3 ms·

The question on the table, I think, is whether a brain that's pretty darn similar to a working one will still work or not - does it just have to have similar st

The question on the table, I think, is whether a brain that's pretty darn similar to a working one will still work or not - does it just have to have similar statistical properties, or are the explicit details of the connections important, does the chemistry have to be just-so, if we replaced neurons of type X with pseudo-neurons of type Y that do almost the same thing when viewed at scale Z but are completely different underneath, would it still work, etc.? A lot of these questions are completely unanswered. We do know at least that the brain is extremely resilient to changes in chemistry and can work quite well even in the face of extensive damage, which is an indication that we might be surprised how little of the overall arrangement is actually necessary to keep it working properly. We need to make sure that we're being careful with our language, too: the complexity necessary to specify any brain is a whole lot lower than the complexity to specify one particular brain. In AI the goal is the former, but for the latter, we really do have to worry about each strand in the carpet. An AI researcher might not give a rat's ass about reproducing your memories, and will be more than happy to construct something that can form any memories; on the other hand, to you, your memories (and the detailed wiring inside your head, which we might be able to alter substantially without "breaking" the brain) are vitally important.

jacquesm 16y ago
Absolutely true. That leads to 'seed AI', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_AI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_AI when run in reverse, so you'd have to implement the 'minimally viable self improving brain', and take it from there. And even there maybe not all the strands in the carpet have to be just so, but it may very well be that there have to be certain amounts of each colour in roughly such and such a pattern with interconnects between these larger groups and so on. Some of that information is known but definitely not all of it. The damage angle is a tricky one, some damage seems to be absolutely not problem at all, even if it is major, in other cases the smallest bit of damage seems to be enough to cause terminal failure. There are a lot of clues in there about the organization of the brain.

jacquesm 16y ago

Absolutely true. That leads to 'seed AI', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_AI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_AI when run in reverse, so you'd have to implement the 'minimally viable self improving brain', and take it from there. And even there maybe not all the strands in the carpet have to be just so, but it may very well be that there have to be certain amounts of each colour in roughly such and such a pattern with interconnects between these larger groups and so on. Some of that information is known but definitely not all of it. The damage angle is a tricky one, some damage seems to be absolutely not problem at all, even if it is major, in other cases the smallest bit of damage seems to be enough to cause terminal failure. There are a lot of clues in there about the organization of the brain.