From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Sep 05 2001 - 00:34:49 MDT
>From: "J. R. Molloy" <jr@shasta.com>
>How sad...
>another great brain succumbs to the myth of the monstrous machine.
>The fact that genetic engineering can't possibly keep up with the evolution
>of
>machine intelligence apparently escaped Hawking's notice. He also ignored
>that
>electronic systems can become biological ones, completely independent of
>organic chemistry. The flaw in Hawking's advocacy of human intelligence
>over
>artificial brains is screamingly obvious in that Hawking's human
>intelligence
>itself failed to recognize and acknowledge the faster timeline of AI
>(compared
>to improving humans by increasing the complexity of DNA).
I think it's safe to say Hawking is no dummy. I'd think twice before
dismissing his ideas on any scientific subject. But, my personal admiration
aside, from the short blurb on the site it does not appear that he wants to
augment human learning in the hope of keeping up with the pace AI learning.
Rather, it seems to me, that what he is proposing is some sort of symbiosis
between the biological and artificial intelligences.
Silicon, for all its good properties, does have some drawbacks. When a
computer crashes, all is lost unless there has been a recent save to
"non-volitile" memory. Our memories are a seemless integration between RAM
and ROM. Not to mention the built-in multiple redundant redundancies which
let you keep going even after something so disruptive as a stroke. Although
these advantages will increasingly be replicated in computers and, at some
point, I imagine that the only thing the bio-brain would add to the
synth-brain would be slowness. At that point we pathetic meat-puppets had
better cross over and abandon the bio-brain, or get seriously left behind.
-Zero
"I'm a seeker too. But my dreams aren't like yours. I can't help thinking
that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man.
Has to be." -- George Taylor _Planet of the Apes_ (1968)
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