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This morning, while waking up, I came me to a few insights:
- a computer is not a micro inch more intelligent than a broad toaster
- a computer mimics intelligence because of its sheer amount of electrical wires and switches. Better to say, WE mimic intelligence in a computer by putting millions of wires and switches in it. These wires and switches function in exact the same way as cogwheels did in primitive machines.
- when we program we create virtual punch cards that are stored n memory, which is a combination/set of 'frozen' electrical switches/wires.
- artificial intelligence is a misnomer, it is not intelligence by any stretch of the imagination. It is simply automation. A robot is an automatic machine, it has zero intelligence
- the reason most people can not explain this, is because they do not understand what a computer is and this is not because they are dumb but because most teachers teach with abstractions and do not know this fairly simply reality themselves. This reality is electrical and most of teaching s abstract explanation, with the use of mythology to create a logical narrative, logical, but without resemblance of reality. I think computer science should be explained from the electrical standpoint.
The basic activity of a computer is counting.
But the machine is not really counting. It has no awareness of what it is doing. It is us opening electric switches in concession in such a way that we see the counting happening before our eyes just like with an abacus. The difference with the abacus is, that we store the position of the switches in a memory bank. The reason why we can count higher numbers with a computer than with an abacus is due to size and automation:
- because we have millions of wires, and an abacus can not hold millions of beads.
- because a computer can be commanded by a preset of commands that we can automatically invoke and accumulate endlessly, thanks to storage.
The essential miracle of a computer is not it's perceived intelligence, which is an illusion. It is
- the creativity of combining switches that function differently from on another
- the ability to make these switches extremely small so that we can have millions of them
- the ability to change switch positions electronically/mechanically
- the ability to store the position of switches even when there is no electrical current present
Speed and scope is what enhances this machine, and both depend on making hardware smaller and smaller.
It is sad how difficult it is to find these simple answers online because so few people seem to be able to escape abstract explanations and go beyond them with an explanation of the actual facts.
- a computer is not a micro inch more intelligent than a broad toaster
- a computer mimics intelligence because of its sheer amount of electrical wires and switches. Better to say, WE mimic intelligence in a computer by putting millions of wires and switches in it. These wires and switches function in exact the same way as cogwheels did in primitive machines.
- when we program we create virtual punch cards that are stored n memory, which is a combination/set of 'frozen' electrical switches/wires.
- artificial intelligence is a misnomer, it is not intelligence by any stretch of the imagination. It is simply automation. A robot is an automatic machine, it has zero intelligence
- the reason most people can not explain this, is because they do not understand what a computer is and this is not because they are dumb but because most teachers teach with abstractions and do not know this fairly simply reality themselves. This reality is electrical and most of teaching s abstract explanation, with the use of mythology to create a logical narrative, logical, but without resemblance of reality. I think computer science should be explained from the electrical standpoint.
The basic activity of a computer is counting.
But the machine is not really counting. It has no awareness of what it is doing. It is us opening electric switches in concession in such a way that we see the counting happening before our eyes just like with an abacus. The difference with the abacus is, that we store the position of the switches in a memory bank. The reason why we can count higher numbers with a computer than with an abacus is due to size and automation:
- because we have millions of wires, and an abacus can not hold millions of beads.
- because a computer can be commanded by a preset of commands that we can automatically invoke and accumulate endlessly, thanks to storage.
The essential miracle of a computer is not it's perceived intelligence, which is an illusion. It is
- the creativity of combining switches that function differently from on another
- the ability to make these switches extremely small so that we can have millions of them
- the ability to change switch positions electronically/mechanically
- the ability to store the position of switches even when there is no electrical current present
Speed and scope is what enhances this machine, and both depend on making hardware smaller and smaller.
It is sad how difficult it is to find these simple answers online because so few people seem to be able to escape abstract explanations and go beyond them with an explanation of the actual facts.
