> There is something about all of them that is definitely not human
My "gut" says that current AI is very similar to some part of the human (or other species) brain, but that the (organic) mind substrate is not just more of the same, there are other modules that perform fundamentally different functions in a complementary way.
For an analogy, people tried for centuries to make a flying machine, but didn't have the complementary power source or perhaps the theory of governing it in flight. Better wings weren't the whole story.
I think that, in general, and particularly among futurists and AI enthusiasts, mental illness is considered uninteresting, but I believe studying abnormal brain functioning can potentially allow teasing out the separate parts of a mind that are difficult to distinguish when operating in unison.
Some of what I read about existing AI makes me think of "loose associations" and hallucinations - that maybe human minds have something similar in them which is only apparent when it's a bit out of sync with the rest of the mechanism.
Human minds also always occupy a social context, and discussion of AI that I read tends not to acknowledge this. It raises thorny questions - never mind whether a computer can or can't interact socially, why would we ever want it to? If it's not a joke, like Microsoft Bob, isn't it terrifying, a la the Terminator? But if it can't, then substituting for humans should be off the table.
My "gut" says that current AI is very similar to some part of the human (or other species) brain, but that the (organic) mind substrate is not just more of the same, there are other modules that perform fundamentally different functions in a complementary way.
For an analogy, people tried for centuries to make a flying machine, but didn't have the complementary power source or perhaps the theory of governing it in flight. Better wings weren't the whole story.
I think that, in general, and particularly among futurists and AI enthusiasts, mental illness is considered uninteresting, but I believe studying abnormal brain functioning can potentially allow teasing out the separate parts of a mind that are difficult to distinguish when operating in unison.
Some of what I read about existing AI makes me think of "loose associations" and hallucinations - that maybe human minds have something similar in them which is only apparent when it's a bit out of sync with the rest of the mechanism.
Human minds also always occupy a social context, and discussion of AI that I read tends not to acknowledge this. It raises thorny questions - never mind whether a computer can or can't interact socially, why would we ever want it to? If it's not a joke, like Microsoft Bob, isn't it terrifying, a la the Terminator? But if it can't, then substituting for humans should be off the table.