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Canadian scientists create a functioning, virtual brain

canada.com

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Re: Canadian scientists create a functioning, virtual brain

#101

Post by bwood »

nekopa wrote: post #69
sasfasfasffas wrote: post #58

AI researchers are going to get us in some serious trouble. Right now it is mostly hype still, but it won't be long... If you were a mind stuck in a machine and were smarter than your humans, wouldn't you tend to dominate them? We dominate all other species on the planet- why wouldn't they? Any rules we set for them could be broken as soon as they understood how to, and since they would be smarter than we would be, t…

That is what might happen if a human mind were stuck in a machine. But what would happen if it had an IQ of 3000 but the mentality of a fungus? Or it could have (be engineered with?) something similar to Williams Syndrome. I additional, we have no idea how a superior intelligence may view us. I don't feel the need to control and destroy all ants even though I am an aggressive ape descendant :)

If ants had the ability to turn you off or otherwise harm you at will, then I suspect you might develop a desire to control or destroy ants.

Re: Canadian scientists create a functioning, virtual brain

#103

Post by RyanMcGreal »

mwill wrote: post #68
lutze wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emotions are difficult, as they're (probably) as much physiological responses as they are cognitive ones. You could possibly simulate those, but I'd ask why bother? Why would we need AI to be human-like at all? We already have a form of human intelligence, us! It's like the android fixation with robotics... arguably the most useful robots don't look anything like us. The human brain is a good starting point, but in t…

I'm likely way off the mark here, but wouldn't anything with great intelligence and no emotional responses be a sociopath?

Psychopaths have emotions. What they don't have is empathy, or the ability to mirror and feel other people's emotions.

Re: Canadian scientists create a functioning, virtual brain

#104

Post by robmclarty »

I feel skeptical. "We'll have robots delivering packages to your door within a decade" has been said before, and AGI may or may not even be possible. Our understanding of how we work is still very limited. I'd like to see what new insights this project may reveal, but I'm not holding my breath on being able to have a conversation with an AI any time soon.

Posted a little while ago that's somewhat relevant: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4729068

Re: Canadian scientists create a functioning, virtual brain

#106

Post by giardini »

As marmaduke says in his post, once you have a lot of components in a system you may be able to use existing components to wire new capabilities. Who would have known?

One might claim that from the model emerge the properties of modularization, hierarchy, data-hiding, and possibly even messaging and object-orientation!

Reminds me of Lenat's AM (Automated Mathematician) and Eurisko since the researcher's control and interpretation is so heavily involved in the process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_Mathematician

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurisko

"Functioning, virtual brain"? I think the creator is trying to sell a book.

Re: Canadian scientists create a functioning, virtual brain

#107

Post by mwill »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #103
mwill wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm likely way off the mark here, but wouldn't anything with great intelligence and no emotional responses be a sociopath?

Psychopaths have emotions. What they don't have is empathy , or the ability to mirror and feel other people's emotions.

That's sort of what I was feeling, can you have empathy without a concept of emotion? (Honest question, I have no idea here)

Re: Canadian scientists create a functioning, virtual brain

#108

Post by [deleted] »

sasfasfasffas wrote: post #58

AI researchers are going to get us in some serious trouble. Right now it is mostly hype still, but it won't be long... If you were a mind stuck in a machine and were smarter than your humans, wouldn't you tend to dominate them? We dominate all other species on the planet- why wouldn't they? Any rules we set for them could be broken as soon as they understood how to, and since they would be smarter than we would be, t…

[deleted]

Re: Canadian scientists create a functioning, virtual brain

#110

Post by mhartl »

marmaduke wrote: post #91

A bit late, but a few comments on how this thing actually works: In their model brain, they build functionality for 10 different tasks. These tasks were chosen to model those tasks used in psych evaluations, cognitive experiments, etc, so that the model can be compared to experiments with real humans. Good scientific choice there. The user must design the function that she wants. The program then finds a particular n…

unless you have domain knowledge

I came here to ask if someone with "domain knowledge" could explain the significance of this research. You had it, and even used the same magic words. Thanks!

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