Introduction to AI5th Lecture - Philosophical and Ethical Considerations

Wouter Beekme@wouterbeek.com

6 October 2010

Last week’s ism’s

0Behaviorism: mental states are attributed based on external observations.

0Functionalism: mental states are causal connections between input and output, i.e. structural configurations.0 The study of the brain is irrelevant to the study of the

mind.0Biological naturalism: mental states crucially

depend on a neurological substrate.0Computationalism:

0 The mind is an information processing system.0 Thought is computation.

Weak AI || Strong AI

0Weak AI: machines simulate intelligence / behave as if they are intelligent.0 Biological naturalism

0Strong AI: machines are intelligent.0 Behaviorism, functionalism, computationalism

0Most AI researchers don't care… [Russell&Norvig]

Thought experiments0A fictitious experiment that gathers intuitions regarding

some problem statement.0Plato’s allegory of the cave.0 “Much of modern physics is built not upon measurement

but on thought experimentation.” [Martin Cohen]0 Shrödinger’s cat, Maxwell’s demon, Galileo’s Tower of Pisa

experiment (1628)0Crucial to philosophy of mind and philosophy of AI.0Often related to SF literature: time travel, zombies, strange

machines.

Chinese room experiment

0 John Searle, 1980, Minds, Brains, and Programs0A human is inside a room and is handed programs and

data.0By following the programs meticulously, the human is

said to ‘translate’ and ‘understand’ his data manipulation task.0 Behaviorism, functionalism, computationalism

0But the human does not understand the manipulation task at all!0 “Programs are neither constitutive nor sufficient for

minds.”0 Thought requires intentionality.

Intentionality

0The property of mental states to be directed towards some object, i.e. to be about that object.

0 Intentionality is a characteristic of all and only acts of consciousness.0 Thus setting conscious phenomena apart from physical,

unconscious phenomena.0According to this definition:

0 No machine can be conscious.0 Syntactic operations need not be indicative of semantic

content.

Qualia

0The unit of subjective conscious experience.0The way in which things seem to us.0The “what it is like”-aspect.0For instance:

0 The pain of a headache.0 The smell of flowers.0 The red color of tomatoes.

0Qualia pose a problem to a materialist world-view.0But remember: most AI researchers don't care…0Could this be a blind spot to AI research?

Related to the “argument from various disabilities”

0 “Be kind, resourceful, beautiful, friendly, have initiative, have a sense of humor, tell right from wrong, make mistakes, fall in love, enjoy strawberries and cream, make someone fall in love with it, learn from experience, use words properly, be the subject of its own thought, have as much diversity of behaviour as a man, do something really new.” [Turing1950]

0 If qualia are not needed in order to replicate these kinds of behavior, then an AI researcher couldn’t care less.

0But if qualia are necessary in order to replicate certain forms of behavior, then weak and strong AI become the same undertaking.

Mind-body problem0 How are mental states related to bodily

states?0 Materialism: there are no immaterial

aspects of thought.0 Compatible with functionalism and

strong AI.0 Cartesian dualism:

0 The immaterial mind and the material body are ontologically distinct, yet causally related.

0There is some bit of magic to the brain that makes it connect with an immaterial mind.

0Compatible with biological naturalism and the existence of intentionality and qualia.

Philosophical zombie

0Like a normal human being, but lacking qualia.0When it sees red tomatoes it can ascertain that they

are indeed red, but cannot consciously experience their redness.

0Problem of (the existence of) other minds.

0We presuppose that one can lack qualia and yet still be a human being in all physical aspects.

0Thereby presupposing that qualia cannot be physically motivated.

Mary’s room experiment

0Mary the scientist lives in a black and white room.0She learns all there is to know about the perception of

the color red in physical terms.0 I.e. a functionalist description of the process.0 E.g. how certain wavelengths relate to the neurological

state of recognizing something to be red.0 If Mary leaves the room and observed a red object for

the first time, will she thereby attain new knowledge?0Frank Jackson, 1982, Epiphenomenal Qualia.

Leibniz’s mill

“One is obliged to admit that perception and what depends upon it is inexplicable on mechanical principles, that is, by figures and motions. In imagining that there is a machine whose construction would enable it to think, to sense, and to have perception, one could conceive it enlarged while retaining the same proportions, so that one could enter into it, just like into a windmill. Supposing this, one should, when visiting within it, find only parts pushing one another, and never anything by which to explain a perception. Thus it is in the simple substance, and not in the composite or in the machine, that one must look for perception.”[Leibniz, 1714, Monadology]

Brain prosthesis experiment

0Piecemeal replacement of neurological configurations by structurally identical electronic configurations.

0External behavior must stay the same, but the internal experience goes away.

0Under the assumption that external behavior remains unaffected, the waning of internal experience must proceed at once.

0This means that any prosthesis, however small, could result in an instantaneous and complete removal of internal experience.

Brain in a vat

0Not about the functionalism/naturalism-dichotomy.

0Because supposed qualia can still be experienced and attributed to the neural substrate.

0 It questions the veracity of the thoughts one entertains.

0Propositions that relate to bodily experience are all falsely entertained.0 E.g. “I am walking.”

Brainstorm machine

0 Based on the 1983 film Brainstorm.0 A helmet allows sensations to be carried over from one

person to another.0 With eyes closed I accurately report everything you are

looking at. I marvel at how the sky is yellow, the grass red.0 Suppose inverting the connection makes me report the

sky is blue, the grass green. Which is the right way of connecting?

0 Dependent on a calibration of the two subjects' reports.0 Conclusion: no intersubjective comparison of qualia is

possible. (Remember: the problem of other minds.)0 Daniel Dennet, 1997, Quining Qualia

Technological singularity

0Machines that surpass human intelligence.0Exclusively quantitative view of AI research.0 ‘Intelligence’ is a word that we attribute to specific

kinds of behavior.0 Is intelligence an inherently anthropomorphic

attribute?0 And if it is not, what would it matter for humans to be

confronted with something they cannot understand?

Ethical questions

0People lose their jobs due to AI.0 R&N: AI has created more jobs than it has eliminated.0 But the jobs that are eliminated and created are not the

same. AI catalyzes the class-distinction between high and low educated.

0People have too much / too little leisure time.0People loose their sense of being unique.

0 R&N: As with Copernicus, Kant, Darwin.0 But AI not only attacks the ideology of human

superiority, but actively proposes an alternative. 0People loose their privacy.0Loss of accountability.