The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence (54 page)
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Authors: Ray Kurzweil
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BOOK: The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
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15
Primatologist Carl Van Schaik observed that the orangutans of Sumatra’s Suaq Balimbing swamp all make and use tools to reach insects, honey, and fruit. Though captive orangutans are easily taught to use tools, the Suaq primates are the first wild population observed using tools. The use of tools may be a result of necessity. Orangutans in other parts of the world have not been observed to use tools, basically because their food supply is more easily accessible.
Primatologist Carl Van Schaik observed that the orangutans of Sumatra’s Suaq Balimbing swamp all make and use tools to reach insects, honey, and fruit. Though captive orangutans are easily taught to use tools, the Suaq primates are the first wild population observed using tools. The use of tools may be a result of necessity. Orangutans in other parts of the world have not been observed to use tools, basically because their food supply is more easily accessible.
Carl Zimmer, “Tooling Through the Trees.” Discover 16, no. 11 (November 1995): 46-47.
Crows fashion tools from sticks and leaves. The tools are used for different purposes, are highly predictable in their construction, and even have hooks and other mechanisms for finding and manipulating insect prey. They often carry these devices when flying and store them next to their nests.
Tina Adler, “Crows Rely on Tools to Get Their Work Done.” Science News 149, no. 3 (January 20, 1996): 37.
Crocodiles can’t grip prey, so they sometimes trap prey between rocks and/or roots. The tree root acts to anchor the dead prey while the crocodile eats its meal. Some people have attributed the crocodiles’ use of stones and roots as using tools.
From the “Animal Diversity Web Site” at the University of Michigan’s Museum of Zoology, <
http://www.oit.itd.umich.edu/projects/ADW/
>.
http://www.oit.itd.umich.edu/projects/ADW/
>.
16
An animal communicates for a variety of reasons: defense (to signal approaching danger to other members of its species), food gathering (to alert other members to a food source), courtship and mating (to alert members of its desirability and to warn potential competitors away), and maintenance of territory. The basic motivation for communication is survival of the species. Some animals use communication not only for survival, but also to express emotion.
An animal communicates for a variety of reasons: defense (to signal approaching danger to other members of its species), food gathering (to alert other members to a food source), courtship and mating (to alert members of its desirability and to warn potential competitors away), and maintenance of territory. The basic motivation for communication is survival of the species. Some animals use communication not only for survival, but also to express emotion.
There are many fascinating examples of animal communication:
• A female tree frog found in Malaysia uses its toes to tap on vegetation, alerting potential mates to her availability. Lori Oliwenstein, Fenella Saunders, and Rachel Preiser, “Animals 1995.” Discover 17, no. 1 (January 1996): 54-57.
• Male meadow voles (a small rodent) groom themselves in order to produce body odors that will attract their mates. Tina Adler, “Voles Appreciate the Value of Good Grooming.” Science News 149, no. 16 (April 20, 1996): 247.
• Whales communicate through a series of calls and cries. Mark Higgins, “Deep Sea Dialogue.” Nature Canada 26, no. 3 (Summer 1997): 29-34.
• Primates, of course, vocalize to communicate a variety of messages. One group of researchers studied capuchin monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and golden-lion tamarins in Central and South America. Often these animals are unable to see each other through the forest, so they developed a series of calls or trills that would alert members to move toward food sources. Bruce Bower, “Monkeys Sound Off, Move Out.” Science News 149, no. 17 (April 27, 1996): 269.
17
Washoe and Koko (male and female gorillas, respectively) are credited with acquiring American Sign Language (ASL). They are the most famous of the communicating primates. Viki, a chimpanzee, was taught to vocalize three words (mama, papa, and cup). Lana and Kanzi (female chimpanzees) were taught to press buttons with symbols.
Washoe and Koko (male and female gorillas, respectively) are credited with acquiring American Sign Language (ASL). They are the most famous of the communicating primates. Viki, a chimpanzee, was taught to vocalize three words (mama, papa, and cup). Lana and Kanzi (female chimpanzees) were taught to press buttons with symbols.
Steven Pinker reflects upon researchers’ claims that apes fully comprehend sign language. In The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (New York: Morrow, 1994), he notes that the apes learned a very crude form of ASL, not the full nuances of this language. The signs they learned were crude mimics of the “real thing.” In addition, according to Pinker, the researchers often misinterpreted apes’ hand motions as actual signs. One researcher on Washoe’s team who was deaf noted that other researchers would keep a log of long lists of signs, whereas the deaf researcher’s log was short.
18
David E. Kalish. “Chip Makers and U.S. Unveil Project.” New York Times, September 12, 1997.
David E. Kalish. “Chip Makers and U.S. Unveil Project.” New York Times, September 12, 1997.
19
The chart “The Exponential Growth of Computing, 1900-1998” is based on the following data:
The chart “The Exponential Growth of Computing, 1900-1998” is based on the following data:
Cost conversions from dollars in each year to 1998 dollars are based on the ratio of the consumer price indices (CPI) for the respective years, based on CPI data as recorded by the Woodrow Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. See their web site, <
http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/economy/calc/cpihome.html
>.
http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/economy/calc/cpihome.html
>.
Charles Babbage designed the Analytical Engine in the 1830s and continued to refine the concept until his death in 1871 Babbage never completed his invention. I have estimated a date of 1900 for the Analytical Engine as an estimated date for when its mechanical technology became feasible, based on the availability of other mechanical computing technology available in that time period.
Sources for the chart “The Exponential Growth of Computing, 1900-1998” include the following:
25 Years of Computer History
<
http://www.compros.com/timeline.html
>
BYTE Magazine “Birth of a Chip”
<
http://www.byte.com/art/9612/sec6/art2.htm
>
[email protected] (Stretch)
<
http://www.citybeach.wa.edu.au/lessons/history/video/sunedu/computer/cdc.html
>
Chronology of Digital Computing Machines
<
http://www.best.com/~wilson/faq/chrono.html
>
Chronology of Events in the History of Microcomputers
<
http://www3.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/comphist/comp1977.htm
>
The Computer Museum History Center
<
http://www.tcm.org/html/history/index.html
>
delan at
infopad.eecs.berkeley.edu
<
http://infopad.eecs.berkeley.edu/CIC/summary/delan
>
Electronic Computers Within the Ordnance Corps
<
http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/comphist/61ordnance/index.html
>
General Processor Information
<
http://infopad.eecs.berkeley.edu/CIC/summary/local/
>
The History of Computing at Los Alamos
<
http://bang.lanl.gov/video/sunedu/computer/comphist.html
>
The Machine Room
<
http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~alexios/MACHINE-ROOM/
>
Mind Machine Web Museum
<
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~hl/mmm.html
>
Hans Moravec at Carnegie Mellon University: Computer Data
<
http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/book97/ch3/processor.list
>
PC Magazine Online: Fifteen Years of PC Magazine
<
http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/special/anniversary/
>
PC Museum
<
http://www.microtec.net/~dlessard/index.html
>
PDP-8 Emulation
<
http://csbh.mhv.net/~mgraffam/emu/pdp8.html
>
Silicon Graphics Webpage press release
<
http://www.pathfinder.com/money/latest/press/PW/1998Jun16/270.html
>
Stan Augarten, Bit by Bit: An Illustrated History of Computers (New York: Ticknor &
Fields, 1984).
International Association of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), “Annals of the History of the Computer,” vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 150-153 (1987).
IEEE, vol. 16, no. 3, p. 20 (1994).
Hans Moravéc, Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1988).
René Moreau, The Computer Comes of Age (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984).
20
For additional views on the future of computer capacity, see: Hans Moravec, Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988); and “An Interview with David Waltz, Vice President, Computer Science Research, NEC Research Institute” at Think Quest’s web page <
http://tqd. advanced.org/2705/waltz.html
>. I also discuss this subject in my book
The Age of Intelligent Machines
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990), 401-419. These three sources discuss the exponential growth of computing.
For additional views on the future of computer capacity, see: Hans Moravec, Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988); and “An Interview with David Waltz, Vice President, Computer Science Research, NEC Research Institute” at Think Quest’s web page <
http://tqd. advanced.org/2705/waltz.html
>. I also discuss this subject in my book
The Age of Intelligent Machines
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990), 401-419. These three sources discuss the exponential growth of computing.
21
A mathematical theory concerning the difference between information and noise and the ability of a communications channel to carry information.
A mathematical theory concerning the difference between information and noise and the ability of a communications channel to carry information.
22
The Santa Fe Institute has played a pioneering role in developing concepts and technology related to complexity and emergent systems. One of the principal developers of paradigms associated with chaos and complexity has been Stuart Kauffman. Kauffman’s At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of
Self-Organization
and Complexity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995) looks “at the forces for order that lie at the edge of chaos” (from the card catalog description).
The Santa Fe Institute has played a pioneering role in developing concepts and technology related to complexity and emergent systems. One of the principal developers of paradigms associated with chaos and complexity has been Stuart Kauffman. Kauffman’s At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of
Self-Organization
and Complexity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995) looks “at the forces for order that lie at the edge of chaos” (from the card catalog description).
In his book Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988), John Tyler Bonner asks the question: “How is it that an egg turns into an elaborate adult? How is it that a bacterium, given many millions of years, could have evolved into an elephant?”
John Holland is another leading thinker from the Sante Fe Institute in the emerging field of complexity. His book Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1996) presents a series of lectures that Holland presented at the Santa Fe Institute in 1994.
Also see John H. Holland, Emergence: From Chaos to Order (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1998) and M. Mitchell Waldrop, Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992).
1
In the early 1950s, the chemical composition of DNA was already known. At that time, the important questions were: How is the DNA molecule constructed? How does DNA accomplish its work? These questions would be answered in 1953 by James D. Watson and Francis H. C. Crick.
In the early 1950s, the chemical composition of DNA was already known. At that time, the important questions were: How is the DNA molecule constructed? How does DNA accomplish its work? These questions would be answered in 1953 by James D. Watson and Francis H. C. Crick.
Watson and Crick wrote “The Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acid: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” published in the April 25, 1953 issue of Nature. For more information on the race by various research groups to discover the molecular structure of DNA, read Watson’s book, The Double Helix (New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1968).
2
Translation starts by unwinding a region of DNA to expose its code. A strand of messenger RNA (mRNA) is created by copying the exposed DNA base-pair codes. The appropriately named messenger RNA records a copy of a portion of the DNA letter sequence and travels out of the nucleus into the cell body There the mRNA encounters a ribosome molecule, which reads the letters encoded in the mRNA molecules and then, using another set of molecules called transfer RNA (tRNA), actually builds protein chains one amino acid at a time. These proteins are the worker molecules that perform the cell’s functions. For example, hemoglobin, which is responsible for carrying oxygen in the blood from the lungs to the body’s tissues, is a sequence of 500 amino acids. With each amino acid requiring three nucleotide letters, the coding for hemoglobin requires 1,500 positions on the DNA molecule. Molecules of hemoglobin, incidentally, are created 500 trillion times a second in the human body, so the machinery is quite efficient.
Translation starts by unwinding a region of DNA to expose its code. A strand of messenger RNA (mRNA) is created by copying the exposed DNA base-pair codes. The appropriately named messenger RNA records a copy of a portion of the DNA letter sequence and travels out of the nucleus into the cell body There the mRNA encounters a ribosome molecule, which reads the letters encoded in the mRNA molecules and then, using another set of molecules called transfer RNA (tRNA), actually builds protein chains one amino acid at a time. These proteins are the worker molecules that perform the cell’s functions. For example, hemoglobin, which is responsible for carrying oxygen in the blood from the lungs to the body’s tissues, is a sequence of 500 amino acids. With each amino acid requiring three nucleotide letters, the coding for hemoglobin requires 1,500 positions on the DNA molecule. Molecules of hemoglobin, incidentally, are created 500 trillion times a second in the human body, so the machinery is quite efficient.
3
The goal of the Human Genome Project is to construct detailed genetic sequence maps of the 50,000 to 100,000 genes in the human genome, and to provide information about the overall structure and sequence of the DNA of humans and of other animals. The project began in the mid-1980s. The web site of the Human Genome Project, <
http://www.nhgri.nih.gov/HGP/
>, contains information on the background of the project, current and future goals, and detailed explanations on the structure of DNA.
The goal of the Human Genome Project is to construct detailed genetic sequence maps of the 50,000 to 100,000 genes in the human genome, and to provide information about the overall structure and sequence of the DNA of humans and of other animals. The project began in the mid-1980s. The web site of the Human Genome Project, <
http://www.nhgri.nih.gov/HGP/
>, contains information on the background of the project, current and future goals, and detailed explanations on the structure of DNA.
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