Philosophical Ramifications

Philosophical distinctions are the most debated topics of Artificial Intelligence. Here is a quick overview of our thoughts on this topic versus the most prominant ideas AI workers have proposed.

Philosophical Perspective
When reading science fiction, the prospect of AI has manily been thought of as the emergence of a new form of life. The concept of AI does meet the basic requirements of life. However, that definition is scientific and rational. We as humans are not always that clear headed. By designating AI as life, we are saying that we have the ability to create life. Not just a new species of animal or plant life, we would have actually invented life, built it from the ground up.

So we would have to decide, is the AI a new form of life?



If we establish AI is a life form it limits its uses. If we place an AI in a dangerous situation it would devalue human life as well. The only thing that seperates an AI from a human is components, we are biological while an AI is silicon (assuming it is made with our current technology). We would be saying that humans are valuable of the biology, not for our minds.

Humans are the only rational beings, it is one thing that seperates us from animals. When an AI is created, we are no longer unique in that aspect. It would take away some of the uniqueness of our species, we would no longer be "special".

And if the AI is a life form, can we limit its qualifications of life, such as reproduction? If we allow it to multiple, we risk the classic science fiction apocalypse at the hands of a robot army. However, if we don't allow it then what gives us the right to multiple to the dangerous extent we have? Philosophical Thought This section is taken from Wikipedia. To view the complete article, look here.



Artificial intelligence, by claiming to be able to recreate the capabilities of the human mind, is both a challenge and an inspiration for philosophy. Are there limits to how intelligent machines can be? Is there an essential difference between human intelligence and artificial intelligence? Can a machine have a mind and consciousness? A few of the most influential answers to these questions are given below.

Turing's "polite convention"

Turing states that we only need to decide of a machine can act as intelligent as a human being, not whether they can think or whether it is similar to our physical thought process. He proposes the Turing test to classify machine from human.

The Dartmouth proposal

The Dartmouth conjecture states that any action of intelligence can be precisely described enough for a machine to perform these same actions. This is the most popular AI position.

Newell and Simon's physical symbol system hypothesis

A symbol system is proposed to have sufficient comparability to an intelligent action. Newell and Simon both argue that symbolism and its operations are representative of intelligence. An argument against this is created by Hubert Dreyfus claiming human intelligence and expertise is more a matter of unconscious instinct. (See Dreyfus's critique of AI ).

Gödel's incompleteness theorem

A claim by Roger Penrose states that a formal system for a computer should hold an "incompleteness" programmed into it, which limits what machines can do.

<p class="MsoNormal">Searle's strong AI hypothesis

<p class="MsoNormal">John Searle proposed that with the right inputs and outputs, the human mind can be emulated by a computer. He uses the Chinese room argument and proposes a portion of the computer can hold a mind, and we should look for that prospect when buildilng AI.

<p class="MsoNormal">The artificial brain argument

<p class="MsoNormal">Hans Moravec and Ray Kurzweil have argued that the brain can indeed be simulated and copied onto hardware or software, discussed on this page about methods of achieving AI. They theorize that it will be idential to original thought of humans and may be a method to live forever like a concept discussed in Neuromancer. <h2 class="MsoNormal">Questions for the Reader 1. What are some faults for the conjectures listed in the Philosophical Thought section?

2. Are there major catastrophes that may occur if any of the conjectures are relentlessly persued?

<h2 class="MsoNormal">See Also

<p class="MsoNormal">Philosophy of artificial intelligence

<p class="MsoNormal">Ethics of artificial intelligence