Illwinter is ahead of the Computer Science Field by CENTURIES

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by thejeff

Or we do not know the extent of our own predefined territory and what appears to be a leap into unexplored territory is just a branch into a section of programming we hadn't used before.

Something that software does not actually ever do - at least, not with any awareness of such. Software does not understand what it is doing - it simply operates.

Everything in reality is subject to perspective, and perspective is constantly subject to collective agreement.

Therefore, we define ourselves as intelligent - and this means that what we understand of our existence, portrays intelligence. Since intelligence is a human concept, this assertion is true.

However, we can observe and define that what a computer seems to be capable of, is currently inferior to what we are capable of, and in this manner lacks what we understand and perceive to be intelligence.

It can be proven that the machine's "thoughts" are bound by its code - it cannot be proven that our "thoughts" are bound by anything originating outside of our self.

Prove that there are intelligent beings who have at least once directly manipulated human thought processes - and you begin to have an argument. Else, you really are just asking "why?" or "what?" over and over again. Maybe one day, we'll have final answers to those questions - but not this day.

[AdmiralZhao]

Originally Posted by JimMorrison

Prove that there are intelligent beings who have at least once directly manipulated human thought processes - and you begin to have an argument. Else, you really are just asking "why?" or "what?" over and over again. Maybe one day, we'll have final answers to those questions - but not this day.

Ray Fuller invented Prozac, and with the help of Eli Lilly is manipulating millions of human thought processes each day. Ditto with caffeine, E, alcohol, etc. etc. where we use chemicals to achieve very specific effects. More immediately, see the experiments where we use magnetic fields or direct electrical stimulation to trigger different parts of the brain. More scientifically, see the IBM's BlueBrain project to create a full, neuron-level on up map of the human brain. They should be done in a decade or so (though as with the human genome, having the data is still a long way from full understanding).