INFO 102 BLOG 5

When watching movies or reading books about the future a common, reoccurring element is artificial intelligence. Many futuristic stories portray a type of society in which humans either rely on, coexist with, or are threatened by  ‘intelligent’ robots or computers. While stories like this used to be purely science fiction it seems that today artificial intelligence is becoming more of a reality. But can machines really think? How do we define thought? Will a machine ever be able to be considered truly intelligent?

A key signifier of artificial intelligence is the ability of a machine to pass a Turing test. To pass a Turing test basically means that a computer or program has the ability to fool a human into thinking it is not a computer or program. If a judge was asked to have a conversation with a person and a machine, both of which were placed in separate rooms where the judge couldn’t see them, and the judge was unable to distinguish between the machine and the human it could be said that, according to the Turing test, the machine displays intelligence. 

Currently, there are many chatbots on the internet that try and pass this Turing test. I talked with three, and all of them failed(obviously, since I knew they were machines to begin with). While neither of the three were convincing enough for me to believe they were intelligent, they were all able to simulate conversation fairly effectively. ELIZA was probably the worst, it was very easy to confuse it with simple questions, and its speech wasn’t that convincing in general. Alice was more convincing in general but it still made some errors. At one point Alice made a weird totally unnatural statement using the word me instead of I and a strange sentence structure. I felt that JabberWacky was probably the best. I talked to the George bot, and even though it often made errors, its speech was the most natural sounding. I am not 100% sure if a bot will be made that can pass the Turing test in the next 10 years. I feel like it is definitely possible for it to happen if program developers work at it, I’m just not sure if it will be in 10 years.

When a program is finally developed that can pass the Turing test will this artificial intelligence be considered true intelligence? Many would say no. The argument being that there is a difference between the ability of a program to process information and output appropriate responses and actual human intelligence. While I do agree that there is a difference between imitating humans and real intelligence, I feel that it is possible for true artificial intelligence to exist. The human brain, as far as we know, basically just works from chemicals and electrical impulses. Therefore if a machine could be made that perfectly mimics a human brain, down to every last detail, then I feel that this machine would be able to learn, think, and understand things just as humans do, and would qualify as artificial intelligence.

INFO 102 blog 4

The use of backdoors for surveillance by the government could be a great tool for law enforcement. By being able to secretly access computers and communication devices law enforcement agencies could easily gather evidence and information on criminals and terrorists. If you aren’t a criminal and you have nothing to hide then why would you care if the government can access your computer or gather information about you? Well probably because most people value their privacy. "Senior Bush Administration officials later confirmed that the President's authorization went beyond the surveillance of terrorists and conceded that the program did not comply with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The President, invoking a theory of limitless executive power to disregard the mandates of Congress, has reauthorized this warrantless surveillance more than thirty times, including after the Department of Justice found the program to violate criminal laws, and has indicated that he intends to continue doing so."(eff.org) It is not okay for someone to have access to my private information on my computer without my consent. I don’t care if it’s the government or a law enforcement agency. I generally do trust the government, and I wouldn’t really care that much if they saw what was on my computer, it’s the principle of someone secretly monitoring me and having access to my information without my consent that bothers me. Also, having an infrastructure in place that would allow such easy access to people’s personal information seems like a terrible idea. Just because the government is using it for law enforcement purposes now doesn’t mean it couldn’t eventually be used for something less acceptable, or that someone with less noble purposes could somehow gain access to it. “to think that any government wouldn’t do it to its own citizens for whatever reason would be absurd. There are a lot of horrible routes this could take”(infiltrated.net)

sources:

http://www.eff.org/issues/nsa-spying

http://www.infiltrated.net/?p=91

for my squeak project i would like to remake an arcade game. the game is calle breakout (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakout_(arcade_game)). it is similar to pong but i think it is different enough that it should still be challenging to make. the game involves a paddle, a ball, and blocks, the object is to bounce the ball off the paddle without letting it touch the bottom of the screen. when the ball hits a block the block the block changes color, after being hit a certain number of times the block is destroyed, the player wins when all the blocks are gone. 

objects used in this game would be the ball, the paddle, a playing area, a bottom border, a start and reset button, and a bunch of blocks. scripts that i would use would include a movement scripts for the ball and the paddle(similar to the pong scripts), a script for the ball hitting the bottom of the screen and losing the game, a script for when the ball hits a block and destroys it, a script to declare the player a winner when all the blocks are destroyed, a script to start the game, and a script to give the player a score each time a block is destroyed. i will have to probably make at least 4 user defined variables for this project to work. some examples of these variables would be the way the blocks behave when they are hit by the ball and change colirs.

BLOG ASSIGNMENT 2 - MOORE'S LAW

Moore's law, published in 1965 by Gordon Moore, states that the number of transistors that can be fit onto a circuit will increases exponentially every two years, this has been a driving force of many technological advances.(source) this means basically that computer capabilities increase at a very rapid pace.(source) . even without doing serious research anyone can see this trend in effect. by comparing cell phones, lap top computers, digital cameras, and PDA's today with similar products from 5 or 10 years ago even a casual user of these devices would notice the increased  capabilities and power of these devices.

some believe there are limits to this law however: "In terms of size [of transistor] you can see that we're approaching the size of atoms which is a fundamental barrier, but it'll be two or three generations before we get that far - but that's as far out as we've ever been able to see. We have another 10 to 20 years before we reach a fundamental limit" -Gordon Moore(source). others believe that rapid increase in technological capabilities will lead to a singularity. in this scenario it is suggested that "if machines could even slightly surpass human intellect, they could improve their own designs in ways unforeseen by their designers, and thus recursively augment themselves into far greater intelligences"(source). if technology keeps advancing exponentially and artificial intelligence improves then a technological singularity would be feasible.

in conclusion, Moore's Law states that about every two years the number of transistors that can fit onto a circuit doubles. this seems to mean that technology advances and will advance at an exponential rate. some feel that this type of technological progress is not infinitely sustainable, others feel that progress will continue until artificial intelligence is smarter than human intelligence and a kind of "technological explosion" will occur.(source)

sources

http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsid=3477

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4446285.stm

info 102 HW1 blog

(1) when looking at the different blog sites i noticed that they all had a few things in common. blogger, livejournal, and wordpress all mentioned how easy and fun it was to blog and the many different uses a blog could serve. each of the different blogging sites had relatively similar features, all though some minor differences, such as layout syle, did exist. i ended up choosing blogger because i am already somewhat familiar with it and i like the layout styles.

(2)one phenomenon related to blogging that i find interesting is the amount of illigal music sharing that occurs on blogs. over the years the government and the music industry  have been trying to stop illegal music sharing and piracy.(1) when many people think of donwloading music illegally services like napster, kazaa or limewire might come to mind, but i have found that blogs offer equally easy access to free music.

while investigating this phenomenon i visited many blog sites that featured  posts which included links to download music for free.(2) the way this seems to work is that when someone wishes to share music online they will include in their post a link to music they have uploaded on to a file hosting site. this allows people to download songs, albums, or entire discographies for free.

many of these blogs are themed, often specializing in a specific type of music or focusing on a certain artist. some of the blogs are run by bloggers who simply post whatever music they feel like posting while others seem to allow people to request music they want to download. 
links to sources
(1) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18644781/
(2) http://postrocklounge.blogspot.com