An article about Siri

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technology/technology-news/apples-siri-sparks-a-voicerecognition-computing-revolution-20111122-1nrm0.html

Humans have long held a sacredness about the word "intelligence".

While one dictionary meaning states:

capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc.

Another one states:

the faculty of understanding.

And in turn, understanding is stated as: superior power of discernment.

So it seems that humans tend to weave a layer of magic around intelligence and understanding, as if it can only be the sole playground of biological organisms.

In terms of computers and intelligence, it was taught to me, back in my high school computer studies class that computers are not "intelligent" but just possess a great processing power. But essentially, this is all that we are - processing, storing and indexing machines.

The more I think of it, the more I think that humans do not have some 'magic skill' that can never be shared by computers. Instead I believe that we are just like computers. We acquire data and store it away, possibly with some kind of complex but logical indexing system. It would be hard for the average person to imagine that our brains have indexing the way the library has a catalog of cards in alphanumeric order.

We also have a system of recall, easily demonstrated when you lose something and recount what you were doing to try and track back.

That some people are said to have a 'greater understanding or greater discernment" is I think more about how quickly someone can make those links to get to the data they need.

And in turn, that is about knowing how to apply probability. If you lost your keys and you didn't go to school today, a person with better understanding knows they don't need to imagine the pathway to the school. Instead of covering 50 known locations, they discard the 30 locations they didn't go to today.

And so it is with computer "intelligence". It's not a magical leap that increases the accuracy of computers answering our questions, but the acquiring of probabilities, behaviours and so on so that instead of just processing raw data like the old days, they are now discarding unlikely avenues and reviewing useful data (such as time of day, location, sentence structure) to find data we say is relevant.

Does a computer have the capacity to be more intelligent than humans? My answer is yes, because I think that computers with their unparalleled processing power could actually find answers the individual doesn't know about and doesn't have the capacity to recognise is the right answer. I can imagine a scenario where scientists say the results were incorrect, only to find years later the computer was right due to the scientists being unable to comprehend the answer given at the time.

What will be interesting is to see how well computers can deal with the illogical behaviours - for example, if you set the computer to task to organise dinner and it knows you're depressed but on a diet - will it be able to decide whether to order the lean beef stir fry or a bucket of ice cream and pizza? Can it ever anticipate with accuracy the way you will feel tomorrow - if you say, "I really wanted the ice cream but I'm glad I got the beef." We are comforted at times by our failings, for example, knowing the ice cream was bad for you, but still thinking: well I needed it just for today, I will stick with the diet tomorrow. Life would be miserable if we were governed by a machine that always does what is in your 'best interests'.