Computer engineering prof Robert Marks has had to reflect on what human creativity means, discussing the goals of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence, of which he is the director. He found his inspiration in Nobel Prize-winning American novelist John Steinbeck’s conviction: “The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.”
He found his inspiration in Nobel Prize-winning American novelist John Steinbeck’s conviction: “The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.”
And there are limits to what one can simply replicate in machines:
Some limits, he explained, are fundamentals of nature: “Now, in computer science, one of the first things you are taught is that some things are non-algorithmic. The classic one is the Turing halting problem. You can’t write a computer program that can analyze another arbitrary computer program to see whether that program will run forever or stop. It is a very simple, proven operation that is non-analytic; you cannot write code for that.”
But then he asked, “Are there things about human beings that you cannot write code for? Non-computable things people can do? And the answer, I would say, is yes. And I think the most interesting and the most testable is creativity.” “Mind Matters“
See also: See also: Walter Bradley: Tell people about AI, not sci-fi His struggle to bring reality to“sci-fi” origin of life research is the Center’s inspiration. The Bradley Center hopes to have a similar effect by promoting more general knowledge of fundamental issues around “thinking computers and questions around the real effects of technology on human well-being.