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And as Marvin Minsky taught us, which is probably one of the most profound insights in the entire field, talking seems like an accomplishment to us because it's

And as Marvin Minsky taught us, which is probably one of the most profound insights in the entire field, talking seems like an accomplishment to us because it's the least developed part of our capacities. It's so conscious a task not because it's a sign of intellect but because it's the least developed and most novel thing our brains do, which is why it's also likely the fastest to learn for a machine. Moving as smoothly as a cat and navigating the world is the part that actually took our brains millions of years to learn, and movement is effortless not because it's easy but because it took so long to master, so it's also going to be the most difficult thing to teach a machine. The cognitive stuff is the dumb part, and that's why we have chess engines, pocket calculators and chatbots before we have emotional machines, artificial plumbers and robots that move like spiders.

qarl 2y ago
I'm not sure that's the right way to look at it. Ten years ago, it was common to hear the argument: "Are cats intelligent? No, they can't speak." Language was seen as the pinnacle of the mind. Lately that's been flipped on its head, but only because machines have gotten so good at it. I think the real reason we don't have robots that move like spiders is that robots don't have muscles, and motors are a very poor approximation.
- Barrin92 2y ago
  >I think the real reason we don't have robots that move like spiders is that robots don't have muscles If that was the real reason we'd have self driving cars deserving of that label before we had ChatGPT. In the world of atoms we still struggle with machines that are magnitudes less sophisticated than even a worm. No, it's because being embedded in the world is much more like being a cat and much less like a LLM or a chess computer. Making something that's like a curious five year old who can't do a lot of impressive things and has no market value but who is probably closer to genuine intelligence is going to be much harder than making a search engine for the internet's latent space.
  - qarl 2y ago
    Cats and spiders are good at navigating physical space - but aren't really known for intelligence. And they're terrible drivers. I'll grant you that LLMs are terrible at what I'd call "animal intelligence" - but I'm not so sure that animal intelligence is what is needed to, say, discover the laws of the universe. Solving mathematical problems is much more like playing chess than driving a car.

qarl 2y ago

I'm not sure that's the right way to look at it. Ten years ago, it was common to hear the argument: "Are cats intelligent? No, they can't speak." Language was seen as the pinnacle of the mind. Lately that's been flipped on its head, but only because machines have gotten so good at it. I think the real reason we don't have robots that move like spiders is that robots don't have muscles, and motors are a very poor approximation.

Barrin92 2y ago
>I think the real reason we don't have robots that move like spiders is that robots don't have muscles If that was the real reason we'd have self driving cars deserving of that label before we had ChatGPT. In the world of atoms we still struggle with machines that are magnitudes less sophisticated than even a worm. No, it's because being embedded in the world is much more like being a cat and much less like a LLM or a chess computer. Making something that's like a curious five year old who can't do a lot of impressive things and has no market value but who is probably closer to genuine intelligence is going to be much harder than making a search engine for the internet's latent space.
- qarl 2y ago
  Cats and spiders are good at navigating physical space - but aren't really known for intelligence. And they're terrible drivers. I'll grant you that LLMs are terrible at what I'd call "animal intelligence" - but I'm not so sure that animal intelligence is what is needed to, say, discover the laws of the universe. Solving mathematical problems is much more like playing chess than driving a car.