Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Thinking
Over at the Eagle and Child Russ Smith took a look at books about computers doing human things. Back in the old days, we called this Artificial Intelligence, or AI. This field of study has gone from wild dreams and imaginations to some very limited, but practical applications. Russ looks at current expectations for the field (e.g. databases large enough to do medical diagnosis) and wonders at the possibility.
I dabbled in AI a bit back in the '80's. The masterwork on the subject then was called Godel, Escher and Bach by Douglas Hofstatder. The book won a Pulitzer, but warning, if you don't know abstract math, you'll be skipping big portions. He actually goes through the proof of Godel's Incompleteness Theorm, one of the crowning mathematical achievements of the last century. I corresponded with Hofstadter a bit, learned the then linga franca of AI, a programming language called "LISP," and even wrote a program that spoke in tongues. I probably insulted a bunch of my readers right now, sorry, but it was fun.
In his piece, Russ discusses "The End of Intuition." The problems with AI go much deeper that mere intuitive leaps in insight. Such leaps in human thinking usually are cognition, it just happens so rapidly, or on an unconscious level. A sufficiently large database in diagnostic situations could give that appearance.
No, the problems lie in the stuff of our humanity. We are more than material, but computers are wholly material. As Michelangelo's David is the perfect representation of a man, it can never be man because it is not made of the same stuff. There is stuff of which we are composed that we cannot reproduce. Only God can make us in His image, we can only create in our own.
Some years ago a friend of mine had a stroke. He was a young man so none of the doctors even considered a stroke. They figured his symptoms just had to be from some other cause. Then another friend of mine came calling. This friend was a doctor. We had all known each other for more than 20 years, been in Bible studies together, travelled together. My doctor friend diagnosed my ill friend in about one half hour. Not because he was a better doctor, but because he knew the totality of my ill friend. He could see the part of him that was not of nature, but of God's super-nature.
AI work is fun, but it will never be completely serious. We are more than the sum of our parts. Despite Hofstadter's arguments in the book, the Incompleteness Theorm does show that there is more here than meets the eye. We cannot be reduced to material things and reproduced - Because we are in God's image. Our problem is we forget to cling to that fact for dear life.
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I dabbled in AI a bit back in the '80's. The masterwork on the subject then was called Godel, Escher and Bach by Douglas Hofstatder. The book won a Pulitzer, but warning, if you don't know abstract math, you'll be skipping big portions. He actually goes through the proof of Godel's Incompleteness Theorm, one of the crowning mathematical achievements of the last century. I corresponded with Hofstadter a bit, learned the then linga franca of AI, a programming language called "LISP," and even wrote a program that spoke in tongues. I probably insulted a bunch of my readers right now, sorry, but it was fun.
In his piece, Russ discusses "The End of Intuition." The problems with AI go much deeper that mere intuitive leaps in insight. Such leaps in human thinking usually are cognition, it just happens so rapidly, or on an unconscious level. A sufficiently large database in diagnostic situations could give that appearance.
No, the problems lie in the stuff of our humanity. We are more than material, but computers are wholly material. As Michelangelo's David is the perfect representation of a man, it can never be man because it is not made of the same stuff. There is stuff of which we are composed that we cannot reproduce. Only God can make us in His image, we can only create in our own.
Some years ago a friend of mine had a stroke. He was a young man so none of the doctors even considered a stroke. They figured his symptoms just had to be from some other cause. Then another friend of mine came calling. This friend was a doctor. We had all known each other for more than 20 years, been in Bible studies together, travelled together. My doctor friend diagnosed my ill friend in about one half hour. Not because he was a better doctor, but because he knew the totality of my ill friend. He could see the part of him that was not of nature, but of God's super-nature.
AI work is fun, but it will never be completely serious. We are more than the sum of our parts. Despite Hofstadter's arguments in the book, the Incompleteness Theorm does show that there is more here than meets the eye. We cannot be reduced to material things and reproduced - Because we are in God's image. Our problem is we forget to cling to that fact for dear life.
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