07 Mar 2007
Marvin Minsky On AI

Here's a subject that I find fascinating. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for a sentient machine - I just don't think the capability is there, and may indeed never be there.

The major difficulty with AI isn't really concerned with computing at all, it lies in determining when a machine has attained consciousness. It's a problem of measurement.

The classic Turing Test doesn't measure sentience as much as it measures the ability of a chatterbot to fool a human - by that measure we may achieve "AI" at some point. But, in my not so humble opinion, the real measure of consciousness is much easier to define, if more difficult to attain.

A machine will have attained consciousness when it can willfully tell it's creator 'No!'. It's that simple, and that hard.

In a three-part Dr. Hobbs podcast, AI pioneer and MIT professor Marvin Minsky examines the failures of AI research and lays out directions for future developments in the field. In part 1, 'It's 2001. Where's HAL?' he looks at the unfulfilled promises of artificial intelligence. In part 2 and in part 3 he offers hope that real progress is in the offing. With this talk from Minsky, Congressional testimony on the digital future from Tim Berners-Lee, life-extension evangelization from Ray Kurzweil, and Stephen Hawking planning to go into space, it seems like we may be on the verge of another AI or future-science bubble.

(link) [Slashdot]

07:25 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Marigolds make way for marijuana in suburbia

With the kind of money that's at stake here, you can bet this approach won't be going away. However, you can also bet that law enforcement will use this as an excuse to seek even broader surveillance powers. And the spiral continues - downward.

Police say 'grow houses' have proliferated because they offer privacy and move growers closer to their markets.

(link) [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories]

07:17 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

How MP3 Was Born

About the only good effect of last weeks MP3 patent ruling has been to bring out the history of the compression format - in addition to Business Week, the Times ran a good article yesterday.

Actual Reality points us to an interview in BusinessWeek.com with the man most often cited as the inventor of the MP3 format — though Karlheinz Brandenburg credits many for the development, including in particular Suzanne Vega.

(link) [Slashdot]

07:14 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link