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Cathie Campbell's avatar

One of my most favorite movies is “Good Will Hunting”, along with “A Beautiful Mind”! Robin Williams was outstanding as he, in today’s parlance, “decoded” Will. Will’s friends had no conceptual bridge to Will, but Will navigated the best he could. Robin Williams’ character explained the raw and the real to Will, (even sharing his own humor about his wife’s sleeping noises) and let Will see the deeply human expressed experience of knowing some “one” so well. And Will awakened.

He came to know himself.

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The One Percent Rule's avatar

Beautifully expressed Cathie. "he came to know himself" which is something I hope AI never does. Mustafa Suleyman the CEO of AI at Microsoft and co-founder of Google DeepMind and Infelction AI has an interesting post today on "Seemingly conscious AI" he says... "The arrival of Seemingly Conscious AI is inevitable and unwelcome." https://mustafa-suleyman.ai/seemingly-conscious-ai-is-coming

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Cathie Campbell's avatar

Loved Suleyman’s deep thinking about SCAI: Seemingly Conscious AI.

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Tom White's avatar

Apple might have been on the right track all along: https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/illusion-of-thinking

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Cathie Campbell's avatar

I read “In the Shadow of Humanity” by N. John Williams that mirrors Suleyman’s article. On the back cover “Who is truly a person, and who is not? Our answer will shape a universe.”

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shayenna's avatar

I still haven't seen the film, it is my homework assignment for this evening!

Side note - I had a friend in high school who had been dealing with some very heavy things. On one particularly difficult day he asked our substitute teacher if he could be excused to the restroom. He didn't come back. She got very upset and I stood there and explained to her that he needed the space, that him leaving class was necessary for him to breathe. I alluded slightly to what he was dealing with and I will never forget her response to me. She said "I've read 'A Child Called "It"', if that boy can make it through his problems then there is no reason your friend can't." I will never forget that response and well, it reminded me a bit of the quote you shared.

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Tom White's avatar

Watch it now! So jealous you get to experience the magic for the first time!

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Cole Calfee's avatar

I spent an afternoon with Wendell Berry a few years ago and asked him what the biggest challenge facing my generation was...

"You're living in your minds."

Didn't know what it meant at the time but as time has passed those words have echoed, and I'll never forget em. This post was spot on.

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Tom White's avatar

Thank you, Cole! Often, I find that the deepest truths rest within the simplest sentences.

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Jeffrey Flathers's avatar

Your article today was "singularly" timely, because I attended an AI training this morning for the South Bend Area Realtors Association. The presenter talked about the four stages of AI. The first featured basic robotics in manufacturing---no thinking involved. The next stage could be called the Tesla level. The third level is the Turing Test level, in which one can talk to a computer for ten minutes and never realize that it was a machine and not a human interlocutor. The final fourth level was termed "singularity" when AI learns by itself without the need for humans. Will Singularity become Skynet??? Funnily enough, a Home Depot greeter, Ron, in Seaside, California told me that, serving as an extra, he met Robin Williams on a movie shoot. Somehow they got into a playful tussle, or a wrestle. He claimed RW was extraordinarily strong, pinning Ron with ease. Probably true, though----witness the old "Mork and Mindy" episodes. Williams packed muscle.

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