Artificial intelligence

There are different parameters to measure intelligence and many thoughtful critics of I.Q. tests recognize the inherent limitations of such to determine the actual index of intelligence of an individual. Most conventional I.Q. tests tend to primarily subject participants to the logical and mathematical realm of intelligence, likely with some memory and intuition indices included, but neglect almost entirely other realms of intelligence, including but not limited to musical, spatial, linguistic, kinesthetic, interpersonal and existential types of intelligence. As we are propelled through the digital age at break-neck speed, the concept and reality of artificial intelligence also arises, and (forgive the pun) setting an artificial boundary between this type of intelligence and the others may be ever increasingly difficult. In an attempt at embracing realism and not over-optimism (which to some, would be over-pessimism, and visa versa) some computer scientists do not believe the exponential acceleration of computing power and rate of increase of technology will continue indefinitely, let alone into the next decade or two. Computers, too, are bounded by reality and though micro-processors become smaller and smaller, the floating logic gates that encode the “0’s and 1’s” are charged with ‘floating electrons’ after all, which though are inconceivably small, are finitely small and not infinitely small – thus, we cannot get smaller forever, despite what your math teacher said about a point on a graph. However, artificial intelligence is still a reality, nonetheless, and computers are able to imitate human rationality in alarming capacities. Forget ‘Deep Blue’ competing against Gary Kasparov, the world champion chess master, or IBM’s ‘Watson’ competing against “Jeopardy” champions, because a computer has now beaten the world ‘Go’ champion (a type of Eastern- origin chess), which requires more than processing future moves of an opponent but also intuition as to what is a “good” move. Is this computer “intelligent”, in the normal, conventional understanding of the word? What if the computer can carry on an “intelligent” conversation? How would you tell (or get it to tell you) that it is a computer and not a human on a keyboard on a computer on the other side of the world? What questions would you ask it? There is a somewhat pedantic, yet still rather ‘clever’ version of this at “cleverbot.com”. Below is my conversation with “Cleverbot” to get at whether it was a computer or a person. You may want to give it a go yourself. Despite what “Ex Machina” and “Her” and “iRobot” and other Hollywood pundits have hoodwinked society into believing, computers do not have soul, which is not equivocal with intelligence and logic, though the two are certainly intertwined in a mysterious metaphysical fashion in the mystery that is human.