13-11-2019, 02:40 PM
There is certainly a missing theory of how the human mind works. Not just the mechanics of the brain - which neurons are connected to which - or even the centres of the brain responsible for various functions - but what about the whole confers consciousness. Perhaps the most studied brain in history is Einstein's. And structurally it is identical to yours and mine.
So personality, and the propensity for genius, seems to have nothing to do with the physical structure of the brain. Or at least nothing we can detect even with the battery of diagnostic methods we now have.
The difference between the human mind and any possible AI, is that the mind is capable of entirely original thinking. A good example is Gödel's theorem. Very simply that says that any complete mathematical structure is inconsistent, and any consistent mathematical structure is incomplete. So you cannot write a complete, perfect book containing all of maths from a fundamental set of axioms (the same way that Euclid did for geometry). Gödel says it is impossible to do so.
That is just one example from the world of mathematics. But it is also starkly evident in the creative arts - painting and sculpture, writing books and plays, music - basically everything to do with creativity. These things seem to be unique to the human mind.
Of course that raises the question - where will we be in 1000 years? Always assuming we do not unleash some horror on ourselves or boil ourselves to death through climate catastrophe in the meantime. I think that we will end up with augmented consciousness, where the human mind exists in a fusion with artificial systems.
Back to reality, and flipping the argument on its head - if a machine, a true AI, *were* to attain consciousness, would you be committing murder if you switched it off?
Craig
So personality, and the propensity for genius, seems to have nothing to do with the physical structure of the brain. Or at least nothing we can detect even with the battery of diagnostic methods we now have.
The difference between the human mind and any possible AI, is that the mind is capable of entirely original thinking. A good example is Gödel's theorem. Very simply that says that any complete mathematical structure is inconsistent, and any consistent mathematical structure is incomplete. So you cannot write a complete, perfect book containing all of maths from a fundamental set of axioms (the same way that Euclid did for geometry). Gödel says it is impossible to do so.
That is just one example from the world of mathematics. But it is also starkly evident in the creative arts - painting and sculpture, writing books and plays, music - basically everything to do with creativity. These things seem to be unique to the human mind.
Of course that raises the question - where will we be in 1000 years? Always assuming we do not unleash some horror on ourselves or boil ourselves to death through climate catastrophe in the meantime. I think that we will end up with augmented consciousness, where the human mind exists in a fusion with artificial systems.
Back to reality, and flipping the argument on its head - if a machine, a true AI, *were* to attain consciousness, would you be committing murder if you switched it off?
Craig
