Screwdriver, hard drive......... brain?

I Process Therefore I Am

Page 109 “Directed Freewrite” – In what ways will machines surpass the human brain, in the view of Minsky? In his view, do these areas of superiority make advanced computers "smarter" than human beings? Discuss your own reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with Minsky's position on this point.

I found this essay very interesting. For one, robots have always been a big part of our entertainment. Think about movies like I-Robot. It’s always about crazy robots that are as capable as any human being is at tasks and everyday life. And two, it’s just amazing to think about how much our technology has advanced even in just the nineteen years I’ve been alive. I mean, in the 90’s I would have never considered the possibility of a robot with a consciousness and similar brain functions as a human. With technology today, I believe it’s possible. I mean, anything is possible, right?!

The fact that “computers can perform a broad range of tasks that involve reasoning, learning, planning and other functions usually associated with human intelligence” opens up numerous pathways and arguments (Davidson 116). First off, considering that computers are capable of so many things, it’s a given that robots should be successful in fully functioning. Second off, this brings up the question, “does that make these machines intelligent?” (Davidson 116). There are quite a few people who agree that it does make robots intelligent, but “some scientists and philosophers argue that mechanical intelligence is not the same as mind” (Davidson 116). Igor Aleksander and Marvin Minsky disagree with those scientists and philosophers – they believe “that machines could be conscious, [and] possibly even more conscious than humans” (Davidson 116). But what makes these computers conscious?

In the human brain, neurons are connected in complex networks where input from nerve cells of the eye generate patterns of activity in particular centers of the brain (Davidson 117). Wisard, the first large-scale neural network built by Aleksander and others, had a quarter of a million artificial neurons (Davidson 117). This demonstrates that neural networks could be trained very quickly in order to perform certain tasks, like a human (Davidson 117). Neural networks cannot be programmed, but they can be learned (Davidson 117). According to Minsky, “the human brain has only very limited records of what it has been doing recently. A machine could be vastly more conscious than a person because we didn’t evolve for that” (Davidson 120). In his eyes, he honestly believes that a manmade computer is not only more capable of what a human can do, but can also have a conscious. This seems a bit absurd to me, but who knows what we are eventually capable of creating.

All in all, I would have to mostly disagree with Marvin Minksy. I believe that the only way advanced computers can be smarter than a human being, is by being able to calculate numbers and figures that we would not be able to do on our own. Other than that, I do not think a robot is as competent. An artificial brain may be as close to a human brain as possible, but still, it can malfunction just like any other computer. Also, Minksy seemed to be stuck on common sense. Common sense seems more like a learned trait based off of your personality and environment rather than something you can artificially create. With that said, humans are definitely the superior race in this argument!