Against AI - My Idea of a Joke (Part 3)

iv. Beyond Positivism:
Artificial intelligence is a concept held-over from the purely mechanistic world view that gained a philosophical ascendancy during the 19th century. The roots extend to Calvinist absolute determinism and the works of St. Augustine. The positivist world view states only that which we observe, or measure, exists. This philosophy inevitably spawned associated technical and scientific moralities. The limited is universal. The technical morality, Maximum Advantage, is just a higher genealogical branch of the same old tree. The uncomprehending computer, a concrete manifestation of positivistic thinking, could not discern this context from quantum mechanical interpretations. We know these concepts conflict in the sense that we know the world of the very small and/or the very large behaves differently than our everyday experience, including measurements by extension. The positivist regards actual physical reality as irrelevant. In addition, most macroscopic behavior is nonlinear, whereas quantum superposition is linear. During the course of the 20th Century, scientific advancement only partially dispelled deterministic positivism by replacing it with a reductionist scheme. The larger culture still embraces deterministic concepts, especially progress through economic development. Stability is the motivation. Hence, research must show results. We are limited by our tools and different. Our tools are limited by their makers and different. Our perceptions are limited and different by extension. Kurt Godel's Theorem states a system can neither be proved nor disproved by means allowed inside the system, which is equivalent to the whole being different compared to its parts. Insight is necessary to move beyond. The recent proof of Fermat's Last Theorem would not have been accomplished otherwise. The assertion is obvious, but not provable within its system. Hence according to the positivist mindset, all such conclusions are distrusted by an ultra-irrational demand for reality to behave and heed to the demands for reduction. Absolutely everything must be capable, at least in principle, of being exploited for maximum advantage in all things. Artificial intelligence will not spring forth from an algorithm, which is a human mathematical tool and by definition an order of rank lower. The reductionist pursues nothing but technique.
Of course, the above dispute with Strong AI beliefs does not absolutely discount artificial intelligence. Something different has been overlooked. The positivist contact vectors must be ignored with maximum priority. The dead end may be avoided. However, more than just scientific egoism is at stakes. Computer hardware and software manufacturers benefit from these misconceptions. Additional resistance will be found from societal forces. Myths are strong. The present stay eternal by promoting positivism. A primary cause for cultural stagnation is the belief in progress, which attempts to quantify of all aspects of living, including life. Lasting monuments are assigned a lesser value by the priorities of the present. Decay slowly spreads across the social fabric with little seen inside our subsets. The remedy exists beyond the societal system, but may never be realized because the only apparent avenues exist within that very system. The same argument applies to machines. The afflicted beast mindlessly thrashes about, but never seems able to scratch that itch. Eventually, a limit will be reached and anything seen beyond is an illusory creation of our irrational complex minds, manifesting as either strength or weakness. Instead, any walls may be sidestepped, at least in our minds. We have the irrational. We have insanity. We have war. We have death. We have concrete fears. We have faith. We have love. We have conflicting drives and emotions. We are alive, and certainly all a touch insane. The herd stampedes, and may be prodded. The herd follows statistical distributions. The herd has abstract fear exploited for maximum advantage. The herd has no mind being different than the individual. A machine is efficient. A machine rusts. A machine feels nothing. A machine processes information, but does not think. True artificial intelligence exists elsewhere within the imagination. Of course, the opposite anti-natural world view will inevitably be promoted and exploited to maximum advantage, thus supporting the myths of the established order. Our technical morality demands it.

v. On Consciousness
A new science of consciousness, with a non-computational basis, has been advocated elsewhere by Roger Penrose. It would require a revolution in scientific thought and, as argued above, probably a social revolution as well. Scientific thought is too intertwined with the established order, which says nothing about science itself. Positivism is a tool that has become a philosophy, but its aspects may be divorced from one another. Specialization must end, or rather be considered a career alternative among many. Perhaps, scientific journals should include articles written for the specialist, but complimented with well written articles in the style of Scientific American for the benefit of the non-specialist scientists. Someone might actually read the articles. Perhaps, as a result, inter-connections between diverse fields might be identified and followed. The following discussion, a synthesis of the quantum psychology of Roger Penrose with the work of Carl Jung, is an example of the result of such a pursued course of thought.
Consciousness may be considered individually or as a mass phenomena fundamentally different from one another. The latter approach might be a better place to start, thus taking advantage of as much reductionism as possible while acknowledging its limits. Jung identified instances of collective consciousness, where a shadow falls across an enraged mob, therefore allowing the affected individuals to commit atrocities none would ever consider on an individual basis. Now discarding Jung's mysticism, some physical basis must exist and may perhaps be explained by quantum superposition of individual wave states to form a collective whole. Perhaps similar emotional states may "resonate" and produce a greater and different result from what would be observed individually. Perhaps imagery techniques, often utilized by the advertising industry, might prove a possible starting point without actually provoking a riot. These approaches obviously work, or else the enormous amounts of money spent on advertising and propaganda would be all for nothing. Although this effort is not the place for it, the above speculation might be worth investigating. At least it represents an attempt apart from the usual technical specialist drivel concerning consciousness. It does require taking a chance at being unverifiable or proven incorrect.

vi. Conclusion:
The positivist disease vector has found its mark. Speculation concerning artificial intelligence is no better than popular psychology. Only the forum is different: PBS v. Oprah. Babble is all the same. The true science has not developed. A non-reductionist revolution is required. Although, the reader might be tempted to shake their head or strongly disagree with the above arguments, the premise is still valid. A machine will never write anything so silly. Condemnation proves the opposite. QED

1996 - January 1, 2001

P.S. I'll only believe a machine has attained consciousness when it can talk out of its ass.