Answering this question is not easy and we must start at the beginning. We must start with the very fundamentals as to what is ‘knowing’ and what is ‘knowledge’? Some people think it would be best to represent knowledge in the same way that it is represented in the human mind, which is the only known working intelligence so far. The Merriam Webster defines the term ‘know’ as:
- 1 a (1) : to perceive directly : have direct cognition of (2) : to have understanding of
We see this definition as a sort of a bias and is described in very human terms. We have to take the universal truth of what knowing is. It is in my believe being aware of something based in information fed in through an array of methods. Keeping this in mind, we can go on to begin answering the prime question.
Human beings are ‘complex machines’. We modify energy and use it to perform tasks. Yet we are said to ‘know.’ If we can, why can’t an electronic machine? We have seen or read Isaac Asimov’s I,Robot. It is a story of how robots have been created to serve us humans keeping in mind three laws:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
This would only be possible if the robot knows what injury is and what can harm a human being or only if the robot knows how to protect its own existence. Yes, robots today are not as ‘intelligent’ as the ones described in these sci-fi novels but we must not confine ourselves only to the present. Half the work in innovation is done through picturing the future.
Our current developments in robotics and Artificial Intelligence have been very successful in creating the Honda Asimo©, the Sony Aibo©. These are machines are pre-programmed with information as to what to do when something happens. The Asimo can distinguish between music, noise and voices- just as a human being can. Machines hence, ‘know’ what is happening through sensors but their knowledge is limited to how they have been programmed. The human brain took millennia to evolve and become intelligent. Evolution for machines has just begun. Time passes, and with it so does what we know. Someday we will understand our brains. And the better we understand ours, the more efficient ones we can create.
We as humans would say, our thoughts seem to be infinite, a machine is highly limited. It doesn't have the ability to take in information, and process it to acquire further 'knowledge' which could be true as no robot till now has been able to acquire knowledge on its own. A machine's potential is limited to its programming dictated by its creator.
Some people believe that a machine cannot know because it cannot think. It is true that thinking cannot be programmed into a computer. If one cannot think, he/she cannot reason, believe, perceive or judge and thus cannot obtain knowledge. We are thus heading towards a more conclusive answer. Descartes said, “I think, therefore I Am.” It is ok for us to say that but a machine cannot say it because it doesn’t know what it implies by that statement. A machine cannot think or feel. It is not even self aware! It experiences what man has experienced. What we find new, a machine can never find new. It knows what it has been told and superficially that too. Technology has allowed computers to become more sophisticated over the years, they can store mass amounts of data, perform specific operations and calculations as desired but can’t ever learn anything themselves as they don’t have a mind that allows them to think and wonder as humans and animals do.
I came across a simple test for this question over the internet a couple of days ago. It was a game where 10 pencils were lined up and turn by turn I was to eliminate 1-3 pencils. The objective was to make the opponent (in this case the computer for me) pick up the last pencil. Whenever the computer started, it managed to win but this was possible only because the programmer had fed in an ingenius algorithm for the many possible moves of the human. This is knowledge and intelligence of the programmer and not the computer. The computer in this case is just a representation of the programmer. When I went first, the computer always forfeited. This was also pre-programmed. The computer did not know that forfeiting was the best option or whether it could still have won. It did what it was told.
Another simple example is human conscience. Do the robots designed today have a conscience?- No! It is our conscience that tells us what is right and what is wrong and so we know what to do but a machine is not conscious of what it is doing. It’s like a slave following a master’s orders without question. Everybody I am sure has seen the most popular action sci-fi movie ever to be produced by Hollywood- Terminator. A bicentennial man who can think and is 99% human is sent back in time to try and change the course of the future. He follows instructions yes but can think for himself also. He knows no emotion but knows what causes harm, what doesn’t and knows what he has to do. Could this be the future for artificial intelligence also? Technology is potentially limitless.
Humans can think to themselves- “I know that I have knowledge”- and can believe in it but a machine does not even ‘know’ what information it holds. We obtain knowledge through 5 senses which are vital to us- sight, smell, taste, touch and sound. Although machines can sense these also, it is very abstract. Emotions in humans are more than just electrical impulses sent through nerves and cannot be achieved in machines which also work merely through electrical impulses in their wires. A machine cannot perceive what a human can perceive.
Progress is being made in creating artificial tissue and an endless study is being carried out on the functionality of the human brain (which is by far the most developed one). Once this is fully achieved, scientists can create a brain and integrate that with machinery and probably create the robots we see in movies, robots that are self-aware and those whose artificial intelligence is more natural. It is only a vision now but who’s to say it cannot be fulfilled?
We can say that machines now ‘know’ what has been programmed into them but this is not the ‘knowing’ we as humans are concerned with. Will it ever know? The question as of now has no definite answer. We can only imagine.
No comments:
Post a Comment