Q Are people machines? And how should we feel about that?
A We don’t like to think of ourselves as machines because this evokes an outdated image of a clunky, mechanical, lifeless thing. We prefer the idea that inside ourselves is some sort of spirit, essence, or soul that wants and feels and thinks for us. However, your laptop computer has billions of parts, and it would be ridiculous to attribute all its abilities to some spirit inside its battery. And a human brain is far more complex than is any computer today.
Minsky talks about life, love in the age of artificial intelligence (Boston Globe)
- Marvin Minksy’s homepage (psst: a draft of his new book is there)
- His new book, The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind
- My AI bookmarks on del.icio.us
- Hell, here are my mind bookmarks too