The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence by Ray Kurzweil Page B
Authors: Ray Kurzweil
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understand themselves. Think of the lowly giraffe, for instance, whose brain is obviously far below the level required for self-understanding-yet it is remarkably similar to our brain.” 10 But to my knowledge, giraffes are not known to ask these questions (of course, we don’t know what they spend their time wondering about). In my view, if we are sophisticated enough to ask the questions, then we are advanced enough to understand the answers. However, the “we’re too stupid” school points out that indeed we are having difficulty clearly formulating these questions.
A Synthesis of Views
My own view is that all of these schools are correct when viewed together, but insufficient when viewed one at a time. That is, the truth lies in a synthesis of these views. This reflects my Unitarian religious education in which we studied all the world’s religions, considering them “many paths to the truth.” Of course, my view may be regarded as the worst one of all. On its face, my view is contradictory and makes little sense. The other schools at least can claim some level of consistency and coherence.
Thinking Is as Thinking Does
Oh yes, there is one other view, which I call the “thinking is as thinking does” school. In a 1950 paper, Alan Turing describes his concept of the Turing Test, in which a human judge interviews both a computer and one or more human foils using terminals (so that the judge won’t be prejudiced against the computer for lacking a warm and fuzzy appearance). 11 If the human judge is unable to reliably unmask the computer (as an impostor human) then the computer wins. The test is often described as a kind of computer IQ test, a means of determining if computers have achieved a human level of intelligence. In my view, however, Turing really intended his Turing Test as a test of thinking, a term he uses to imply more than just clever manipulation of logic and language. To Turing, thinking implies conscious intentionality.
Turing had an implicit understanding of the exponential growth of computing power, and predicted that a computer would pass his eponymous exam by the end of the century. He remarked that by that time “the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.” His prediction was overly optimistic in terms of time frame, but in my view not by much.
THE VIEW FROM QUANTUM MECHANICS
I often dream about falling. Such dreams are commonplace to the ambitious or those who climb mountains. Lately I dreamed I was clutching at the face of a rock, but it would not hold. Gravel gave way. I grasped for a shrub, but it pulled loose, and in cold terror I fell into the abyss. Suddenly I realized that my fall was relative; there was no bottom and no end. A feeling of pleasure overcame me. I realized that what I embody, the principle of life, cannot be destroyed. It is written into the cosmic code, the order of the universe. As I continued to fall in the dark void, embraced by the vault of the heavens, I sang to the beauty of the stars and made my peace with the darkness.
—Heinz Pagels, physicist and quantum mechanics researcher before his death in a 1988 climbing accident
The Western objective view states that after billions of years of swirling around, matter and energy evolved to create life-forms-complex self-replicating patterns of matter and energy-that became sufficiently advanced to reflect on their own existence, on the nature of matter and energy, on their own consciousness. In contrast, the Eastern subjective view states that consciousness came first-matter and energy are merely the complex thoughts of conscious beings, ideas that have no reality without a thinker. As noted above, the objective and subjective views of reality have been at odds since the dawn of recorted history. There is often merit, however, in combining seemingly irreconcilable
A Synthesis of Views
My own view is that all of these schools are correct when viewed together, but insufficient when viewed one at a time. That is, the truth lies in a synthesis of these views. This reflects my Unitarian religious education in which we studied all the world’s religions, considering them “many paths to the truth.” Of course, my view may be regarded as the worst one of all. On its face, my view is contradictory and makes little sense. The other schools at least can claim some level of consistency and coherence.
Thinking Is as Thinking Does
Oh yes, there is one other view, which I call the “thinking is as thinking does” school. In a 1950 paper, Alan Turing describes his concept of the Turing Test, in which a human judge interviews both a computer and one or more human foils using terminals (so that the judge won’t be prejudiced against the computer for lacking a warm and fuzzy appearance). 11 If the human judge is unable to reliably unmask the computer (as an impostor human) then the computer wins. The test is often described as a kind of computer IQ test, a means of determining if computers have achieved a human level of intelligence. In my view, however, Turing really intended his Turing Test as a test of thinking, a term he uses to imply more than just clever manipulation of logic and language. To Turing, thinking implies conscious intentionality.
Turing had an implicit understanding of the exponential growth of computing power, and predicted that a computer would pass his eponymous exam by the end of the century. He remarked that by that time “the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.” His prediction was overly optimistic in terms of time frame, but in my view not by much.
THE VIEW FROM QUANTUM MECHANICS
I often dream about falling. Such dreams are commonplace to the ambitious or those who climb mountains. Lately I dreamed I was clutching at the face of a rock, but it would not hold. Gravel gave way. I grasped for a shrub, but it pulled loose, and in cold terror I fell into the abyss. Suddenly I realized that my fall was relative; there was no bottom and no end. A feeling of pleasure overcame me. I realized that what I embody, the principle of life, cannot be destroyed. It is written into the cosmic code, the order of the universe. As I continued to fall in the dark void, embraced by the vault of the heavens, I sang to the beauty of the stars and made my peace with the darkness.
—Heinz Pagels, physicist and quantum mechanics researcher before his death in a 1988 climbing accident
The Western objective view states that after billions of years of swirling around, matter and energy evolved to create life-forms-complex self-replicating patterns of matter and energy-that became sufficiently advanced to reflect on their own existence, on the nature of matter and energy, on their own consciousness. In contrast, the Eastern subjective view states that consciousness came first-matter and energy are merely the complex thoughts of conscious beings, ideas that have no reality without a thinker. As noted above, the objective and subjective views of reality have been at odds since the dawn of recorted history. There is often merit, however, in combining seemingly irreconcilable
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