4 ms·

melling has figured out the secret to how the brain originates conciousness, transfers short term memory into long term, how much and what percent of each lobe

melling has figured out the secret to how the brain originates conciousness, transfers short term memory into long term, how much and what percent of each lobe controls our personality, has figured out if all aspects of cognition are computational or not, and has figured out how perception works. And he deems there is no magic here. move along now. /s seriously these are all areas of the brain where scientific opinions are changing constantly. To belittle the functions of the brain when there is still so much more research to be done is ignorant.

melling 12y ago
No, I simply understand that "never" is a pretty big number. It's not 10 years, 100 years, 1000 years, or even 10,000 years. Never is way bigger than that. So, how long do you think it will take us to build the equivalent of the human brain?
nhaehnle 12y ago
There was no belittling in melling's comment. Even with the little knowledge we have today about how the brain functions, it is perfectly reasonable to hold the materialist position that everything happening in the brain is built on the laws of physics as we understand them today, and can therefore be simulated in principle. Whether a perfect brain simulation, or a "truly thinking" AI[0] is ever built is therefore not so much a question of whether it is possible in principle, and much more a question of whether the (immense) resources required will ever be put in use to achieve this task. It is therefore a question of economics and political science rather than a question of neuroscience. [0] Whatever that may mean.
cousin_it 12y ago
It doesn't matter whether all aspects of cognition are computational. If brains run on non-computational quantum gravity juju, then we can make machines that run on quantum gravity juju. To make AI impossible, it would take literal magic, a decree from Cthulhu saying that certain physical effects are only allowed inside human brains. And even then I guess we'd find a workaround eventually ;-)

melling 12y ago

No, I simply understand that "never" is a pretty big number. It's not 10 years, 100 years, 1000 years, or even 10,000 years. Never is way bigger than that. So, how long do you think it will take us to build the equivalent of the human brain?

nhaehnle 12y ago

There was no belittling in melling's comment. Even with the little knowledge we have today about how the brain functions, it is perfectly reasonable to hold the materialist position that everything happening in the brain is built on the laws of physics as we understand them today, and can therefore be simulated in principle. Whether a perfect brain simulation, or a "truly thinking" AI[0] is ever built is therefore not so much a question of whether it is possible in principle, and much more a question of whether the (immense) resources required will ever be put in use to achieve this task. It is therefore a question of economics and political science rather than a question of neuroscience. [0] Whatever that may mean.

cousin_it 12y ago

It doesn't matter whether all aspects of cognition are computational. If brains run on non-computational quantum gravity juju, then we can make machines that run on quantum gravity juju. To make AI impossible, it would take literal magic, a decree from Cthulhu saying that certain physical effects are only allowed inside human brains. And even then I guess we'd find a workaround eventually ;-)