News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized ... by bena on Saturday August 06, 2022 @04:12PM (#32371174)
I think the issue they're trying to articulate is that our intelligence isn't just contained in the brain. We have miles of nerves spread throughout our body. Each nerve is capable of sending a ton of data back to our central processor, the brain.

We don't do that for computers. Part of it is cost. Imagine attaching millions of thermometers, barometers, wind gauges, etc all over a computer/robot. They also have very limited interaction with the physical world. Also partly by design.

They exist solely as the hypothetical "brain in a jar".

Now, whether or not you need that to have human-level intelligence/consciousness/sentience/whatever, that's a different story. But that's the gist I get. "The constant feed of stimulus is somehow integral to achieving intelligence."

Re:Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized ... by SoftTalker on Saturday August 06, 2022 @04:26PM (#32371289)
> Imagine attaching millions of thermometers, barometers, wind gauges, etc all over a computer/robot.

It seems to me that would be rather easy these days. Each of those devices can be online. Each can publish its measurements onto a message queue. Any "intelligence" can subscribe to that and make of it what it will.

Basically the internet can be the extended nervous system of a computer-based intelligence.

Re:Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized ... by mindcrime on Saturday August 06, 2022 @04:47PM (#32371460)
Attaching large numbers of thermometers, barometers, etc. could still be difficult in many regards, but attaching at least some is very doable. In fact, that's exactly what I'm working on now. I wrote a little about this a few days ago, here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32310799

The idea of this project is to build an "embodied" AGI that has some ability to experience the physical world in a way that's at least analogous to the way a human does. So far I have been working on a lot of low level "plumbing", but I just finished getting the cellular modem / GPS adapter working, so now the bot can "sense" its position on the surface of the earth, and its velocity (if moving). Next steps include a 9 DOF accelerometer board for more localized sensing of changes of orientation in space, a camera, a microphone, and "other" sensors - possibly to include the aforementioned barometric pressure sensor, temperature sensor, etc.

Will this lead anywhere? I have no idea. But it seems like a possibly fertile avenue to explore.

Re:Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized ... by mdp2021 on Saturday August 06, 2022 @04:29PM (#32371327)
The concept is that of "cybernetics", it has been of course considered, and proof is needed to state that a threshold in that would determine whether AGI is achievable or not.