The Computational Universe

One of the questions that we’re supposed to answer is whether or not we believe that AI is possible. To the point that it could pass the Turing test, conversing with another human being, my answer is an unequivocal no. Yes, this is a personal belief, and I have no actual proof that a computer can’t converse with a human and make the human think it was talking to another human. I just don’t think a computer will ever be able to pick up on nuances of conversation, like sarcasm. Furthermore, when I have conversations with people, particular points in our conversation cause me to evoke memories that are applicable to the conversation (or sometimes serve as a segue to a new topic). I am highly doubtful a computer will ever be able to do this.

            Initially, I was skeptical that even if a computer program could pass the Turing test, that artificial intelligence would exist. I think the Searle article did a good job of convincing me that passing of the Turing test didn’t necessarily imply artificial intelligence. Just because a program simulates certain characteristics, it does not mean that the program actually possesses those characteristics. One of his examples that really struck me was the analogy that nobody claims that a program simulating digestion is actually digesting anything, so why would anybody claim that a program simulating intelligence actually has intelligence?

            As usually happens to me when I hear an intelligent debate, though, I was swayed back to the possibility of artificial intelligence by Professor Arora. As he mentioned, if a computer actually could understand the nuances of conversation and fool a human being, how could we definitively say that is does not possess intelligence? This thought resonated with me for a while.

            After much internal deliberation, I’ve decided that I don’t think a computer program will ever really possess intelligence. As Searle mentioned, the human brain is unique in that chemicals affect its behaviors, and the chemicals in a person’s brain (and thus a person’s feelings) effect the way a person holds a conversation. In order for a computer to truly have a conversation the way humans do, and understand things, I think the computer would have to be capable of having emotions based on complex chemical reactions, many of which we don’t even understand in human brains. I really don’t ever see computer programs having true emotions and chemical reactions. Because of this, perhaps one day computer programs can fool us by appearing intelligent, but I personally don’t think they will ever actually BE intelligent, until they get an organ similar to the brain.

I was very excited upon learning that I would be able to control my very own robot in COS116. My experiences with the Scribbler have taught me a lot about both robots and the costs of producing them.

The Scribbler robot is a very cool machine. It moves itself, can detect obstacles and react to them, and can even make sounds. As we discovered in our homework, you can even use the Scribbler as an alarm system. Nevertheless, I was slightly disappointed when I first started toying with my Scribbler. The robot’s ability to detect objects is imperfect, to say the least. On my specific robot, the ability for Scribbler to recognize lines does not work. Furthermore, I was a little disheartened when I realized that Scribbler’s motions are not precise. (When programming it to run for certain time periods, the robot covers different distances. Also, it does not always turn the same amount.)

My disappointment was not so much due to the Scribbler’s abilities itself (its a pretty cool machine) but more due to my expectations for what it would do. Some of my good friends are electrical engineers, and they’re always off in car-lab building cars that can navigate themselves precisely around a given track. When I found out the Scribbler doesn’t even cover the same distances for the same commands over a given amount of time, I was a little bummed.

After I thought about it, I started thinking about the Scribbler’s inferiority to the robots my friends are building in monetary terms. The Scribbler costs about $100, and can still do a whole lot of cool stuff. I’m sure that in order to mass produce robots like my ELE friends are designing at a profit, the robots would probably have to be sold for much more obscene amounts. I also doubt there is significant demand for these robots to even be mass produced and sold. I realized that its probable that robotics technology is not inexpensive enough yet to justify mass producing highly intelligent robots like my friends are making at non-obscene prices. Perhaps there will be a parallel between  the robotics industry and the computing industry. Initially, now-primitive computers were sold back in the day at really high prices, while it is now possible to buy a pretty powerful computer at a more reasonable amount. Hopefully, it will be possible one day to buy a really technologically advanced robot for $100.

Hey, my name is Michael Marron. Originally born in Brooklyn, where I lived the first six years of my life, I grew up mainly in Staten Island. I attended high school in Brooklyn, which by all accounts is a much cooler borough. I’m a junior, majoring in math track economics.

Staten Island is an intriguing place. It does not command much respect with the other four boroughs, mainly because it is the smallest in population. Also, Staten Island is home to the largest landfill in the world, the Fresh Kills Landfill. Supposedly, it is one of only two man-made objects visible from space (the other being the Great Wall of China). Still, the landfill has been closed for some years now, and its not by the residential areas, so its not like I lived my life playing in garbage.

Staten Island is pretty cool for a number of reasons. Like the rest of New York City, it is startified into many different ethnic neighborhoods. I grew up in an all-Italian neighborhood, an experience I don’t think I could possibly describe and one which I wouldn’t have given up for anything. Living in New York is cool because you get to basically experience the entire world in your backyard. Furthermore, growing up in Staten Island allowed me to grow up in a suburb and the city at the same time, something that seems contradictory and is probably impossible in most other places.

Coming to Princeton gave me culture shock. I’m used to seeing foreigners, but I didn’t think that Southerners actually existed in real life. I’m still not sure if they’re real people or not. Most of them seem cool, but then there’s this kid I know from Georgia named Ash who’s pretty carzy. What the heck is the deal with that kid anyway?

Edit 2/14/2006 12:16am

I forgot to mention that I use a Dell Latitutde D600 laptop. Also, in case you haven’t figured it out, Ash is one of my best friends, and I give him a lot of flak for being Southern.