Reading books, as always, that touch on these questions, currently one called The Emotion Machine by Marvin Minsky. His style is frustrating, because he uses the artifice of having a "citizen" pose a question that he answers, apparently unaware of how arrogant this seems to us mere "citizens."
But there's useful information buried behind this irritating style about artificial intelligence and why machines can't eventually pretty much copy (and improve on) pretty much everything we do, think, or feel. Who wouldn't prefer a smarter, more empathic, and loyal friend to the messy alternatives out there in the physical world?
Well, I'm half-joking, of course, but only half. First, young robots would need to be as charming as human children before we could actually learn to love them. When adults fall in love, a large part of the attraction -- though we seldom acknowledge it -- has to do with loving how they've evolved, loving who they were as children even though we didn't know them then.
When we tell each other our stories, it is often the images from our childhood that remain most vividly in each others' minds. Long after breaking up with someone, I remember what she told me about her youth, and I can imagine her back then, with so much potential still, long before she met the likes of...me. :(
Conversation the other day.
Daughter: "You know that video store near Mom's house called Four-Star Video?"
Me: "Yep."
Daughter: "They have to have four stars to use that name, right?"
Me: "What do you mean."
Daughter: "They can't just call themselves 'four-star,' someone had to award them four stars, right?"
Me: "Sadly, no, my dear. They can call themselves anything they want to, unless someone else already has the name, and even then it might be okay."
Daughter: (silent for a moment) "Well, at least, they are a pretty good store."
-30-
1 comment:
Sounds like you had an interesting evening.
In recent years, I have rediscovered or reconnected with a few old acquaintances from two, three decades ago, thanks to search engines such as Googles and Yahoo. And my general impression is that fundamentally people don't change much once they reach the age of 20 something. Which poses an interesting question, because I have two sons who are in their early twenties: Have they already reached that point in which they won't change much more fundamentally for decades to come? Hm.... S.
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