Artificial Intelligence

Thread Starter

CR9

Joined Jan 1, 2010
10
Define Intelligence
Here is the defination from Wikipedia:
"John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1956, defines it as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.""
 

Paulo540

Joined Nov 23, 2009
191
I think he's asking YOU to define intelligence.

For me, its the ability to learn, store information and recall it when necessary.
 

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
Close,here an example,at library john,ringo and paul share a computer
search and do a little of every thing.Then brian started to use the
computer on a random basis not as near as much as the others.
When the library set up the account for john,ringo and paul no one said
any thing when Brain just showed up to use the computer,one day a little
pop up showed up and said brian,please click here,the computer wanted
Brian to do the sign in privacy act thing the software had caught up to
him.So the machine was doing more than the library.That means things
are happening.
 

ELECTRONERD

Joined May 26, 2009
1,147
To me personally, artificial intelligence is the concept in which machines can program themselves for a particular motive. In other words, they have the "intelligence" to decide for themselves and perform various actions. I read in a engineering magazine that these people (I believe they were students) developed these small rectangular robots that had artificial intelligence. They gave the robots a single motive; which was to construct a bridge. The robots all communicated together, and they actually did contstruct a bridge from their own bodies.

I am dubious about the fact that artificial intelligence will one day surpass actual intelligence, but I'm sure it will dramatically change the field of robotics.

Austin
 

Nanophotonics

Joined Apr 2, 2009
383
Artificial intelligence - a simulation of intelligence

I agree with loosewire, it's here already. I've once attended a demonstration of an AI learning a language. The program started by learning from A,B,C..... and within 3-5 min, it could start making sensible phrases in english. Computers are very fast and can hold a huge amount of knowledge in memory. That's how they "learn" so fast and appear "intelligent".
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
I think their ought to be a distinction made between artificial intelligence and synthetic intelligence. AI is an approximation without actually being intelligent, while synthetic is real, but made by man.

I think we'll get there, but we don't have a good definition yet, so it's gonna take a while.
 

HadMatter

Joined Aug 16, 2009
11
Ooo!! I love this kind of jibber jabber!! I get so little of it socially, these days, what with psychedelics being so out of style now and Twitter killing the philosophy star.

But I digress.

Agreed, intelligence lacks definition. My initial reaction is that it must be more than the ability to store and retrieve data, or else Wikipedia would have gone Skynet years ago. Then again, what's the difference? We are machines. We are electricity and sensory input devices and power supplies and antivirus software - programmed in the language of proteins. What is "choice," but neurons firing electricity down the paths most used - paths of least resistance. Our brain is simply an organic computer - processing data and storing information. Ok, so maybe we don't quite understand "brain tech" - it's programming language, if you will. But even with God being all Steve Jobs with his H.U.M.A.N. API, it's only a matter of time before we reverse engineer our way into proper understanding. After that implementation should be easy.

(Hehehe.....easy?)
 

beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
It's pretty certain that some aspects of "intelligence" will not get translated to computers. Things to do with self-maintenance (eating, eliminating, dressing, cleaning, etc.) don't seem particularly useful.

Remember the expert systems of 25 years ago? Skilled workers would tell the office geeks about how they did their jobs, and those geeks, having no idea of hardware or the care and feeding thereof, would be able to reduce it all to code so a computer could infallibly diagnose and cure equipment problems.

That the whole thing sank without trace tells us that the idea was not successful, but might that be because coders don't have any idea of handling tools and diagnosing hardware problems?

That brings the question: is running down a really complete SELECT CASE statement the same as looking at a problem and troubleshooting it? I've seen stuff that made no sense at all. The intelligence part comes in persisting and finding the problem even though the symptoms do not point at the cure.
 

JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
That brings the question: is running down a really complete SELECT CASE statement the same as looking at a problem and troubleshooting it? I've seen stuff that made no sense at all. The intelligence part comes in persisting and finding the problem even though the symptoms do not point at the cure.
That reminds me of the troubleshooting charts found in some technical manuals. It never is complete, and you could end with, this is an unlikely event statement. I can remember a Rogowski coil failing to produce the proper amplitude feedback which resulted in the "unlikely event" statement in the service manual.

Any technically inclined person who talked to tech support can tell they are using a "Case Select" type scripts, which is basically steps three through five of the six-step troubleshooting process. Persistance of the human is truly missing.
 

beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
What popped into mind would be the necessary intelligence to guide a robot excavator digging the basement and footings for a building. The number of things that might be encountered and the ways to best handle them could be fun to try to program into some sort of database.

The SELECT CASE list is almost the manner in which Mr. Goodwrench is ordered to perform automotive repairs. No actual troubleshooting, but the always successful methodology of eliminating the problem by total replacement. Wonder if dealer mechanics bother to learn anything about cars?
 
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Paulo540

Joined Nov 23, 2009
191
This, to me, is similar to the distinction between 'booksmart' (pure intelligence) and 'streetsmart' (emotional intelligence).

For an example, Currently, we can train a bot to be booksmart, i.e. play a game that has set rules, moves and reactions (chess) but teaching it to kill at poker will be a ways away. That will require it to have sensors that detect body language and tells, and apply them to each competitor in its decision making process. Of course, nobody wants an emotional robot, but to achieve something that is truly smart, that seems to be a necessary part. At least one that can accurately interpret all the interpersonal signals that we take for granted.
 

HadMatter

Joined Aug 16, 2009
11
I wanna take another whack at contributing something to this conversation; less George Carlin, more substance-esque.

I once had it explained to me that the one great difference in our manner of thinking that sets us apart from all other living creatures comes in our ability to imagine things that do not exist or that we ourselves have not experienced. When I look at my roommate's cat my brain does not simply take a snapshot and file it under 'C' for cat. Our brains break things down into component symbols. I look at the cat and register a furry tail, purring noises, and an animosity towards that mysterious dancing spot of light on the wall. The great secret of our success is our ability to detach these individual symbols from the whole and combine them in our heads any way we see fit. I can picture a cat in my mind, remove its tail, shave off all its fur, and give it bat's wings. I could imagine my feline friend with Freddy Kruger blades for claws and name him The Harbinger of Death for all things furniture!!

Of course we can create processors and load them up with data. We can say, "If this happens - do this." But it seems to me the trick to achieving true autonomy intellectually will be to endow them with an imagination; program them to analyze and store data symbolically and give them a means to utilize these symbols independently from the whole in which they were obtained. How we go about this I have no idea. I'm sure there is much more we need to learn about how our brain works - certainly more than my Psych 101 class bestowed.

Typing this up, I keep thinking about tagging Facebook photos. Sometimes my friends will see something that reminds them of me (usually comically so,) snap a pic, post it, and tag it with my name. So, now, when someone decides to browse through the picture album on my page, they're greeted with images, not only of me, but also things "Matt like." What if we could program a machine to utilize this system in it's data analysis? Every time it sees something that is square shaped, it tags the concept of "square" with that objects name. Then, when it, say, (WARNING: LAMEST ANALOGY EVER) needs to plug a square hole, it can cycle through it's list of all things square. (Told ya.) Cross reference that search with things like size, solidity, etc and I'd say you're on your way to solving a problem. Sure, this idea is probably oversimplified and prone to error; but who amongst us isn't? If something fails: tag it, bag it, and try again.

Of course, we could always just make robots watch hours and hours of Sesame Street or send them off to live with the Muppet Babies or something.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
I've had a lot of pets that kept me on my feet. I think it is a mistake to try too hard to differentiate ourselves from animals, they have "aha" moments too.

I remember my Mom used to make hamburger patties for supper. She'd pat them by hand. We had an Irish Setter who was banned from the kitchen, but he's been good long enough we'd gotten lax. This dog created and executed a plan perfectly, he used his back hindquarter to bump the back of my Moms knees, and was waiting for his illicit reward when she grabbed the counter to keep her balance. An excellent bit of problem solving. It was funny watching her chasing him around the house (it had a circle of hallways, including the kitchen, entrance, dining room and living room) trying to kick his rear, and him with a big doggie smile on his face (it was worth it!).
 
When I first started building robots I always thought the phrase ' Artificial Intelligence ' was a bit misleading. It sounded like what we were trying to achieve was not real. John McCarthy is now up in years , however in a very recent radio interview he said that looking back he would not have used those words. He said that he would have used the term machine intelligence. That is much better for though the intelligence that will be eventually created may not be based on biological building blocks it will still be real and quite tangible. ∏s
 

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
Software is at a higher level than a machine,its a reflection

of human intelligents. Software writers will not be remembered

like other great writers. Name a house hold name for software

writers,like shakespear.
 
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