Alan Turing and Vernor Vinge on Engineered Intelligence [Things Worth Reading]
Today I'd like to talk about two papers of moderate length on the subject of Engineered Intelligence. Reading both of them should take you an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Both are frequently cited, both discuss the relationship between intelligence and computation. And both are in the canon of the future.
If you are interested in Artificial Intelligence, or Augmented Intelligence, or Machine Learning, or even The Singularity; you need to read these two papers. They are short, well written, and accessible. Both papers are frequently cited, so many people feel that they are "familiar" with the papers. I'd like to convince you that these are both well worth your time, and I guarantee you'll learn a thing or two.
The first paper is "Computing machinery and intelligence", by Alan Turing. It was published in the journal Mind in 1950, but there are many copies of it bouncing around the net. Here are a few links:
"Computing machinery and intelligence" is a wonderfully written and well articulated work on what we mean when we say "intelligence", and what it would mean for a computer to be "intelligent". It is also the source for the silly game called the "Turing test", which Turing himself only introduced to make a rather nice point about personal bias. Most of this paper is devoted to the arugments against engineered intelligence, and the various flaws in those arguments.
The second paper for today is "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era" by Vernor Vinge in 1993. This paper is much easier to track down, being a product of the web era:
Vernor Vinge is a professor of computer science and mathematics who decided to pursue science fiction. He's got a good deal of work out now, I highly recommend his novel "Rainbow's End".
Vinge was one of the first author of the modern era to tie the old thoughts about machine intelligence with modern observations on acceleration. Unlike Ray Kurzweil, he isn't a shameless self promoter, so Ray gets more press. But I think Vinge is much more reasonable.
In "The Coming Technological Singularity", Vinge lays out the case for the inevitability of massively disruptive change brought on by engineered intelligence. Like Turing's paper, Vinge devotes most of this article to examining the arguments against engineered intelligence, and the problems with those articles.
If you are interested in Artificial Intelligence, or Augmented Intelligence, or Machine Learning, or even The Singularity; you need to read these two papers. They are short, well written, and accessible. Both papers are frequently cited, so many people feel that they are "familiar" with the papers. I'd like to convince you that these are both well worth your time, and I guarantee you'll learn a thing or two.
The first paper is "Computing machinery and intelligence", by Alan Turing. It was published in the journal Mind in 1950, but there are many copies of it bouncing around the net. Here are a few links:
- A PDF Scan of the Original Paper
- An HTML Translation on a tacky website with tables from the paper
- An HTML Translation with no tables
"Computing machinery and intelligence" is a wonderfully written and well articulated work on what we mean when we say "intelligence", and what it would mean for a computer to be "intelligent". It is also the source for the silly game called the "Turing test", which Turing himself only introduced to make a rather nice point about personal bias. Most of this paper is devoted to the arugments against engineered intelligence, and the various flaws in those arguments.
The second paper for today is "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era" by Vernor Vinge in 1993. This paper is much easier to track down, being a product of the web era:
Vernor Vinge is a professor of computer science and mathematics who decided to pursue science fiction. He's got a good deal of work out now, I highly recommend his novel "Rainbow's End".
Vinge was one of the first author of the modern era to tie the old thoughts about machine intelligence with modern observations on acceleration. Unlike Ray Kurzweil, he isn't a shameless self promoter, so Ray gets more press. But I think Vinge is much more reasonable.
In "The Coming Technological Singularity", Vinge lays out the case for the inevitability of massively disruptive change brought on by engineered intelligence. Like Turing's paper, Vinge devotes most of this article to examining the arguments against engineered intelligence, and the problems with those articles.
Labels: faster is different, things worth reading
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