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A philosopher explains why machines are not creative

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Creativity, says Sean Dorrance Kelly, does not follow computational rules:

He worries about something quite different from the usual robots-are-coming concern, “It is entirely possible that we will come to treat artificially intelligent machines as so vastly superior to us that we will naturally attribute creativity to them. Should that happen, it will not be because machines have outstripped us. It will be because we will have denigrated ourselves.” “More at Mind Matters

When you consider all the reasons why machines cannot be creative, one must ask, is the belief that we can build superintelligent machines rooted in naturalism (nature is all there is), often called “materialism,” or in evidence?

See also: Artificial intelligence must be possible. Really? (Eric Holloway)

Why I doubt that AI can match the human mind (Jonathan Bartlett)

The superintelligent AI myth (Brendan Dixon)

AI just needs a bigger truck! (Robert Marks)

Software pioneer says general superhuman intelligence is very unlikely

and

Machines cannot take over

Comments
There are just jillions of jobs done by humans that can be done better by semi-intelligent machines. For example, ATM "tellers" are a WHOLE LOT faster and more accurate than human tellers, but every once in a while I have an odd banking need, and there just ain't no substitute for a friendly human face asking, "Can I help you?" The same is true for just oodles of other simple, mechanical interactions between humans and The System. I order almost all of my books online, using Bookfinder to locate a Seller whose price I like, and PayPal to make the conversion into whatever the local currency is (I'm expecting a book from an Indian bookseller to show up any day now). The ENTIRE transaction takes less time than it does to explain that to a human data entry clerk that, when properly spelt, my last name includes an apostrophe. But we are QUICKLY moving towards The Brave New World, and the Gammas are simply gonna be outa luck. There won't be any blue collar jobs left that pay more than Welfare, and the Alphas will pay the Betas enough to make sure that whatever the Alphas just did will not result in a criminal conviction that includes jail time. For example, some decades back I watched with interest a National Geographic (Public Television?) special on "ship breakers" in India. When ships get too old to overhaul or modernize, they are disassembled (broken) into scrap metal, and gauges and such that MIGHT be sold as "spare parts". The prize was the huge BRONZE propellers. Bronze being worth a LOT more than steel. The Indian shipbreakers cut the prop off with an ordinary cutting torch; this took SEVERAL days. The shipbreakers were some of the highest paid blue collar workers in India. Their pay was of course MUCH less than Welfare in the US. A couple years back I read that the ENTIRE India-based shipbreaking industry had collapsed and gone extinct. Other countries, whose job markets were even more depressed than India's, underbid the jobs, and, shipbreaking being a specialty kinda market, I assume all of the Indian shipbreakers have now starved to death. So, yes, we have seen the Future, and it ain't pretty.vmahuna
March 25, 2019
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