Will robots someday laugh at those crazy apes in white coats?

Yes, because those robots will be us.

River Ape, you haven't been reading Kurtzweil. The brain is a kind of computer. Half a mouse brain has already been simulated on a supercomputer, and shows behavior similar to a real mouse brain. Someday, computing power will be such that a human brain can be scanned and it's functions simulated on computers. Wether you make a brain with cells or tinkertoys, the consciousness effect will be the same.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

It is certain that with the development of nanotechnology and robotics, humanity is set for a radical change in its own evolution, the benefits could be fantastic, but the risks are probably uncountable.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

I note that you say "WILL be the same". You are not claiming that any present supercomputer is conscious, then? I do not doubt that the processing of visual images, for example, can be simulated on a computer. So can very much more. Consciousness cannot be simulated in silicon. It is not going to magically arise as a result of a certain level of complexity being reached.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Why would a robot laugh? Even one that could supposedly laugh would still be a cold calculating machine. If there were any emotion granted to it's observation of humanity, it might be disdain for humanity being biologically inferior, or acknowledgment of their contribution to the rise of robotkind. It might laugh at the irony that humans created robots, but that's as likely as humans laughing at the irony of what created humans. It's possible that robots may become self-aware one day, with the ability to adapt, interpret visual, audio, and sensory data, as well as having the capability to reproduce. It's not hard to imagine.

 

I don't believe there is anything particularly special about consciousness that can't be replicated on computers. In the immediate future, you guys may be right, but it's just a matter of time. Robots are machines with computer brains, so the question really isn't about robots, but the thinking apparatus. I'm saying that computers as complex as a human brain are not only possible but inevitable. If the software were derived from the scanned state of a human brain, there will be no difference between the computer brain and the original. That is why I say it's silly to even make a distinction between "robots" and humans. They will have simulated human brains. They might even have more than one.

 

It wouldn't even require a replication of the human brain. Such an advancement could stem from the ability to learn, adapt, communicate, and be mobile. I read an in-depth analysis of what it would take for a robot to function at or above the level of a human. I wonder if I can find it online. In the meantime, here is a Wikipedia article on "autonomous robots".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_robot

 

Two thoughts for you, spidergoat.

1. Almost all of the human brain lacks consciousness. We have no conscious access to what is going on in most of it. When we "see", we do not get a feed of the optic nerve, we are presented with a highly refined image that is the end result of much processing and many transformations. In the past decade or two, we have gotten to understand those processes pretty well as a result of brain imaging (also as a result of examining people with brain damage). We have no conscious access to anything but the finished product. Similarly, when we recall information, we have almost no insight into the search processes the brain is carrying out to access our memories. We know rather little about how data passes through the threshold of consciousness, but I don't know of any psychologist who is looking for a "computational" explanation of it. (I was on the staff of the Psychology Department at University College London for twelve years.)

2. We use silicon and electricity (etc) to "compute" -- but it is an entirely mechanistic process that could equally well be carried out (if we had enough space) using a compressor, cranes, gantries, cogs, chains, hooks, shovels, and using bricks as "bits". Do you imagine a sufficiently complex glorified goods depot could ever exhibit consciousness?

A capacity to function autonomously (including the abilities to test and learn) does not imply nor require consciousness.

 

I know I haven't.

I don't buy it.

You seem awfully confident of that unsupported concept.

 

Well, from an engineering standpoint, a human brain exists, it has come into existence, and there is no reason why an artificial analogue of this can't be constructed. I think it's rather inevitable that we build something conscious, whatever we decide to call "conscious", because we most likely will have the capability to replicate the hardware itself.

Then again, i'm not an expert.

 

What if a robot functions in society and noone ever suspects it not to be a human ?
Although it might not actually possess any consciousness the result would be good enough, or so it seems to me.. :shrug:

 

Yes.

But I sure hope that it doesn't get any computer virus.

Even though that comment i just made was just selfish.