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Gunnar_Zarncke comments on What if Strong AI is just not possible? - Less Wrong Discussion

7 Post author: listic 01 January 2014 05:51PM

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Comment author: Gunnar_Zarncke 05 January 2014 11:43:19AM 0 points [-]

Comparing megaflops performed by the silicon hardware with symbolic operation by the human brain is comparing apples and oranges. If you measure the number of additions and multiplications performed by the neurons (yes, less precise but more fault tolerant) you will arrive at a much higher number of flops. Think about mental addition more like editing a spreadsheet cell. That includes lots of operation related to updating, display, IO, ... and the addition itself is an insignicant part of it. Same if you juggle number which actually represent anything in your head. The representing is the hard part. Not the arithmetic itself.

You can see the teraflops of the human brain at work if you consider the visual cortex where it is easy to compare and amp the image transforms to well known operations (at least for the first processing stages).

Comment author: mwengler 06 January 2014 04:36:59PM 0 points [-]

OK like comparing apples and oranges. We wind up with apples AND oranges through similar mechanisms ni carbon and oxygen after 100s of millions of years of evolution, but we seriously consider we can't get there with design in silicon after less than 100 years of trying while watching the quality of our tools for getting there doubling every 5 years or so?

I'm not saying it HAS to happen. I'm just saying the smart bet is not against it happening.

Comment author: Gunnar_Zarncke 06 January 2014 06:08:32PM 0 points [-]

I didn't say that conscious AI isn't possible. Not the least. I just said that that your argument wasn't sound.