Genies and Wishes in the context of computer science
Using computers to find a cure What it could be like to make a program which would fulfill our wish to "cure cancer"? I'll try to briefly present the contemporary mainstream CS perspective on this. Here's how "curing cancer using AI technologies" could realistically work in practice. You start with a widely applicable, powerful optimization algorithm. This algorithm takes in a fully formal specification of a process, and then finds and returns the parameters for that process for which the output value of the process is high. (I am deliberately avoiding use of the word "function"). If you wish to cure a cancer, even having this optimization algorithm at your disposal, you can not simply write "cure cancer" on the terminal. If you do so, you will get something to the general sense of: > No command 'cure' found, did you mean: > Command 'cube' from package 'sgt-puzzles' (universe) > Command 'curl' from package 'curl' (main) The optimization algorithm by itself not only does not have a goal set for it, but does not even have a domain for the goal to be defined on. It can't by itself be used to cure cancer or make paperclips. It may or may not map to what you would describe as AI. First, you would have to start with the domain. You would have to make a fairly crude biochemical model of the processes in the human cells and cancer cells, crude because you have limited computational power and there is very much that is going on in a cell. 1 On the model, you define what you want to optimize - you specify formally how to compute a value from the model so that the value would be maximal for what you consider a good solution. It could be something like [fraction of model cancer cells whose functionality is strongly disrupted]*[fraction of model noncancer cells whose functionality is not strongly disrupted]. And you define model's parameters - the chemicals introduced into the model. Then you use the above mentioned optimization algorithm to find which extra parameter
It seems to me that knowing only a little (and/or being bad at applied math) is kind of a pre-requisite for the level of enthusiasm involved in the use of it as a movement name. It's exciting to see all those bits of evidence and see yourself one-upping all those classy educated people that are dead set against use of those bits of evidence, or who even seen to use them in the completely wrong way. It's even more fun to do that with friends.
You know about little math, and it makes a huge difference to everything, that's exciting.
Or you spent years studying and/or working and all that math almost never matters - almost any evidence that's not overwhelmingly strong is extremely confounded with what's already been considered and/or with the chain of events bringing something to your attention.