The above article appeared in The Guardian on 5th May 2023, written by Alex Horn after an interview with Geoffrey Hinton, a former employee of Google.
The word 'immortality' jogged my interest herein. The word acts as a contextual marker, i.e., a token or indexical which needs context to explain its meaning.
Hence, reading the article I found the explanation as to the use of the word 'immortality' quite lacking. No Dictionary definition befitted the reference to it made in this article '...learn something, share it and everyone knows it' (my paraphrasing), and even if the reference is to know it for a long time - well, it's not close to immortality.
That said, I do get the rest of the concerns made towards an intelligence that could potentially out-think humans. However, that is only in terms of the speed of retrieval and pattern matching over a vast library. There is far more to intelligence, specifically biological intelligence.
Human evolutionary history shows that we have evolved little in that context, yet evolving from rock-chipped tools to AI is an exponential evolution brought about by a change in context, i.e., the social, environmental and cultural (anaphoric reference to context intended for the linguistically orientated among us). It is this last context which sets humans apart from any of its extensions, e.g., domesticating the wild dog or wolf or building an artificially 'intelligent' entity.
Intelligence is not easily defined either but here in my opinion is the difference, i.e, what humans have that artificial entities cannot have:
- humans are social beings who must belong, i.e., form communities of shared interests, experience, and beliefs.
- humans' capacity for exhibiting intelligent behaviour requires more than the biological firing of neurons; it includes experiences from the soul and spirit
- humans' must have physical and mental relationships to justify an innate knowing of purpose.
Finally, the one attribute that I believe counters any doomsday prophet's belief in the Apocalypse is IDENTITY. All the innate characteristics besides biological are passed on to a newborn by the meshed innateness shared with the parents, yet unique, unreplicable, once-off. That is what makes us unsurpassable HUMANS.
"I ain't afraid of no ghost" 2 Tim. 1:7
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