digital soul Intelligent Machines and Human Values Thomas M. Georges

1. digital soulIntelligent Machines and Human ValuesThomas M. Georges COMP 3851, 2009 Matthew Cudmore

2. Overview

3. [Artificial] Distinctions • Artificial intelligence • Weak AI • Virtual reality • Machine intelligence • Real intelligence • Strong AI • Reality • Humanintelligence • Carbon chauvinism

4. What Makes Computers So Smart? • Computers’ jobs were to do arithmetic • Turing point (1940s) – universal computers • Divide and conquer – 1s and 0s • Limitations?

5. Smarter Than Us? • How could we create something smarter than us? • Brain power – Blue Brain project • 100 billion neurons, 100 trillion synapses • Computing power – Moore’s law • Memory capacity, speed, exactitude • Expert systems • Simple learning machines

6. Machines Who Think • “Can machines think?” • Practically uninteresting • Turing test; Chinese room • Not If, but When • Moore’s law • Mere power isn’t enough • “idont want no robot thinking like me.” • A machine could never…?

7. Let the Android Do It • Robots today have specific functions • Goal-seeking robots with values (persistent cognitive biases) • Leave more decisions—and more mistakes—to the androids Arthur C. Clarke: “The future isn’t what it used to be.”

8. What Is Intelligence? • The Gold Standard; IQ • Common sense • Memory, learning, selective attention • Pattern recognition • Understanding • Creativity, imagination • Strategies, goals • Self-aware (CAPTCHA)

9. What Is Consciousness? • Not just degree, but also nature of consciousness • Self-monitoring, self-maintaining, self-improving (knowledge of right and wrong) • Short-term memory of thought • Long-term memory of self • Attention, high-level awareness • Self-understanding • Paradox of free will

10. Can Computers Have Emotions? • Dualistic thinking – head and heart • Emotions as knob settings – reorganize priorities • Mood-sensing computers • Personal assistants, etc.

11. Can Your PC Become Neurotic? • Dysfunctional response to conflicting instructions • HAL in 2001 • “Never distort information” • “Do not disclose the real purpose of the mission to the crew” • Murdered crew

12. The Moral Mind • Moral creatures act out of self-interest • Different cultures, different morals • Moral inertia • Only at the precipice do we evolve • New moral codes based on reason • A science of human values

13. Moral Problems with Intelligent Artifacts • Engineering & Ethics • Four levels of moral/ethical problems • Old problems in a new light • How we see ourselves • How to treat sentient machines • How should sentient machines behave? • Crime and punishment

14. The Moral Machine • Isaac Asimov, Three Laws of Robotics • A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm. • A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except when such orders would conflict with the First Law. • A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. • Prime directives, must not be violated • Is HAL to blame?

15. Will Machines Take Over? • Machines already do much of our work • Humans will not understand the details of the machines that run the world • Machines might develop their own goals • Out of control on Wall Street • Painless, even pleasurable, transition

16. Why Not Just Pull the Plug? • We’re addicted! • Cannot stop research • Scientists strongly oppose taboos and restrictions on what they may and may not look into • Would drive development underground • Self-preservation • Diversification • Cybercide – murder?

17. Cultures in Collision • The Other is dangerous • History has taught us that conquest can mean enslavement or extinction • Scientists versus humanists

18. Beyond Human Dignity • Dignity, if machines meet/surpass us • Our concepts of soul and free will • Pride in humanity and its achievements • Who could take credit? • We are still somehow responsible, even if not free • Demystify human nature: would we despair? • What if we all believed there were no free will? • We don’t know what’s possible: keep searching!

19. Extinction or Immortality? • Homo cyberneticus • Virtual reality – mind uploading • Genetic engineering • Mechanical bodies • Fermi’s paradox • Peaceful coexistence • Utopian hope

20. The Enemy Within • “Our willingness to let others think for us” • Humans who act like machines • “Just following orders!” • “Well, that’s what the computer says!” • Groupthink & conformance • Minimize conflict and reach consensus • Diffusion of responsibility • Waiting for the messiah • The challenge now is to think for ourselves • Critical thinking, a lost art

21. Electronic Democracy • Teledemocracy • Too much information, not enough attention • Impractical today, and would exclude many people • Intelligent delegates • Supernegotiators • No more secrets – dynamic open information • Whistle-blowers anonymous • The Napster effect – free information • Information may cease to be considered property

22. Rethinking the Covenantbetween Science and Society • Risky fields (Bill Joy: GNR) • Genetic engineering • Nanotechnology • Robotics & artificial intelligence • Knowledge is good, is dangerous • Science for sale – capitalism • Socially aware science • Slow down!

23. What about God? • We resist changing our core values • Altruism without religious inspiration? • Gods of the future • The force behind the universe • Namaste: “I bow to the divine in you” • Gaia: Earth as a single organism • Superintelligence