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Are replicators real?
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Originally posted by Seaboe Muffinchucker View Post
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No, not in the way they are shown in Stargate.
The technology is one thing, the self-awareness and ability to act (not react) is another one.
Machines do what they are programmed to do - nothing more. The more advanced the program the more advanced the deeds - but that's not thinking of sth new by the machine.CARPE DIEM
ANJA
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Originally posted by Anja View PostMachines do what they are programmed to do - nothing more. The more advanced the program the more advanced the deeds - but that's not thinking of sth new by the machine.
Secondly, the MW replicators were not self-aware. They were slaves to their own programming.
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Originally posted by thekillman View PostObviously we aren't there yet, but don't you think it's possible to create a machine that's truly self-aware? not just a clever statistical program like our current AI? Self-awareness exists in humans, and we're essentially a complex chemical vat. Don't you think we can recreate that with code?
However, in general, I would be inclined to agree that if consciousness can arise on a biochemical substrate (i.e., the brain), no matter how complex, then it should, in principle, be possible to recreate it on some other information-processing system. That such a system could be artificial does not seem like an obstacle in principle.
Nonetheless, in practice, I think we are still very far from being able to create an information processing system capable of what we habitually call self-awareness.
I recall seeing an estimate in some scientific text that maintained that a single human neuron (brain cell) has a maximum data bandwidth of ~1 Gbps. The brain has on the order of 10^11 (hundred billion range) neurons, and they are connected in a manner much more complex than the 2-to-1 connection of transistors (i.e., each transistor is connected to 2 others) in a microchip -- some brain cells can have dozens to hundreds of connections to other brain cells. No one has concrete numbers, but it appears that the information processing capacity of an average human brain is orders of magnitude beyond even the most powerful supercomputer (although humans can't calculate nearly as fast, that's not the most relevant measure here).
And raw processing power aside, the ways in which current computers can process information are way, way more primitive than the ways the brain can. That's probably a bigger challenge than getting enough binary switches (Moore's law continues to soldier on, and processing power is not currently viewed as a limitation to much of anything in the long term).
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Originally posted by thekillman View PostObviously we aren't there yet, but don't you think it's possible to create a machine that's truly self-aware? not just a clever statistical program like our current AI? Self-awareness exists in humans, and we're essentially a complex chemical vat. Don't you think we can recreate that with code?
Secondly, the MW replicators were not self-aware. They were slaves to their own programming.
You're right, self-awareness was the wrong word, but the reps did more than merely reacting according to their programming. They could change strategy and they 'knew' what to look for and how to manipulate machinery.CARPE DIEM
ANJA
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