New study proves that sentient machines cannot exist

Compton_effect

Compton_effect

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I for one - will miss our robot overlords.

Sentient robots? Not possible if you do the maths

17:43 13 May 2014 by Anil Ananthaswamy
So long, robot pals – and robot overlords. Sentient machinesMovie Camera may never exist, according to a variation on a leading mathematical model of how our brains create consciousness.

Over the past decade, Giulio Tononi at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his colleagues have developed a mathematical framework for consciousness that has become one of the most influential theories in the field. According to their model, the ability to integrate information is a key property of consciousness. They argue that in conscious minds, integrated information cannot be reduced into smaller components. For instance, when a human perceives a red triangle, the brain cannot register the object as a colourless triangle plus a shapeless patch of red.

But there is a catch, argues Phil Maguire at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth. He points to a computational device called the XOR logic gate, which involves two inputs, A and B. The output of the gate is "0" if A and B are the same and "1" if A and B are different. In this scenario, it is impossible to predict the output based on A or B alone – you need both.

Memory edit

Crucially, this type of integration requires loss of information, says Maguire: "You have put in two bits, and you get one out. If the brain integrated information in this fashion, it would have to be continuously haemorrhaging information."

Maguire and his colleagues say the brain is unlikely to do this, because repeated retrieval of memories would eventually destroy them. Instead, they define integration in terms of how difficult information is to edit.

Consider an album of digital photographs. The pictures are compiled but not integrated, so deleting or modifying individual images is easy. But when we create memories, we integrate those snapshots of information into our bank of earlier memories. This makes it extremely difficult to selectively edit out one scene from the "album" in our brain.

Based on this definition, Maguire and his team have shown mathematically that computers can't handle any process that integrates information completely. If you accept that consciousness is based on total integration, then computers can't be conscious.

Open minds

"It means that you would not be able to achieve the same results in finite time, using finite memory, using a physical machine," says Maguire. "It doesn't necessarily mean that there is some magic going on in the brain that involves some forces that can't be explained physically. It is just so complex that it's beyond our abilities to reverse it and decompose it."

Disappointed? Take comfort – we may not get Rosie the robot maid, but equally we won't have to worry about the world-conquering AgentsMovie Camera of The Matrix.

Neuroscientist Anil Seth at the University of Sussex, UK, applauds the team for exploring consciousness mathematically. But he is not convinced that brains do not lose information. "Brains are open systems with a continual turnover of physical and informational components," he says. "Not many neuroscientists would claim that conscious contents require lossless memory."

Maguire acknowledges that their proof would not hold up if information integration in the brain is reversible. "Maybe, if you had a very clever algorithm, you could still break down peoples' memories and edit them."
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I am sure Demartini and his predecessor L.Ron.Hubbard would disagree with all of this
 
At best this assumes it cannot be done with current tech, i.e. limitations on x86 architecture for want of a better example.

What happend when the next breakthrough in quantum or biological computing comes along? All that's needed really (by the author's own admission) is to discover the 'very clever algorithm'. Holographic memory or something new may just enable us to do that .. and then we're fracked!
 
Koosi said:
I am sure Demartini and his predecessor L.Ron.Hubbard would disagree with all of this
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LRH would def disagree...

He probably never told anyone, but those spaceships that looked like DC-10's were sentient. I know this, since I've been cleared.
 
ToxicBunny said:
LRH would def disagree...

He probably never told anyone, but those spaceships that looked like DC-10's were sentient. I know this, since I've been cleared.
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So how far are you with your incomplete cycles
 
im sure there will be study that refutes this. Then another study that refutes the study that refutes this.... There is always a "study"....

I woke up this morning and put together a study on study's and came up with the above study :D
 
Garyvdh said:
As long as it has flesh like latex skin and realistic hair I'm happy.
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Of course don't forget that she must have the right moves and a built in heater with adjustable temperature for this winter!
 
ToxicBunny said:
Yeah, thats a partial problem.. I have this thing about incomplete cycles...
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Sheesh they gonna nail you for that in your audit.
At that rate you'll have no chance of ever seeing the Sea Org
 
Garyvdh said:
Yes, but we are the mark I model. Now ... try to make a mark II model.
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The universe took billions of years to develop us but to be fair it wasn't exactly working with a plan. So a sentient machine CAN exist.

I suppose in a sense this is similar as to how we can't emulate true randomness as of yet. A computerised randomly generated number isn't REALLY random. Probably because for that we need to be operating on the quantum level. To what extent we are able to effectively operate and manipulate the environment outside of 3 dimensional lumpy space time is speculation at this point though.
 
Koosi said:
Sheesh they gonna nail you for that in your audit.
At that rate you'll have no chance of ever seeing the Sea Org
Click to expand...

I know...

I'm working hard on resolving the issue... I really want to get to OT VII...
 
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