Scientific American | On TV, Ray Kurzweil tells me how to build a brain
December 11, 2012
Source: Scientific American — December 11, 2012 | Ingrid Wickelgren
I recently interviewed author and inventor Ray Kurzweil about his new book, How to Create A Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed. The 58-minute segment aired on December 1, 2 and 3 on the C-SPAN2 program After Words. The book’s thesis is that it is essentially possible to reverse-engineer the human brain to create a computer mind that works like yours and mine. The advantages of such a creation, Kurzweil told me, are three-fold.
First, we can gain an improved understanding of the brain so that we are better able to fix problems with it — for example, developing new treatments for psychiatric and neurological disorders. Second, biologically inspired, more intelligent machines can help us solve numerous practical problems. Third, such a brain-replica may help us understand ourselves, and ultimately to help us become more intelligent. “We are a human machine civilization and we create these tools to make ourselves smarter,” he says. (Hear this response at about 13 minutes.) [...]
Comments (1)
by Ian Clarke
“Humans have other deficiencies, too. Our memories are biased and distorted, for example, our decision-making suboptimal and our behavior often irrational.”
It does make me uneasy that my views and beliefs have been formed on such a flawed and buggy system.
“To err is human.”
Whilst it’s true, I’ve never liked that saying. We need to find out why, and fix it. I don’t think many will object to us losing this part of our humanity.
“Human 2.0 – now with eidetic memory and error-free logic. Upgrade now and get hormonal regulators completely FREE!!”