Computational theory of mind
BlogI was thinking about the semantic Web earlier today, and it reminded me of when I was studying a theory of psychology (well, philosophy technically) for my A-Levels — the ‘Computational theory of mind’ — that likens the human mind to the internal design of a computer.
Emotion and self-awareness are really the two key factors that prohibit computers from “turning intelligent and destroying us all,” as so many movies like to portray. But eventually, I wonder if that will happen.
But then I wondered, could that ever happen?
The brain fascinates me, and in many ways we’ve built computers based on our own understanding of how the brain works. As soon as we understand consciousness — which we don’t currently — will computers stand a chance of becoming truly self-aware, kick-starting Web 7.0 and giving us the answers to our questions before the questions have left our fingers/lips/mental probes, since a formed question exists in the mind prior to it being spoken or typed.
And would that be awesome or not?
We’re discussing this here.