Bad News For AI

June 6, 2014

If you want to download your brain into a computer and be immortal, there is bad news for you. According to Medium, a “Mathematical Model Of Consciousness Proves Human Experience Cannot Be Modeled On A Computer.” The article states that consciousness has been a taboo word in the scientific community. Neuroscientist Giulio Tononi of the University of Wisconsin has a theory that says consciousness cannot be broken down. There are other consciousness theories out there, but Tononi’s approach is different:

“What makes Tononi’s ideas different from other theories of consciousness is that it can be modeled mathematically using ideas from physics and information theory. That doesn’t mean this theory is correct. But it does mean that, for the first time, neuroscientists, biologists physicists and anybody else can all reason about consciousness using the universal language of science: mathematics.”

Phil Maguire and a team at the National University of Ireland tested Tononi’s theory and collected data on consciousness. Maguire and his team discovered that while they can pinpoint a single experience, i.e. smelling, and a single instance of that experience, they cannot replicate the experience exactly. Sure, they can capture a human smelling, but there are so many other experiences going on in the brain other than just smelling that it can’t be pinned down.

In other words, the brain cannot be compressed without losing information. The brain is so complex that ALL its processes cannot be mapped out. This new theory will not stop scientists from trying, but it does contribute to the bigger understanding how to make machines replicate human thought patterns. Computers will never be human, but at least the idea will always make a good plot for science fiction.

Whitney Grace, June 06, 2014

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

Comments

One Response to “Bad News For AI”

  1. google on July 11th, 2014 2:49 am

    Hi! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I
    really enjoy reading through your articles. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that cover
    the same subjects? Thank you!

  • Archives

  • Recent Posts

  • Meta