Brain Vs Computer: The Challenge Of The Century

by Jean-pierre Fillard

Overview

It is well known that every animal species obeys Darwin's law of evolution, which requires permanent adaptation of animals to their environment. To be precise, every species except man, who behaves exactly contrariwise, adapting the workplace to himself in order to survive. For that he generally enjoys a particular gift of nature: intelligence.That reverse adaptation, which accumulated over centuries, led to what we call 'progress'. This was enhanced by the development of machines which began to be also intelligent and now compete fiercely with humans through the development of an 'artificial intelligence'.Some famous people in the world of science and technology recently sounded the alarm about the threats which these improvements are posing. They invoked a possible domination by the machines due to their uncontrolled superior intelligence, potentially leading us into a certain kind of slavery.In this book we take a look at this new challenge of the human brain versus the computer. The brain is a very complex organ and we are just beginning to understand how it works; many things remain mysterious and can lead to surprises. We will see how current investigations bring new information about this strange organ.We will also see how the 'artificial challenger' plans to win the battle, how computers are getting more and more powerful and subtle as the AI advances. Would a transfer of minds in a machine be possible? Would the computer be capable of a self, nonneuromorphic intelligence? These questions are now open.Who will win? We do not know yet. But it is certain that many things are going to change in our lives in the very near future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789813145559
Publisher:	World Scientific Publishing Company, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/03/2017
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

Table of Contents

Preface xv

Introduction xvii

Pandora's Box xviii

About the Book xxi

Part 1 About Our Brain: How Does It Work? 1

Chapter 1 The Biological Hardware (Hardmeat) 5

What About the Brain? 5

Gray Matter 7

White Substance 8

Copying the Wiring 10

The Basic Cell: The Neuron 12

The Constitution 12

Biochemical Activation of the Neuron 14

Redundancy, Troubles, and Repairs 15

Biological, Biochemical, and Electrical Logic 17

Transplants 18

Methods of Analysis 19

Direct Investigations 19

EEG and related devices 20

X-ray-related methods 23

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRT) 24

Positron emission tomography (PET) 25

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) 25

Stimulation Methods 26

Electroconvulsive thearapy (ECT) 26

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) 26

Pacemakers 27

Disturbances in the Normality 27

Internal Communication in the Brain 27

Chapter 2 The Biological Software (Softmeat) 29

From Thales to Freud 29

The Greek Philosophy 30

Later on 33

Nietzsche 34

Spinoza and the Knowledge 35

Kant 35

Psychology, Psychoanalysis, and Psychiatry 36

Psychology 36

Psychoanalysis 37

Psychiatry 38

The Complexity of the Information Processing 39

Neuronal Exchanges - Is It All in the Genome? 39

Predeterminism, Randomness, and Necessity 40

The Role of the Five Senses 41

The Origin of the Exchanges 42

Words in the Brain 43

Sleep and Hypnosis 45

Sleep 45

Hypnosis 46

The Experimental Tests 47

Computational Neuroscience 49

Chapter 3 Be Aware of Consciousness 53

Observed vs Observer 53

Consciousness 54

Introspection 56

Neuropsychology 59

Cognitive Organization 61

Cognition 61

Memory and Oblivion 62

About Animals 64

Toward the Discovery of Consciousness 64

The Trial-and-Error Method 65

Troubles out of Control and Disorders 68

The Experimental Means 69

Human Logic and Intuition 70

Subconscious Consciousness 71

The Role of the Words 71

Intuition 73

Chapter 4 Transcendence 75

The Self, The Soul 76

Transcendence: Mathematics and Religions 77

The Mathematics 77

The numbers 77

The algebra 79

The Early Ages of the Religions 81

Nowadays, Modernity 82

Neurotheology - The Recess of the Divine? 84

Modeling a Brain 85

Growing a Brain 85

Is Emulating a Brain Thinkable? 87

What About the Computer? 88

Kurzweil, the Transcendent Man 88

Growing AI? 91

Part 2 Toward an Intelligent Computer 93

Chapter 5 The Origin of the Challenge 95

From the Transistor to Quantum Logic 95

What is the Computer Made of? 95

Binary Logic and Thereafter 99

Fuzzy Logic to Smoothen Decisions 101

Formal Logic 103

Supercomputers 104

Supercomputers - What for? 106

All-purpose supercomputers 106

Brain-devoted computers 107

Supercomputers - What are They Made of? 108

Supercomputers - Who Pays? 109

Blue Brain Project (BBP) 110

Brain initiative 111

Google brain 112

Baidu, the Google of China 113

The Brain/MINDS project 113

Toward Quantum Logic 114

Quantum Wells 115

Photonics 116

The Compatible Artificial Logic 117

Brain-Computer Interfaces 117

Chips for Brain Simulation 118

Computer's Challenges 119

Biology Turns to Electronics 119

Chapter 6 Artificial Intelligence 121

What is Intelligence? 121

What Is Intelligence Made of? 122

Intelligence and Communication 125

Distributed and Cumulative Intelligence 126

What is AI? 129

Compartments of AI 129

Super artificial intelligence 130

Narrow (or weak, or applied) intelligence 130

Friendly A1 131

Seed A1 131

Robotics 133

Deep Learning 135

What Else? 139

Dedicated Intelligent Systems 140

Perception Analysis 141

Vocal and Facial Recognition 142

The Virtual Reality to Come 143

Big Data 143

Big Data - Why and How? 144

Unexpected Results 145

The Dangers to Come from AI? 145

Who Would Win? 145

Some Gathered Personal Opinions 147

What Could we Conclude from That? 149

Chapter 7 Toward an Intelligent Computer 151

Artificial Surroundings 152

Virtual and Augmented Reality 152

Connected Objects 154

The Internet, the Games, and the Social Networks 156

Toward a Superior Intellect 157

Cognitive Computing 157

Watson, the IBM's Star Story 158

Big Data is Coming 160

Coming Research Programs 161

Supercomputers - What for? 161

Neuromorphism 162

Brain Transfer? 164

A Copycat of the Brain? 164

Google Brain? 165

How to Train the Computer? 166

Would the HLCB have to be Taught about Every Human Behavior? 167

Part 3 How to Make All That Stuff Hold Together 169

Chapter 8 How to Make Man and Computer Cooperate 171

How do we Take Advantage of the Computer? 171

Bio-Mineral Interfaces 171

The Thought-Driven External Command 174

The Internet and the Cloud 176

Progress in Brain Surgery 176

How can the Computer Benefit from an Improved Knowledge of the Brain? 178

Changes are Already Underway 178

Computers, Phones and the Like 178

Google's Curiosity 179

Virtual Reality 180

Is Changing the Brain and the Mind Underway? 181

Androids Already Exist, Even Though Not Yet Perfect 182

About Bots and Androids 183

At the very beginning 183

A robot to replace man 185

The humanlike androids 186

All of that Has Been Partly Engaged 188

Biological Cognition 192

What to Do, and What for? 192

Would the Computer be Able to Reciprocally control the Brain? 193

All of that Has Been Partly Achieved but the Essential Remains Undone 194

Chapter 9 Copy the Brain or Search for a Better Solution? 195

Is Our Brain to Change? 195

About the Learning Mechanism 196

The Brain (and Other) Competition 197

Hybrid Thought 199

The Biological Copy 200

Making a Direct Copy of the Biological 200

The Complexity 202

Software Brain Emulation 203

Low Level Emulation 203

Are We Living in a Dream? 204

The Virtual Reality of Our World 205

Could the Computer Invent a New Model of the Brain? 206

Androids and Cyborgs 207

Androids 207

A Mix of Man and Machine - The Cyborg 209

Is Big Brother Already Here? 212

A Bit of Science Fiction Before Closing This Chapter 213

Chapter 10 Is Trans humanism a Realistic Future? 215

Where Did we Come From? Where are we Heading? 216

The Place of God in Humanity 216

Is God to Be Forgotten? 219

Trans- or Posthumanism? 222

The Improved Man 222

Longevity and Brain Sustaining 222

Brain Enhancement 223

Toward a Higher Intelligence? 224

Nick Bostrom Emphasizes World Domination by the Machines 224

Do We Take Ourselves to Be God? 225

Is the Computer Able to Create Intelligence? 226

What to Do with Humanity if the Brain is Overcome by AI? 226

The Global Brain at a World Scale 228

Homo-Googlus and the Hackers Toward a Singularity 228

Brain Hacking 229

The Cloud, a Distributed Intelligence 230

Global Brain Institute 232

The Energy 233

Conclusion 237

Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Computer? 237

The Invasive Computer 238

The Global Threat 239