its informational centre is the earth's biosphere...

Originally posted by blocula
reply to post by SplitInfinity

 

Some day cyborgs and androids from different countries may actually go to war against eachother and it might be on the moon where it happens and what a movie that would make.I wonder if any screenwriters ever take a look through some of the awesome threads here at ATS and discover great ideas for movies?i know i could come up with some mind blowing scenarios and screenplays for all types of science fiction and horror movies...

edit on 21-3-2012 by blocula because: (no reason given)

I don't know about fighting on the Moon at this point but I do have knowledge that all service branches of the U.S. Military and the CIA ,DIA, and NSA and a few other I cannot mention...are under STRICT DIRECTIVES to ROBOTISIZE their forces by anywhere from 30% to 75% by as soon as 2017. The USAF as well as Navy Carrier Wings are under the most presure with the U.S. Army ahead of schedual.

The Army must have the majority of it's equipment and munitions and fuel carrying trucks fully robotisized in just a few years...this allows a Human Occupied Tank to escort an entire Convoy of Roboticly or remotely controlled vehicles over dangerous roads or terrain. The tech for this is simple.

The Airforce...with F-15's in need of replacement as they are being given to Air National Guard Units as we speak...and cannot be replaced in number with F-22's which are extremely expensive even though two F-22's in war games shot down 18 F-15C's and a single F-22 Raptor with a new missle internal release kit and guns...actually lasers in a war excersize...shot down 11 F-15C's with Missles and Guns or cannon.

A pair of F-22 Raptors could not even be located in war games against Europes EF2000Typhoon and only running out of Missles and Bullets prevented 2 F-22 Raptors from taking out an entire Countries Defensive Perimeter. The Typhoon Pilots could not locate the F-22's at any time in Daylight and even though this is highly impressive...the cost of a single F-22...can pay for multiple New Stealth Robotic Fighters and Fighter/Attack Aircraft that can out manuver even an F-22 because there is no concern for G-Forces on the Pilot as well as being able to penetrate DEEP inside any countries boundries because when you do not have a Human Pilot...the amount of fuel carried goes way up....and varients of these will be launched from the New Line of Aircraft Carriers starting with the Gerald R. Ford...which will also be the first carrier to recieve a Nuclear Powered Version of the Free Electron Laser....as well as all Aegis Cruisers.

This sudden leap in tech. will probably relugate the F-35 Lightning II....a VTOL Stealth Aircraft that has most European Nations highly interested in purchasing...a low numerical purchase item for the USAF....as well as the NAVY and Marines Version of them for Carrier Use and Marine Small Carrier and Helecopter Transports.

I have seen some of the plans for the new USN Fighter/Attack Robotic Aircraft and it's speed and range as well as ordinance carrying capacity is HUGE...especially when you get rid of an ejection seat, Cockpit, Instrumentation, distance of engines and intakes from pilot in canopy since there is no pilot or even a WINDOW!

This is the way to go! Split Infinity

reply to post by SplitInfinity


Interesting update. Thanks!

How big is infinity divided by 2? Only half?

Originally posted by AllIsOne
reply to post by SplitInfinity

 

Interesting update. Thanks!

How big is infinity divided by 2? Only half?

I have never said how many times Split! LOL! Thanks!
Split Infinity

Originally posted by SplitInfinity

Originally posted by AllIsOne
reply to post by SplitInfinity

 

Interesting update. Thanks!

How big is infinity divided by 2? Only half?

I have never said how many times Split!

I know and that's why I'm asking ...

reply to post by dayve
Can machines and computers relate words to the human experience? not yet.But when and if they're ever able to,then they'll be able to have a normal human conversation with us and if they can ever become self aware,made to be aware of their own existence,then they'll be able to act on their own and possibly rise up against us someday,especially if their androids,like c3po...

reply to post by andersensrm


No they cannot. 2012 people can't even think.

Originally posted by AllIsOne

Originally posted by SplitInfinity

Originally posted by AllIsOne
reply to post by SplitInfinity

 

Interesting update. Thanks!

How big is infinity divided by 2? Only half?

I have never said how many times Split!

I know and that's why I'm asking ...

The reason I use the Name Split Infinity has to do with the way my brain works. A person has to Hemespheres of their Brain...the Left...the Analitical and the Right...the Creative...plus we also have other parts that have to do with the Subconcious as the Subconscious is like a COMPUTER it records EVERYTHING that your senses have ever picked up. Say....the hot Blonde that was walking by you on the beach and winked at you and at the very same time out of the corner of your eye you could see the page of a magazine some guy was reading and a family next to you was spreaded a Cherry scented Lip Balm on one of their kids lips because they were blistered as well as how when you sat up to get a better look at this Hot Woman...you burned your left arm on the sand at the edge of your beach blanket....well...your Subconcious remembers...EXACTLY what the blonde looked like...every word on that Magazine page you caught out of the corner of your eye...whether the lip balm was scented Black Cherry or Regular Cherry....exactly how hot the sand felt....and every other little bit of incoming DATA! It's just a question of how to access it. I am very good at accessing things when I am...TURNED ON...like a switch...although I am always observent I can't seem to locate my keys or sunglasses and can't spell worth S#!%! LOL!

But if I am on a JOB....I remember the tiniest of things...and process them...quickly....I can also use my Creative Hemisphere in conjuction with my Analitical Hemisphere. While undergoing a CT scan not too long ago..the Femal Doctor Scared the S#!% out of me when she said we have to do it again! I said...WHY?! What have I got Brain Cancer or something or a Tumor or a Blood Clot? She just said she wanted to check something out. Turns out...I have a much denser than normal interconnection in several areas between my Two Brain Hemispheres...so I guess that explains how I can be a Musician, Sculp, Draw, Do Theoretical Physics and I have flipped an American Quarter 100 or more in a row...if someone calls out either heads or tails the same way.
I don't know how that last bit fits in. Split Infinity

I am very excited about this thread and other threads dealing with the imminent awakening of a greater A.i.

It won't be long now.

reply to post by andersensrm


The answer to that would be a serious "NO".

C-3PO,from the Star Wars movies is a protocol droid designed to serve humans and boasts that he is fluent in over six million forms of communication > en.wikipedia.org...

R2-D2,from the Star Wars movies is an astromech droid > en.wikipedia.org...

Replicant,from the movie Blade Runner are bio-engineered or bio-robotic beings > en.wikipedia.org...

T-1001 Terminator,from the Terminator-2 Judgement Day Movie is a nanomorph mimetic poly-alloy,liquid metal assassin > en.wikipedia.org...

The word robot comes from the word robota meaning literally serf labor and figuratively,drudgery or hard work in modern Czech and simply work in Slovak,Russian and Polish languages...

In 1921 the science fiction play R.U.R.- Rossum's Universal Robots,by Karel Capek,marks the first use of the word "robot" to describe an artificial person.Capek invented the term,basing it on the Czech word for forced labor.Robot entered the English language in 1923...

According to the Robot Institute of America-1979,a robot is "A re-programmable,multifunctional manipulator designed to move material,parts,tools,or specialized devices through various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks"

Originally posted by FruitCup
reply to post by andersensrm

 

The answer to that would be a serious "NO".

I'd like to hear your reasoning on this. I would argue that the origin of our "thinking" comes from our conscience. Since we have no way of quantifying this consciousness, how can we say that computers are void of it. The answer is we can't, and this is why we can't say whether or not machines and/or computers can obtain consciousness and think for themselves. When we can quantify our own consciousness, and have a better understanding of it, I believe the answer will become more clear.

When you start looking for a definition of "think" that does not include Google Search or a calculator, you have to ask this:
do we think? or do we just generate answers based on inputs from our senses?