Computer Riddle

You like riddles, right?  Sure, we all do.  Well, I bring you one today that's an old favorite of mine.  Whoever gets the right answer can consider themselves the proud owner of The Fountain of Useless Knowledge Award.  The last time I offered this award it was such a rousing success that I figured I'd drag it out again.  Luckily, this time you don't need to go scouring the internet for answers (in fact, you better not.)  All you need to do is get some of those rusty cogs and gears working in you brain.  So, clear out the cobwebs and see if you can't figure this out.

Okay, so you're trapped in a room for some reason.  There are two doors through which you can exit this room.  One door leads to freedom, the other door leads to a certain, horrifying death that probably involves several sharp, rotating blades.  The doors are marked, "Door A" and "Door B", but unfortunately you have no idea which one leads to freedom and which one to death.  However, there are two computers in the room with you that you can turn to for helpful information.  These computers are marked "Computer 1" and "Computer 2", and they will answer any question you have, but you can only ask one question.  And there's a catch.  One of the computers always tells the truth without fail, and the other one always lies without fail, and again, you don't know which is which.  So how can you use your one question to lead you to freedom?

One of these men is a liar.

As before, I'll hold off on posting the comments, and I'll wait a few days before posting the answer in the comments myself if no one gets it.  I'll give it, say, to the end of the month.  Enjoy!

Artificial Intelligence Requires Emotions

It is generally assumed that as computing processes are refined and sophisticated that eventually a point will be reached where they will achieve a virtually indistinguishable simulation of human intelligence.   But the basic problem of artificial intelligence is not merely one of technological advancement.  The basic problem of artificial intelligence is emotions.

A true and authentic artificial intelligence would be required to make decisions on its own.  Now, at this point we can create programs capable of making crude decisions within extremely limited parameters, or at least computers running these programs appear capable of these decisions.  But these computers are merely running calculations of equations and formulas behind the scenes.  The programmer designs the program to react in certain ways and to perform certain functions on the basis of a wide multitude of foreseeable contingencies.  They convert these contingencies into variables and assign them numeric values.  So, in effect, the computer isn't really making decisions at all.  The decisions have all been made in advance by the programmer.  This is why a program is unable to respond effectively to unexpected developments or to appreciate the subtle nuances of unique situations.  It is the programmer that was unable to expect the development or anticipate the situation.  The program itself is merely processing variables.  If X happens it does Y, and so on.  This is the stage at which even the most sophisticated computers are at this point.  

So, what is needed to move towards an intelligence that makes genuine decisions?  All decisions are based on values.  In the present scenario, mentioned above, the programmer uses literal, numeric values.  The programmer holds the computer's hand, so to speak, and walks it through which functions to perform when the values are at certain exact quantities.  The next step would be a computer capable of making independent evaluations.  This would place the programmer one step removed from the computer's actions.

At this level, the computer would have to move beyond the mere calculation of variables.  Of course, calculation will still and will always be its primary method of functioning, but at this level the process will need to be more fluid and complex in a way I can hardly imagine.  The programmer would designate in advance certain states and conditions as being "desirable" to the computer, and the computer itself would have to devise the means by which to achieve these states and conditions. It would no longer be merely acting on the basis of preset equations.  It would instead be calculating its own equations.  It would have to figure out on it's own the best strategy to achieve its preprogrammed ends.

We're talking about an incredibly advanced computer here; one capable of its own versatility. We've moved beyond the fumbling glitches of a computer acting on rigidly defined equations. This is a computer that could anticipate new situations and could respond to unexpected developments in a way unthinkable today.  This is a computer that would write its own programming.

Consider this hypothetical illustration.  Let's say there's a computer programmed to maintain a certain energy state.  At present, the programmer would consider all the possible situations that could disturb the equilibrium of this energy state.  Then the programmer would figure out how to translate all of these situations into equations and numerical values.  Through this translation, the programmer instructs the computer how to respond to each and every particular situation.  There is nothing resembling a thought-process involved on the computer's part, just the processing of numbers and binary states of circuitry.  Now, at the next level, the programmer would simply assign the computer the task of maintaining the energy state, then the computer would program itself with the best means to fulfill this task.

Again, we're talking about an extremely sophisticated piece of technology.  The rudimentary buds of actual consciousness are beginning to blossom here.  This is a computer that has moved beyond calculation and taken the next step on the road to actual thought.  It can evaluate; it can plan; it can formulate strategies.  This is a computer that can do what our minds do, even if only to a limited degree.  If we're tired, we find a place to sleep.  If we're hungry, we find something to eat.  We devise means to achieve certain ends.  We program our own thought and actions, in a sense.

But as impressive as this hypothetical computer is, it still hasn't quite achieved the breath of life.  It hasn't quite reached the state of actual artificial intelligence.  It may be as close as we ever come, and it would still be an incredible achievement, but there's still a vital ingredient missing.  A truly artificial intelligence would have to be capable of feeling.

In the second level scenario proposed above, we have a computer capable of devising its own means.  The problem is that the ends still have to be programmed.  The computer still has to be assigned the task of maintaining the energy state.  The computer still has to be told that this is a desirable state of affairs.  The computer is incapable of desiring on its own that the energy state be maintained.  For all of its impressive abilities, its still incapable of comprehending why the energy state needs to be maintained.  Now, at the very limits of this second scenario, I suppose it would be possible to program a nearly unimaginable super computer with the ultimate end of maintaining its own survival or the entire human race or possibly the survival of the entire universe, to which the computer could conceivably devise an infinity of sub-ends to meet the requirement of this one ultimate end.  Such a computer would, of course, have to have a far broader perspective than the maintenance of a single energy source.  

Such a computer would stand nearly head and shoulders with our own intellect, but it is still only acting according to a preprogrammed end.  Its own survival or the survival of the human race, and so on, still means absolutely nothing to it.  It doesn't feel anything about it one way or the other.  It's still just doing what it's told.  A true artificial intelligence would have to be able to devise its own ends, not merely sub-ends contingent on one ultimate preprogrammed end.  It would have to want to survive; it would have to want the world to survive, if it were to be capable of true independent decision making and genuine thought.  

For human beings with natural intelligence all of our decisions have a precedent which lies in our emotions.  If we decided to get out of bed to go to work, it's because we want to keep our jobs.  If we want to keep our jobs, it's because we want to get paid.  If we want to get paid...you get the idea.  We choose the things we value.  We choose the ends we want to achieve.  We are able to do this, because all of our choices are ultimately based in a fundamental foundation of emotion.  In the end, true artificial intelligence is about choice and independence, and these things are impossible without emotion.  Only a computer endowed with emotion could decide on its own which ends it wanted to achieve; ends that wouldn't be contingent on an ultimate preprogrammed end, but rather contingent on the feelings and desires of genuine intelligence. 

On the one hand, such a machine might never be possible, but on the other hand, it might come about simply through the natural course of things.  If we ever do design computers that reach the second level and are capable of programming themselves to achieve preset ends, they might move on to that next third level all on their own.  Once the wheels are in motion, once the design of these machines are refined and sophisticated over time, once you have a machine capable of evaluating the best course of action on its own, there's no telling what it might achieve.  An advanced enough computer might finally figure out that achieving consciousness and emotions might be the best way to accomplish its predetermined goal.   At that point it may be hard to draw the line between where the programming ends and the consciousness begins.

We like to believe that the next steps of evolution will be our own, but perhaps such a hypothetical machine will be our true predecessor.  Maybe the world of the future will be populated by these children of our natural intellects.  We dream of traveling between the stars, but our own feeble mortality seems like an insurmountable obstacle to achieving this.   An artificial life form would not be bound by our physical limitations.  Life on Earth may one day reach across the great divide of space and make contact with life on another world, but perhaps it won't be human life that makes this contact, but rather the new life we helped create.