I make a living designing interfaces, and finding new ways of comunicating.
As far as i can se we don't need AI at all to reach it.
It should be possible to do it by simple means of software engineering. As
we make new generations of software they get smarter and smarter. A
wordprocessor today know more about writing, formatting and setting up text
than the simple text editors of yesteryear. The Wordproccesor isn't
sentient and it can't create ideas and content. It doesn't have to.
There already exists software today that can help writers to write
moviescripts by analysing the writers ideas (by means of questions) and
then put them into a movie structure format. They are then able to point
out weak spots in the basic idea of the script. Contradictions in terms
etc.
This can be called a 3. generation text editor. It knows more about making
moviescripts than the wordprocessor. (including how to format a pro
moviescript.)
Software consantly keeps getting smarter and is learning all the time. This
feels like an evolution right now because the progress still is rather
slow. And of course the knowledge is hand feed from humans.
My idea for reaching the Singularity is then: If we keep building better
tools for humans to use to make better tools to make better tools .... you
know. Recursive stuff. Then we would finally have a software tool where all
we have to input is new ideas and a vague notion about how it is done. The
tool could then do the rest or we could experiment until we had it right.
I have programmed a bit in c++ and i hated every moment of it. That
language is very powerfull but the interface is really really bad.
There's a new multimedia tool out now that builds on the object oriented
principle as well that is called mTropolis. http://www.mfactory.com It is
really powerfull but won't quite fit as a tool to make tools. It is a
multimedia development tool and very efficient as such. It has a graphic
metaphor that makes true object oriented programming seem very simple.
(Learned in a day or less.)
What we need is a development tool with the power of something like c++ or
Java combined with the ease of use of something like mTropolis. The tool
should have an emphasis on being extensible in a way that would make it
easy to use it to make new and improved tools with.
When we have that we will develop new tools to develop new tools with.
Something like c++ really doesn't make it a lot easier to make new
languages with. It doesn't know enough about computers, Computer-languages
and operating systems. It is implicit in the language that the programmer
must know it all to use for making next gen tools.
That is what i think is an original idea here. That the software should
"know" something about what it's supposed to be used for in the next
generations. It must be designed to be a tool to make tools with.
The problem then will not be to make an AI but to make a simple interface
design. The humans will keep controll and decide the route of the
development. Of course a system design tool like that would probably be
great to use for developing an AI with. :)
Does this sound like nonsens?
MAX M Rasmussen
New Media Director
Private: maxmcorp@inet.uni-c.dk
http://inet.uni-c.dk/~maxmcorp
Work: maxm@novavision.dk
http://www.novavision.dk/
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