AI and reasoning
AI can already perform 3 of the 4 types of reasoning we humans use extremely effectively and is well on the way to perfecting the 4th.
Deductive Reasoning: This type of reasoning involves drawing specific conclusions from general principles or premises and AI systems excel at deductive reasoning, as they can follow logical rules and make inferences based on given information. This ability is particularly useful in areas like mathematics and formal logic.
Inductive Reasoning: Inductive reasoning involves making generalizations based on specific observations or examples. AI can perform inductive reasoning by analysing large datasets and identifying patterns or trends. Machine learning algorithms, such as those used in predictive analytics or pattern recognition tasks, rely on inductive reasoning.
Abductive Reasoning: Abductive reasoning involves making plausible explanations or hypotheses to explain observations or facts. AI systems can utilize abductive reasoning by using available information to generate likely explanations for given situations. This type of reasoning is valuable in tasks like diagnostic systems or problem-solving where generating possible explanations is vital or crucial.
Analogical Reasoning: Analogical reasoning involves recognizing similarities between different situations and applying knowledge from one domain to another. Some AI approaches, such as analogical learning or case-based reasoning, attempt to mimic human-like analogical reasoning but we still have a little bit of a way to go before AI excels.
Neverthless, Microsoft have demonstrated that AI is showing positive signs in this discipline. ie. When it gave their AI the task of understanding the real world when it came to stacking random objectsobjects, it gave some amazing results.
There are a hundred ways of telling the story of The Gravity Venture and, elsewhere on this site, I drill down into the detail, the drama and the extra-ordinary challenges I had to overcome to bring Gravity Technology and an entirely new engineering principle into being.
I came up with the idea of Strand magazine to present that same story in a succinct and easy magazine format style ; a style that might deliver the essence of the story in an uncomplicated and easy way to read and browse through.
If I’ve done my job properly, I should be able to tell the story simply and in a fashion that could be swiftly swiped through on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet; an account that would, (hopefully), work if someone was down The Hope and Anchor reading these words while enjoying a drink and great company. 🙂
This an old story and, when you appreciate the circumstances, it is merely a human misunderstanding while using an AI technology that is, obviously, still only ever an ongoing work in progress. (and should be seen that way for now)
So please, dear WSJ readers, don’t have nightmares just yet because we are still a couple of years away from the singularity and, until then, we should treat the remaining days of human dominion of planet Earth like a fabulous end of term holiday.
Be grateful! You and I represent the last breed of biologically “Free Range Humans” living on this spinning rock because even if AI or AGI doesn’t eradicate us entirely as a species, within a decade or two, every still living human being will be ‘spoilt goods’, entirely absorbed, devalued and laid worthless by a silicon based intellectual society that no longer knows or even remembers where its original knowledge or history ever came from.
Raise a drink with me now as we celebrate being the final generation of humans biologically free from the AI enhanced existence we will, inevitably, evolve into!
AR VR Digital escapism
Technologically, we march on like lemmings, content to perfect a better, God like digital version of ourselves while, parallel with such breathtaking discoveries, humanity’s respect for life, its own self worth and the environment lies stymied and forlorn like a once well maintained garden now turned entirely to seed.
We, ourselves, appear blind to the devastated world we have left in our own wake as we have plundered the earth and, with our rivers and oceans now becoming huge open latrines and with low earth orbit now being filled with the debris of a half a million items of space trash, is it any wonder that some now see a new VR based digital continent as a great new place to migrate or escape to?
Don’t get me wrong. I love my AR/VR tech and have already spent nearly a decade, (since Google Cardboard), experimenting with and using the tech but for those thinking Meta, Apple or anyone else is going to create some alternate Shangri-La, Eden or alternate Paradise where humans will want to spend their leisure or working lives in, I was going to say, “They’ll be waiting a long, long time.”
And then I thought … “But wait!”
Maybe … Just maybe … when AI evolves into AGI, (probably within just a few years), the new machine intelligent kid on the block could subjugate the whole human race by luring it into a neurally linked perfect rendition of a sublime alternate digital world.
Or it might collate humanity into pods where each person, (possibly linked to a superhuman AI) could live out its entire life in splendid glorious isolation exploring every known human experience there is, (and more), while being entirely anaesthetised to that thing it used to regard as reality.