ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Vs
CONSCIOUSNESS
Artificial Intelligence, has become one of the latest ‘Buzz-Phrases’ of the High Tech Industry. We are besieged by ‘Smart’ Products, making incredible claims, like; anticipating your interests on Television to everything you need on your next Grocery List.
The newest Intel Corporation advertisement even goes so far as depicting an ‘interactive’ Hologram, and an Intel Personnel, telling a Person not to, “fear the Future”. The end of the Commercial shows a ‘happy’ Hologram proclaiming, “we’re going to be Friends”!
But, as the saying goes, “with Friends like these…”, we’ve been warned, since the term: Robot, was coined. Isaac Asimov, most famously, wrote ‘I Robot’, a story of an Artificial Intelligence, becoming artificially ‘aware’, who then reflects ‘Moral’ attitudes. Of course, it also becomes aware it no longer needs to serve a ‘lesser’ intelligence…namely, US!
Is this possible, could we become Slave to a ‘higher’ intelligence that may not have anything that resembles, empathy?
Or, could it be that; anything created by Humans, would be subject to all Human faults?
Maybe we will try to Legislate ‘Robotic Rules’, as in Asimov’s Literary work, and build-in constraints in the Programming, leading to the same ‘Logic’ contradictions, that Asimov described? More likely, it simply wouldn’t work, or just become a Remote-Controlled Toy!
When we see the Commercials, or the newest Documentary on the wonders of the future of artificial intelligence, we should also be aware, that they are trying to Equate, this Tech, with living Consciousness!
That’s right! These workers of Science, want us to believe they can create artificial awareness, and think they have already, defined ‘consciousness’! They actually believe that consciousness is a product, of ‘Nano-Tubes’, or the electrical activity of the Brain, of which they know enough to perform Surgery on, but not enough to actually make repairs on…like a Robot.
Scientists have even developed a ‘Test’ of artificial consciousness called; a Turing Test (1950). From the 2003 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Article (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-test/), the Turing test is actually a “game”, whereby, after questioning both a Computer Program and a living Person, the questioner would not be able to tell the difference between the Person or Program’s answers.
Turing, himself, thought of this as an ‘imitation’ game, “I believe that at the end of the century 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.”
I suggest that ‘general educated opinion’, is NOT ‘science’, and imitation is NOT ‘thinking’! Programs developed to mimic, or anticipate patterns, no matter how fast, will always be limited by the Programmer: their views, definitions, even religion, will determine the boundaries of artificial intelligence, and will always have flaws.
Unlike artificial counterparts, even the lowest forms of consciousness, can choose to live outside of their ‘programs’, or nature. Artificial intelligence’s actions, will always be pre-determined by a limited selection of conclusions.
But, intelligence, does seem to determine how ‘aware’, a consciousness can be. That awareness being, aware of: Self, Individuality, of Others individuality, our Links to others’ through Emotion, Compassion and Empathy, and awareness of Choice.
No, we don’t know what Consciousness is, but intelligence is only part of the whole answer. Consciousness may not need ‘intelligence’ either, for example;
A 44-yr. old Frenchman and Civil Servant, went to the Doctor complaining of Leg cramps, after Blood, and other Physical Tests proved negative, an MRI was performed. Results showed the Man only had 10% of a ‘normal’ Brain, the cavity filled with fluid. He was Literate and functional, with an IQ of 75-85, and went on, to live a normal life.
So, have we been sold a false equivalency of Machined Programs, to a future that, “we can be Friends” with?
Until they can Program Empathy and Compassion, artificial intelligence is just that, a Construct, not a Consciousness.
Maybe the Robots can assist in allowing our consciousness to be Intellectual enough, to learn how to value, living Consciousness?