Exploring Intelligence
The prevailing metaphor of the brain is that it is a computer. And in trying to build smarter AI, computer scientists often try to ape the brain. Yet what if these are really radically different kinds of intelligence? Join Susan Schneider, one of the world’s most prestigious philosophers of mind, as she disentangles our confusions in thinking through the smarts of conscious and non-conscious systems.
Part One: Why the mind is not a software program
Scientists often use the language of computers to describe the functioning of the brain: we store memories, retrieve information and process data. But are these descriptions helpful or harmful to our understanding? Schneider interrogates whether the mind really is anything like a software programme.
Part Two: Conscious Engineering
The relationship between intelligence and consciousness in machines is deeply perplexing. While many believe that consciousness would naturally arise from sufficiently intelligent machines doing sufficiently deep thinking, Schneider makes the case that just as man is not the measure of all intelligent systems, consciousness might not be the measure of intelligence.