Laughing Computers – Is that possible? Yes, it is!
To solve AI‘s concurrent dilemma – How?
By teaching computers to laugh and thereby defuse logic-defined end-of-life conclusions.
The current initiative by 1000 and more enterprises and individuals to stop, contain or pause AI is reminiscent of the efforts by tunnel diggers of yore who, by hand, tried to prove that they were better than automated tunnel boring machines (tbm). They succeeded, once. The arguments: “no feel for the stone of the mountain”, “destroys work places”, “danger to the order of our world”, “existentially dangerous” had already been heard during the introduction of weaving machines. This scenario repeats in every introduction of technical innovations for which humankind has prepared the stage.
And today?
Today tbm’s are in everyone’s back yard, save human cost, are faster, build bigger tunnels, are safer in building tunnels, have created (other) jobs and they serve humanity, increasing its range of expression.
The argument of workplaces being destroyed is 100% correct. The tunnelbuilder with pickaxe and shovel will not find a job building the Euro Tunnel, his son or daughter, or even their children, though, building a shovel for the tbm on his expertise, will.
With the development of AI we are facing the same scenario. And history teaches us that enough voices, for and against, exist that together form this development into a tool for our children and theirs to create with a wider range of expression.
The key to not make AI into a humankind destroying self fulfilling, logic-driven prophecy is to give AI, more generally computers and most specifically the logic underlying these the capability to laugh.
The basic building blocks are all on hand. Starting at Asimov’s 4th law of robotics, the 0th law, progressing with the insight that any logic knows only itself, and progressing through the question: “How can a computer exit its own logic?” to the building block I present in this article – the basic building blocks to ensure that AI becomes a serving element of our future are on hand and available.
The rest, as the vernacular would have it, is work: Putting it all together and coding it.
To the article – Computerlaughter