Tag: Singularity

Singularity missed

Posted by Filip Piekniewski

Every now and then in the discussions of AI/AGI and what not comes the central figure of that entire intellectual movement - Ray Kurzweil. And with him inevitably comes a form of an exponential chart like the one below: 

Basically the curve depicts Moore's law (which is not disputable), with a few additional labels suggesting that a particular computing performance is somehow equivalent to a processing power of brains of various animals. 

Superficially this looks fine, but of course the problem is hidden in how do we arrive with these equivalences? The typical answer to this question is that perhaps the labels should move around on the curve left or right but the sit there somewhere so it's fine, we might be off by a year or two, who cares. The relevance of whether or not it even makes sense to put brains along with computers on that chart typically isn't even questioned. 

Since I want to keep this post short, let's cut straight to the conclusion - this chart alone shows we are off by at least 23 years from original predictions. Why?

Let's take a closer look: Kurzweil claims we should be seeing insect brain capability in $1000 … Read more...

Brain computer confusion

Posted by Filip Piekniewski

There is a never ending discussion, which very concisely can be summarized in this tweet below:

And frankly any time I see similar exchanges (and I see a lot of them) I get mildly irritated. Let me get to the essence. 

Computer analogy

Computers have been undoubtably the shaping invention of the recent century and hence they have became a strong theme in our culture. Since the theory on which computers have been built is a branch of mathematics, by definition an abstract discipline, computers have also had a major impact on philosophy. We learned for example that everything we can write an equation for can be in principle calculated on a computer. This leads to somewhat profound philosophical consequences summarized as follows:

  1. Stuff we can write equations for is in principle computable
  2. We can write equations for physical interactions of molecules
  3. Everything is made of molecules
  4. Hence everything is computable
  5. Hence in principle we could simulate an entire brain in a computer
  6. And since we can in principle simulate a Turing machine in a brain, hence brains and computers have to be equivalent
  7. Furthermore, in principle we could simulate entire Universe
  8. Hence universe must be a computer too 

When … Read more...