[peterburkimsher]

I'm not afraid of computers acting like people (AI). I'm very worried about people acting like computers.

Every circuit, every program is based on a principle: comparators (analogue) = NAND (digital) = if statements (software). Machines choose their answer by taking a huge amount of information, and sorting it. By design, this leads to some monstrous conclusions. For example, eugenics might be logically efficient, but it is morally abhorrent.

Taking risks, making mistakes: these are not flaws, they are the very essence of being human.

Test yourself! I guess that everyone on here is very rational (as I am). I only discovered this problem in my character after a conversation with an artist, a good friend from high school. She makes all her decisions based on the heart, rather than the mind. Try to do something totally random! When things make no logical sense, the emotions wake up again. You'll "feel" again. It doesn't matter if that's a good or bad feeling - acting like a machine makes you feel nothing at all. A machine can defend every action it takes, because it's never wrong. But machines can't apologise.

There will be data-driven businesses. They're not actually run by humans (whatever the management says), they're run by machines. Those companies could ultimately be fully automated away. It's far better, as a human, to be creative (even if the most creative thing you can do, like me, is teaching machines how to talk to other machines).

[greggman]

> She makes all her decisions based on the heart, rather than the mind

Maybe I reading the wrong thing into that. I make decisions with my heart and mind.

Heart = I care about my kids and want them to be healthy

Mind = To care for them I vaccinate them and don't use homeopathy

Maybe I'm misinterpreting this but my general experience is someone who "makes all decisions based on the heart, rather than the mind" generally makes some very poor decisions that actually don't lead to the results they want.

[somberi]

@Greggman - I like your Heart/Mind example more approachable variant of Bertrand Russell's "The way forward for humanity is compassion guided by knowledge".

[soup10]

This oversimplifies AI. The human brain is based on simple principles as well. The mechanisms of cells and neurons and neurotransmitters are not hard to understand in isolation. There is no principle difference between an AI that functions on top of millions of silicon circuits and the human brain which functions on top of millions of biological circuits.

While machines are presently lacking in certain capabilities such as empathy and conceptualization, they are still very useful as tools and extensions of the human brain as long as the limitations and pitfalls are understood.

[collyw]

You seem to be oversimplifying intelligence, assuming that it comes directly from neuronal activity. I am not saying its not the case, but I would say that its quite a big assumption given our current level of understanding.

With your example of artificial intelligence, the software running on top of silicon circuits still comes from human intelligence. Where does that ultimately come from?