I believe the Turing test was a good experiment that yielded
extremely useful answers to the questions of A.I. verses human
intelligence. While a computer has the ability to store mass amounts
of information or "contain knowledge", and an increasing ability to
repeat or reiterate relevant information in response to human
interaction, the computer does so only because it was programed to
do so, therefore, intelligence does not exist, although it can be quite a
catalyst for storing or obtaining a multitude of information,
dependent upon its programming. The computer knows ONLY what it
is told, it can be fact, or it can be fiction, and the computer cannot tell
you the difference. The computer does not possess the ability to
think for itself or distinguish moral from immoral, as such its true
ability to think for itself is NIL and its "intelligence" is based solely off
of the individuals feeding it information, whether the information is
accurate or no. As human beings MOST of us know the difference
between right and wrong and have the ability, knowledge, and
emotional intelligence to ACT in congruence to a certain situation.
The examples at the end of the previous paragraph are good
examples of how a computer's memory functions differ from a
human. A few similarities between the two that I would propose
would be our shared potential for receiving, storing, and vocalizing
vast amounts of information. But can a computer think on or act upon
information it is given? Can it judge whether information is true and
false, or positive and negative, without a human individual feeding it
the answer first? The answer is no. Can we as individuals with ever
changing brain development and life experiences decide almost
immediately, when well-aged, whether an action is bad or good, or if
information is true or false? Can we automatically decide to find the
answers for ourselves without being told to do so? The answer:
ABSOLUTELY!
Without an ability to incorporate human emotion and real-life
experiences to a computer's "neural network" I do not believe a
computer can ever be created to match the potential intelligence of a
human lifeform. As humans we rely on our ability to understand the
feelings and needs of not only ourselves but others around us, based
off a judgment of what we have personally experienced of these
differing emotions and/or based off of what we have witnessed
others experiencing due to certain situations. A computer, without all
of its human senses, can never exist as a human can.
I believe that both human and artificial intelligence can relate strongly
to the emotional intelligence theme. By comparing the magnificent
differences that we see between the two, we get an amazing idea of
the actual capabilities and advanced functioning of our human mind
compared to a computer. As such, we need to respect the awesome
power of the human brain, and keep in mind that a computer could
and should never replace the job of a human in a case where
empathy, moral judgment, compassion, comprehension, decision-
making skills, and so many other traits are a must-have.
