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The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
My second show for The Connection was a free-wheeling, mind-bending conversation about whether (or rather when) artificial intelligences will reach a level of complexity and sophistication that requires us humans to acknowledge their worth as "persons" (more or less).
Next month, IBM is set to activate the most ambitious simulation of a human brain yet conceived. It's a model they say is accurate down to the molecule. No one claims the "Blue Brain" project will be self-aware. But this project, and others like it, use electrical patterns in a silicon brain to simulate the electrical patterns in the human brain -- patterns which are intimately linked to thought. But if computer programs start generating these patterns -- these electrical "thoughts" -- then what separates us from them? Traditionally human beings have reserved words like "reasoning," "self-awareness," and "soul" as their exclusive property. But with the stirring of something akin to electronic consciousness -- some argue that human beings need to give up the ghost, and embrace the machine in all of us.
The guests included some brilliant minds, including Marvin Minsky, Brian Cantwell Smith and Paul Davies. You can listen to the show in The Connection archives.
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