Like Marshall McLuhan, Ray Kurzweil, an inventor and futurist, explains how the soul of the next machines will accelerate intelligence as the brain and computer change the universe…becoming hybrids.Here is a blog about the visions of Ray Kurzweil about artificial intelligence learning from the New York Times.
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/the-New-York-Times-the-Soul-of-the-Next-New-Machine-humans-Kurzweil.pdf”]We can already see where this is going with the current hybrids in the “internet of things”. Recently, my refrigerator moved beyond cooling food to displaying information about my food list, when my food expires, and also how my day is going. My calendar and my memos help organize my day while the music in the kitchen gets the day off to a mellow start.
Marshall McLuhan envisioned an “all at once” consciousness to find different versions of ourselves. With curiosity, humans can “unlearn what you have learned” as Master Yoda suggested. Here is an article from Training Industry looking at how best to improve performance for employees by unlearning what they learned in their formal education.
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Unlearning-in-the-Time-of-Continuous-Learning.pdf”]What happens when a machine can finish a sentence…cracking the code of natural language? So far, my refrigerator voice, Bixby, tells me that it does not know how to do that, yet. Here is an article from the New York times that explains how machine learning is making good progress in that direction as more data brings more deep learning.
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Exploring how my refrigerator can improve my life beyond cooling food provides an opportunity to learn more about the benefits of artificial intelligence.
Fascinating post Kris…densely packed with ideas.
We’ve come a long way already, from the days when talking out loud with no humans in the vicinity indicated a disconnect with reality….to today’s conversations with our refrigerator which are “real connections” with new realities.
Computers understanding language in text form is one thing, and as McLuhan pointed out, refrigerators understanding vocalization is quite another, as “how you say it” (vocalization) matters just as much as “what you say”. (text)
And unlearning what our literate based learning does to our brain, seems part of the equation when it comes to understanding spoken language… which we mostly learn in the earliest days from our mothers and caretakers. Few of us could even begin to explain how we use vocalization to communicate, as it’s somehow an intuitive “all at once” skill.
When computers can discern our “mood” and the subtext in spite of the text, then our refrigerators will start becoming creatures perhaps similar to pets. Or maybe more like the computer companion “best friend” in the movie “Her”.