Difference between revisions of "The Origin of Thought"

Latest revision as of 18:40, 27 July 2007

--->Presupposition: The following is an ongoing project of mine, comments are welcome<---

It has been posited by those such as John Searle that human thought could never be duplicated mechanically (strong AI is impossible). This contention is illustrated in the thought experiment known as the Chinese Room[1]. These pundits claim that even if the rigid requirements of the Turing Test[2] are met, the machine itself cannot think as we do; machines inherently lack understanding.

What is Intelligence

Rather than rekindle a relatively useless debate over the definition of a word or its relation to culture (yay Jared Diamond!) I will forward that for the sake of this paper intelligence will be defined as the ability to produce situationally useful brain activity. This means that if one were so inclined intelligence could be abstracted and defined for every possible situation. Overall intelligence will be the sum of all 'intelligences': the utilitarian view of intellect. The simplest abstraction therefore is that intelligence is the ability to perceive, process and adapt to a dynamic world.

What is Thought

Thought is the currency of intelligence, yet it is also so much more. How is thought related to instinct (which also produces situationally useful activity, whether or not its brain activity I dont know)?

How mechanical is the human thought process? Our brain as a biological entity works in ways that are not completely understood. Even as we live inside of our heads the understanding we have of those processes which are at work varies greatly from individual to individual.

While driving the other day I think I might have stumbled onto the essence of thought. That minute piece that illustrates that strong AI is, in fact, impossible. The traffic was terrible and I wondered about those cranky and excitable sorts who spend their time constantly changing lanes. Would it be possible to quantify one's driving efficiency, that is their time to arrive at a particular location relative to the optimum time (assuming always being in the perfect lane)?

How would we determine this optimum time? It would probably require some kind of observation from a stationary point and analysis of the motion of each lane relative to the others. It would be very difficult to achieve.

Then it hit me. I was thinking. No results are being returned, yet I was certainly producing thoughts. When we analyze AI and its performance we are inherently judging only the results. The results are irrelevant to thought. Computers are great at producing results.

Yet, it seems, that no matter how much they improve in their speed, or their ability to mimic a humans ability to converse, they still are just referencing memory locations and returning results that are stored there. They are not actually considering--thinking about--anything.

What Happens When I Think

Standard thought is a chain of stimulus responses and their respective outputs. Consider the following excerpt from my lunch at Fatburger:

Earlier today I had read an article[3] (stimulus). Immediately I think 'bullshit' (response--Belief). Then subconsciously my mind searches for evidence to support my belief (referencing). These returned references are then connected into a structure I understand (logic), and enunciated, mentally or vocally, into the final product, the argument.

The thought process can therefore be described by the following simple algorithm: Stimulus-> Response-> Reference-> Logic-> Argument. Another description could be written as: Input-> Reference-> Operation-> Output.

Whoa there pardner, you skipped Response! Thats the most important one (to the human condition). That is what separates us, biological animals, from machines. But is it? What exactly is Response?

Opinion and Belief

Does anyone remember the 'I feel lucky' option in the Google search engine? This option immediately sent the searcher to the first (most relevant) result of their query. According to the Google algorithm (the search engine's 'emotions' or 'instinct'), this result is the most appropriate (belief).

The Foundation of Intelligence

Our mind operates in two important ways: creating entries and referencing them. Assuming no biological damage to the organ itself, it can be assumed that all information received by the brain is stored indefinitely. There is no functional difference between information not stored and stored information that cannot be referenced (as long as there is no limit on storage capacity).

Our brains are the primary tool we use to propagate our species, by means of our personal DNA. The function of the brain is to adapt to situations (perform intelligently), and identify potential mates (by means of references).

Logical thought, humor and instinct are all products of references (keys). Some of these processes take place consciously, others subconsciously, yet it remains that they all are rooted in the exact same process. A given stimulus is compared to existing keys and a response is generated.