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  • The Internet is smarter than you are, and it might know that.

  • Hey there, I'm Jonathan Strickland with Fw:Thinking.

  • I'm in my writing room, and I was just thinking about artificial intelligence and why we find it so fascinating.

  • I mean, just look at our science fiction. You've got HAL from 2001,

  • you've got Samantha from the upcoming Spike Jonze film 'Her.'

  • But where does science fiction leave off and science fact pick up?

  • Well, first of all, artificial intelligence isn't some sort of on/off switch, where you either have it or you don't.

  • It's actually more like a spectrum. And on one end you have artificial intelligence elements

  • like being able to recognize natural language, or figuring out the laws of physics based upon the movements of a pendulum.

  • And on the other end, you have the real goal. The idea of a self-aware, conscious, thinking machine.

  • Now, Alan Turing, the father of computer science, proposed a Turing Test for machine intelligence.

  • You ask questions on a computer. The answers you get back might be from a person, or they might be from a machine.

  • And if you can't tell the difference between the two, the machine was said to have passed the Turing Test.

  • It appears intelligent. But is it conscious?

  • Well some people, like philosopher John Searle, said no.

  • Computers don't understand what they're doing, they're following a complex series of instructions.

  • And they're really good at it. But they don't know what's going on. And perhaps they never will.

  • But prepare to have your mind blown. You see, some people like the neuroscientist Christof Koch have said,

  • what about panpsychism - an idea where you have these complex systems of information relay points that are communicating with each other.

  • And from that consciousness naturally arises.

  • So for us, our brains, they're just these complex systems of neural pathways,

  • and that's why we're conscious.

  • Well, if that's the case, what about an artificial system?

  • Lets say, the Internet. A system that's a network of networks, with millions of computers with billions of transistors.

  • Could that one day become conscious?

  • Is it conscious already?

  • Now not everyone agrees with that. In fact, my gut feeling about consciousness is that it's probably a little more complex than that.

  • It may be that it's not just about how complex our neural networks are,

  • but also things like how our hormones can affect the way we feel and think.

  • So maybe we just haven't nailed down what makes consciousness tick.

  • But it does lead me to my question for you. And this week it's a two parter.

  • Part One: Do you think it's a good idea for us to give machines intelligence,

  • including self-awareness and consciousness?

  • And Part Two: Explain your answer.

  • I mean this is THE conversation on artificial intelligence.

  • And it's one that gets better with the more people who join in.

  • So make sure you share this video with your friends.

  • And if you're really interested in this subject, check out our podcast,

  • because we talk about it in much greater detail.

  • And once you're done with all of that hard work, give yourself a break and watch some of these!

The Internet is smarter than you are, and it might know that.

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