Philosopher Massimo Pigliucci takes David Chalmers to task for having an illogical argument about the inevitability of the singularity. Pigluicci even accuses Chalmers of reading too much science fiction. (The horrors!)
The singularity is when computers are smarter than humans and take over. For better or worse. It’s a favorite topic for technophiles. Fruity utopians like Ray Kurweil and downer dystopians like Bill Joy.
I try not to think about the “singularity”. When I do, I’m more in Bill Joy’s camp. And I try to maintain a positive mental attitude.
But I know two things. The “singularity” is inevitable. We won’t recognize it when it happens.
My “logic” is different from Chalmers. Computing power, algorithms, and technology are irrelevant. The singularity is inevitable because people won’t stop trying to make a non-human intelligence until it happens.
It’s likely that we can only describe human intelligence in contrast to another form of intelligence. Alas, an “artificial” intelligence will likely be too weird, large, and complicated for us to understand. So we won’t see it for what it is.
Pigluicci can take his fancy logic and statistics and blow them out his, ah, ear. Just because we geeks don’t always have the words to accurately describe things doesn’t invalidate our intuitions and contributions.
Posted Nov 8, 2009 4:08pm - Add your comment