Memristor Minds, the Future of Artificial Intelligence 184
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Soulskill
from the boldly-stated-claims dept.
from the boldly-stated-claims dept.
godlessgambler writes "Within the past couple of years, memristors have morphed from obscure jargon into one of the hottest properties in physics. They've not only been made, but their unique capabilities might revolutionize consumer electronics. More than that, though, along with completing the jigsaw of electronics, they might solve the puzzle of how nature makes that most delicate and powerful of computers — the brain."
Re:I'm always taken back by this (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably nothing significant, seeing as you can emulate exactly what a digital memristor does with 6 transistors
Exactly right.
;)
It's not a hardware breakthrough that'll create a true AI - it's an algorithm breakthrough that's required. Faster computers might be nice - but it'll always comes down to the algorithm.
And actually the sooner we create Skynet - the better the chance we have to beat it. Because if we wait too long - that super fast hardware it will be running will could make it too hard to beat.
Re:Don't forget also (Score:3, Insightful)
(Without contempt or disrespect) religion is a great example of how far you can get with an incomplete model. Enlightenment, which some would argue is the highest human state, is taught with nothing more than vague contradictions that hint at a different way of thinking. Most religions use similar techniques to some extent, and I suppose most education must to some degree as well.
That said, I think religion could not have come first, as it's basically a specialised educational system. Besides, you can't teach religion before you teach words, objects, etc.
And how exactly do you exactly plan (Score:2, Insightful)
to implement a proper neural network on a von neumann type architecture, it's like trying to fit a square into a circle. So the developments have been in making special processors that work closer to real neurons but still digital. Memristors allow them to get closer to the real thing. Like the article states they did n't even have the tools to test these because of their analogue nature so we're at the begining here.
The purpose here is n't to get faster hardware, a computer can add two numbers together orders of magnitude faster than a person, but try and get a computer to tell if a picture I give it is male or female or if there is even a person at all in the picture. It does n't matter how fast your hardware is your bubble sort is always going to suck vs a quick sort.
Artificial intelligence? (Score:5, Insightful)
The amazing thing is that we consider individual brains to be "intelligent" when it seems pretty clear we're only intelligent as part of a social network. None of us are able to live alone, work alone, think alone. The concept of "self" is largely a deceit designed to make us more competitive, but it does not reflect reality.
So how on earth can a computer be "intelligent" until it can take part in human society, with the same motivations and incentives: collect power, knowledge, information, friends, armies, territories, children...
Artificial intelligence already exists and it's called the Internet: it's a technology that amplifies our existing collective intelligence, by letting us connect to more people, faster, cheaper, than ever before.
The idea that computers can become intelligent independently and in parallel with this real global AI is insane, and it has always been. Computers are already part of our AI.
Actually, the telegraph was already a global AI tool.
But, whatever, boys with toys...
Re:Tha's goint to be the NEXT BIG THING (Score:3, Insightful)
Old designs were not fully explored, ie: Turing's 'intelligent or trainable' [alanturing.net] machines. This kind of electronics can do those old concepts viable, that's IMO the NEXT BIG THING, not just algorithms (looped circuitry is not hard to simulate, is hard to predict).
The Von newman architecture of our 'computers' was just one possibility, not the only or the best, just the convenient. New hardware processing habilities, could lead to new kinds of maybe not 'programable' in the current sense of the word, but 'trainable' machinery.
Re:Artificial intelligence? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Artificial intelligence? (Score:3, Insightful)
and here i keep observing that the overall intelligence in a room drops by the square of the number of people in said room...
Re:Artificial intelligence? (Score:5, Insightful)
None of us are able to live alone, work alone, think alone.
Did you come up with this because of your own ability to do so?
Because except for reproduction, we can easily survive our whole life alone.
Sure it will be boring. But it works.
The idea that computers can become intelligent independently and in parallel with this real global AI is insane, and it has always been.
Says who? You, because you need it to base your arguments on it? ^^
You will see it happening in your lifetime. Wait for it.
Re:I'm always taken back by this (Score:1, Insightful)
the only difference between our spiking neural nets and Skynet is the processing power.
No, repeat after me: Putting a shitload of neural networks on a supercomputer won't create a strong AI.
A very common persistent misconception.
Practically Turing complete. (Score:3, Insightful)
Woops. Posted this below in the wrong sub-thread. Oh, well, post it here, too, with this mea culpa.
Not until we have infinite tape and infinite time to process the tape are our computers truly Turing complete.
Moore boasted that technology would always be giving us just enough more tape. I'm not so sure we should worship technology, but so far the tech has stayed a little ahead of the average need.
Anyway, this new tech may provide a way to extend the curve just a little bit further, keep our machines effectively Turing complete for the average user for another decade or so.
Or not. If Microsoft goes down, the average user may soon realize he has been seriously duped about computational needs.
wrong level of complexity (Score:3, Insightful)
Kludge a lot of state machines together and you can simulate stack machines to a certain limit.
Kludge a lot of context free grammars together and you can simulate a context-sensitive grammar within certain limits. But it takes infinite stack, or, rather, infinite memory to actually build a context-sensitive grammar out of a bunch of context-free grammar implementations.
Intelligence is at least at the level one step beyond -- unrestricted grammar.
(Yeah, I'm saying we seem to have infinite tape and infinite stack, even though mortality is a little hard to see beyond.)
Re:I'm always taken back by this (Score:5, Insightful)
"Repeat after me" is really annoying. If you're going to be that irritating you'd better have some pretty strong evidence to back yourself up. Where is it?
Re:I'm always taken back by this (Score:4, Insightful)
Ah yes, the "our computers are incredibly powerful and we've tried it and it didn't work so the whole class of solutions is obviously ruled out" argument.
Before you make (extremely condescending) statements that something is impossible, you should at least make sure you qualify your terms properly.
"I think it's very unlikely that using current neural network algorithms on computers with current or near future capacities will produce a strong AI" would be a good start.
We certainly do not know what the limits of "neural networks" (as a general class of algorithms) are. We also don't have anything like the computing power to properly simulate a neural network with a capacity where we'd expect to see "intelligence."
You might be correct. Then again, you may well not be. Even if you are, the only people who will listen to posts like yours are people who already agree with you.
The brain is not a computer. (Score:5, Insightful)
Citation [scienceblogs.com].
See especially points
6 - No hardware/software distinction can be made with respect to the brain or mind,
7 - Synapses are far more complex than electrical logic gates,
10 - Brains have bodies,
and the bonus - The brain is much, much bigger than any [current] computer.
It's past time for this idea to die.