Dear ToK Society, the Kissinger article on AI is particularly disturbing
because we don't understand how the mind works, yet we are willing to
delegate it to machine decision making. Most telling to me was when Watson,
the IBM AI computer competed against the two top Jeopardy players a while
back. The machine won handily, but flubbed a question because it didn't
'parse' the difference between the U.S. and Canada. Watson missed one clue
by a country mile -- better make that an entire country. During a
Final *Jeopardy!
*segment that included the "U.S. Cities" category, the clue was: "Its
largest airport was named for a World War II hero; its second-largest, for
a World War II battle."Watson responded "What is Toronto???," while
contestants Jennings and Rutter correctly answered Chicago -- for the
city's O'Hare and Midway airports". The reason for the error was because
the question was nuanced in a way that required thought, not merely
regurgitating facts. I submit that AI may be able to make up jokes based on
an algorithm, but will not be able to understand a joke because that
requires 'qualia', what David Chalmers refers to as 'knowing what we know'.
Subscribing to AI is what mathematicians refer to as 'regression to the
mean', or the gradual erosion of the quality of life. I'm thinking of the
U.S. instituting the Marshall Plan at the end of WWII. To AI, rewarding the
vanquished enemy would have been 'counterintuitive', yet we had learned
from our recriminations against Germany after WWI that they had
precipitated WWII, for example.

I agree with Kissinger that we need to discuss the use of AI as a Society,
but maybe we could start on a smaller scale and discuss it in the ToK
Society?

On Thu, May 17, 2018 at 12:02 PM, Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> A central theme of this society is on how the human technology interface
> is going to change the landscape and essence of our beings in the next 50
> years. Here are two articles that highlight some of these issues. The first
> is by Henry Kissinger on how the information age is changing who we are and
> how we think. The second is on the molecular/protein nature of memories and
> how they might be transferred from one brain to another.
>
>
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.theatlantic.com_magazine_archive_2018_06_&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=tWZ3NmpfyjLvdAnzUPsne9Si1v2-pQ5uJaK7uJh6jBE&s=6qhfgsjy61vM8pCJonSnm3_gBDmXrNp1Pk6iLrpGqaI&e=
> henry-kissinger-ai-could-mean-the-end-of-human-history/559124/
>
>
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.nytimes.com_2018_05_15_science_memory-2Dtransfer-2Dsnails.html&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=tWZ3NmpfyjLvdAnzUPsne9Si1v2-pQ5uJaK7uJh6jBE&s=iGcYTQY2OWLkZmHh65vstK5_FpbYgEPq_n1uXRzitXc&e=
>
>
>
> Happy reading J.
>
> G
>
>
>
> ___________________________________________
>
> Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
> Professor
> Department of Graduate Psychology
> 216 Johnston Hall
> MSC 7401
> James Madison University
> Harrisonburg, VA 22807
> (540) 568-7857 (phone)
> (540) 568-4747 (fax)
>
>
> *Be that which enhances dignity and well-being with integrity.*
>
> Check out my Theory of Knowledge blog at Psychology Today at:
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.psychologytoday.com_blog_theory-2Dknowledge&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=tWZ3NmpfyjLvdAnzUPsne9Si1v2-pQ5uJaK7uJh6jBE&s=ADDmQm64kUxHbXljy3-rHf_ieiKWjLx4oPI6LU8lLK4&e=
>
>
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