[IP] What Lurks in Its Soul?

[George Duncan]

From: George Dyson <[hidden email]>
Date: November 13, 2005 9:52:08 AM EST
To: dave at farber.net
Subject: Re: [IP] What Lurks in Its Soul?

For another perspective, see "Turing's Cathedral: A visit to Google
on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of John von Neumann's
proposal for a digital computer" at:

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dyson05/dyson05_index.html

excerpt:

My visit to Google? Despite the whimsical furniture and other toys, I
felt I was entering a 14th-century cathedral ? not in the 14th
century but in the 12th century, while it was being built. Everyone
was busy carving one stone here and another stone there, with some
invisible architect getting everything to fit. The mood was playful,
yet there was a palpable reverence in the air. "We are not scanning
all those books to be read by people," explained one of my hosts
after my talk. "We are scanning them to be read by an AI."

When I returned to highway 101, I found myself recollecting the words
of Alan Turing, in his seminal paper Computing Machinery and
Intelligence, a founding document in the quest for true AI. "In
attempting to construct such machines we should not be irreverently
usurping His power of creating souls, any more than we are in the
procreation of children," Turing had advised. "Rather we are, in
either case, instruments of His will providing mansions for the souls
that He creates."

Google is Turing's cathedral, awaiting its soul. We hope. In the
words of an unusually perceptive friend: "When I was there, just
before the IPO, I thought the coziness to be almost overwhelming.
Happy Golden Retrievers running in slow motion through water
sprinklers on the lawn. People waving and smiling, toys everywhere. I
immediately suspected that unimaginable evil was happening somewhere
in the dark corners. If the devil would come to earth, what place
would be better to hide?"

--
George T. Duncan
Professor of Statistics
Heinz School of Public Policy and Management
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
[phone]
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