APex - The future of AI (342 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.4 on 12 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Dalai Queso (View user info) at 2007-07-24 03:02:20 EDT
The proud man pressed a button, and the diminutive box with peculiar extremities whirred to life in a near literal sense. The man turned to his audience and pointed to the appendage atop the device and began to speak, "This is the primary input center. It has 3 senses; sight, sound, and a crude version of tactile sensation. The bifocal input gives it depth perception as well." The half sphere resting on the box at which the speaker pointed began to rotate slowly, pausing at random intervals.
"Ah, he's surveying the auditorium," the speaker explained, "He doesn't know what any of this is. He's quite like a newborn child, except he has no 'mouth' to stick things in." The audience chuckled in unison, aware that they were observing the first artificial child ever created. The device was affectionately named APex; the first two letters an acronym for "artificial personality" while the last two form a word defined as "The highest or culminating point" by Webster's dictionary.
APex ceased looking about and lurched forward. It sat still for a moment before lurching forward again. "APex was given some basic instincts. He has enough programming to substitute for instinct, in this case, to use his various motors. He was not, however, programmed as to how. He's a bright kid, though, so it shouldn't take him too long to learn." APex continued making awkward lurching movements for several minutes while the man near him on the stage continued to address the fascinated crowd.
"In the past, many tried to form artificial intelligence using the traditional 1's and 0's computer language with the on and off switches of transistors in a microchip. They failed because thought in organic creatures cannot be turned into data. Organisms function by experience." APex sat for a moment, then started turning one way, then the other, until he was facing the speaker. "A newborn has no experience, and operates on instinct; functions it was born with the ability to enact. A baby will cry from the instinct of expressing deviation from instinctual balance or wellness. APex, here, has only basic instincts. He has to learn the rest," APex scooted toward the speaker, bumping into the mans leg causing the crowd to break out in laughter, "but you can see he learns quickly."
APex then turned, and whirred toward the edge of the stage, drawing a unified gasp from the audience before he stopped just at the edge. The audience sighed in unison, relieved that the center of attention was unharmed. "APex's "instinctual" depth cognizance and self preservation will keep him from rolling off a steep drop off like that." Apex made a cooing sound, like that of a mystified infant. "APex doesn't learn through input converted into the digital format, but rather more like a true organism. He can experience." APex turned, and rolled toward the speaker, focusing his lenses on the man.
"If you use a digital camera to photograph a room, that image becomes 'hard' data. No computer could take nothing more than that image and see a room in it. To the computer it's data representing tiny dots of different colors on a 2 dimensional table." APex remained focused on the man, as though he were listening intently. "If you see a photograph of a room, prior experience tells you that the contents of the picture represent a room, and in your mind you could visualize the image in a spatial sense, knowing that were you in the picture the chair would be to your left, a bookcase in front of you, and a couch over in the right corner. Computers can't do that because they can't have the original experience to associate with the new experience."
APex turned, and began toward the stage exit, eliciting more laughs from the audience. The speaker pushed a button and APex ceased moving. "When his 'life' begins, we won't be shutting him down at all. He'll learn quickly, and 'sleep' while charging." Assistants brought the inactive APex to center stage. "APex does not have a traditional CPU of transistors.
A collection of switches could never mimic an organic brain of tissue and nerves. What we have in APex, here, is the first step in a marathon of medical breakthroughs." The speaker gestured toward the center of the inactive APex, "Inside this box is the future of computing..."
The speaker stepped back, and with the upward thrust of an extended index finger and the voice of a battle cry he exhorted like a well funded scientist, "Cyberneuronics!"
To be continued...
User Reviews
Submitted by Dervish (user info) at 2007-07-24 22:39:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I just went out and bought The Monster Squad on DVD today.
I'd never seen it before.
It was AWESOME. Have a +2 for that.
Submitted by gravitas (user info) at 2007-07-24 22:17:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i like it and look forward to more
Submitted by nrduncan (user info) at 2007-07-24 17:26:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
MOAR
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-07-24 15:34:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
.
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-07-24 15:34:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2007-07-24 09:35:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
the future of Al? Where'd the title come from? There wasn't an Al in this story.
oh, er, um, nevermind.
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2007-07-24 09:13:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by rorrim (user info) at 2007-07-24 07:31:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
all bullshit,ofcourse. Still an interesting read.
Submitted by czwij (user info) at 2007-07-24 06:52:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
and it will learn to kill from what mans experience will bring.
cyborg frankenstein.
i dread to read the rest...
Submitted by EmissionImpossible (user info) at 2007-07-24 03:19:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Yep you have to make this longer or it does come across as a handbook note.
Nice flow though.
Submitted by Bohme (user info) at 2007-07-24 03:12:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Tease.
Submitted by Wildman (user info) at 2007-07-24 03:10:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
You could write a very informative but boring textbook.