The Machine Mind Unknown Knowns: Understanding Smart Technology Part 6

Published on INFORMS Analytics Magazine (Joseph Byrum)

Author’s Note: This blog series Understanding Smart Technology – And Ourselves examines our relationship with advancing technologies and the fundamental choices we face. As we stand at the threshold of an uncertain future shaped by artificial intelligence, the author challenges readers to consider whether we should embrace these transformative changes or resist them in defense of our humanity. Drawing from historical patterns of technological adoption and resistance, the series promises to deliver nuanced perspectives on our technological trajectory, beginning with a comprehensive overview of our current understanding of smart technology and its implications for society. Read Part 5 where the author discusses the “unknown knowns” of the human mind.

Our next stop in the examination of smart technology explores the issues on the edge with respect to the machine and man’s relation to machine.

Unique properties of the human brain vs. the machine brain

Scientists have been trying to create general intelligence for robots, and they’ve found that one of the most difficult attributes to emulate in the human is empathy. Cognitively and behaviorally, setting aside inner emotions, empathy can be defined as the ability to recognize the specific active condition of another person, and to be predisposed to act beneficially in concert with it.

Most human beings have empathy, which appears to be an attribute of the brain that evolved biologically as part of our species. When individuals lack empathy from an early age, they are considered to suffer from a brain deficiency called psychopathy, which is associated with abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex of the brain [1]. For obvious reasons, we don’t want robots to share anything in common with psychopaths.

Merging man and machine intelligence

Perhaps merging our brains with computers could bridge the empathy gap. Machines could augment the limitations of the human mind by, for instance, supplementing our memory or handling complex mathematical calculations for us.

Some believe that we need to keep up with smart machines by integrating their capabilities in far more radical ways [2]. Sci-fi author and mathematician Vernor Vinge kicked off the Singularity movement, declaring in 1993, “We will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence” by 2023. Once that happens, he said, “The human era will be ended.”

Vinge predicted “direct links to the brain” from computers would amplify intelligence. The application of gene editing technology to humans, as has happened in the United States [3] and allegedly in the case of China’s so-called CRISPR babies [4], point to the possibility of future augmentation.

Advocates of these radical moves style themselves as transhumanists. The best known of these is futurist Ray Kurzweil, founder of Singularity University. He defines “singularity” as the point in time when artificial intelligence exceeds human intelligence.

More mainstream thinkers like Tesla founder Elon Musk have advanced similar thoughts. Following a speech at the World Government conference in Dubai in February 2017, he inspired the CNBC headline: “Humans Must Merge with Machines or Become Irrelevant in AI Age.” In his talk, Musk predicted that given the superior processing speeds of machines, “we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence” [5], explaining: “It’s mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output.” Scientific American explored the idea of “Melding Mind and Machine,” with neuroscientist Rajesh P. N. Rao concluding that, “Connecting our brains directly to technology may ultimately be a natural progression of how humans have augmented themselves with technology over the ages” [6].

The man-machine relationship

Humans relate to technology on both the macroeconomic level, through the effects of automation, and the personal level, through our interactions with technology. Workers in many sectors are already being replaced by automation in a range of industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, and services such as healthcare and retail [7]. This can be an uncomfortable truth.

In creating and managing smart technology, and as we merge the human and the machine, our greatest enemy may be self-deception and denial – manifested as forgetfulness. This is an example of a fact about smart technology that we know but we choose to ignore.

References & Notes

1. Cole Korponay, et al., 2017, “Impulsive-antisocial psychopathic traits linked to increased volume and functional connectivity within prefrontal cortex,” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Vol. 12, No. 7 (https://academic.oup.com/scan/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/scan/nsx042#78274968).

2. James Barat, 2013, “Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era,” Thomas Dunne Books.

3. Steve Connor, 2017, “First Human Embryos Edited in U.S.,” MIT Technology Review, July 26 (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608350/first-human-embryos-edited-in-us/).

4. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07607-3

5. Arjun Kharpal, 2013, “Humans Must Merge with Machines or Become Irrelevant in AI Age,” CNBC, February (http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/13/elon-musk-humans-merge-machines-cyborg-artificial-intelligence-robots.html).

6. Rajesh P. N. Rao (with James Wu), 2017, “Melding Mind and Machine: How Close Are We?” Scientific American, April 11.

7. See “Robots and Industrialization in Developing Countries,” United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, October 2016 (http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/presspb2016d6_en.pdf). Also, World Bank, 2016, “World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends,” Washington, D.C.