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Computers are tools. Some of the tasks for which we have formerly used cognition can be handled by them, just as some of the tasks for which we formerly used t
by sevensor 9y ago
Computers are tools. Some of the tasks for which we have formerly used cognition can be handled by them, just as some of the tasks for which we formerly used teeth have been largely delegated to knives. This doesn't mean we're merging with the computer any more than we have with the knife, nor does it mean computers can replace our brains any more than knives have replaced our teeth.
- cryptoz 9y agoKnives and other tools have fully replaced teeth for those who like it that way. Full meal drinks like Soylent, and other teeth advancements like high tech dentures, etc, render normal human teeth obsolete in the modern world if you so choose.
- pavel_lishin 9y agoForget Soylent; our biology merged with our technology millennia ago. Our ability to cook our food has rendered large molars obsolete to the point where some people require medical intervention to remove them, lest they crack their teeth and jaw, resulting in infection and death.
- goialoq 9y agoMolars aren't dangerous because we cook food. Molars are dangerous because our brains were so useful that they took over the head space that molars were using, and tooth problems were less harmful than bigger brains were helpful
- pavel_lishin 9y agoInteresting, I thought our mouths and jaws shrank after we didn't have to rend raw meat and plant materials.
- notquitesure 9y agoLarge brains are just tools. Great apes used sticks and rocks as tools to extend the use of their hands, and evolved larger/more powerful brains to extend their decision making and problem solving abilities. There isn't any real difference in the global impact of humans relative to that of great apes, because humans just have a more well developed versions of this particular tool. Then again, the descendants of the apes that didn't develop the particular "tool" of generalizable problem solving are extinct or endangered, while the descendants of the ones that did are busy working to create AI
- sevensor 9y ago> Large brains are just tools That's an odd position to take. Surely there's a difference between the hand and what it grasps.
- notquitesure 9y agoThe difference is not between the hand and the tool it grasps, both of which apply force to manually manipulate the environment, but between the hand/tool and the mind that directs it. I agree that that is an odd position -- it's not one i hold, but a reductio of the "computers are tools no different than knives" argument above. machines that are able to process novel information and make decisions are fundamentally different from other machines, whether they are composed of tissue or silicon
- Sevii 9y agoYour dna is the hand in this metaphor.