Introduction
Over the last century, a growing discussion about the nature of the human mind has acquired relevance and attention. Artificial intelligence includes everything from self-driving cars to IBM's Watson and internet search engines. Because most artificial intelligence is designed to execute a few specific tasks, it is commonly referred to as weak artificial intelligence. Many researchers, however, have long-term aspirations of developing extremely powerful artificial intelligence. Strong artificial intelligence exhibits intentional behavior; it possesses the entire spectrum of cognitive abilities that only humans can perform. Human cognitive skills include consciousness, sentience, and self-awareness (Ravenscroft 81). While weak artificial intelligence is known to several small tasks like solving equations or playing games, strong artificial intelligence purposes to outperform human beings in almost all cognitive tasks. Several innovations such as self-driving vehicles and SIRI on iPhones in technology are simulating human characteristics encouraging the growth of artificial intelligence. Even more, advances in science fiction are portraying artificial intelligence as robots that have human characteristics (Ravenscroft 83). For purposes of this paper, I intend to critique and assess the present-day debate involving the question impelled by the above-mentioned descent of ideas, namely: Is strong artificial intelligence possible?
The Computational Theory of Mind
To begin with, the computational theory of mind views the human mind/brain as an information processing system and a computing center. The brain acts as a computing engine and the mind results from the program the brain run (Ravenscroft 81). A program is defined as the set description of an effective procedure or algorithm that prescribes a system of distinct actions which produces outputs centered only on the memory and inputs of the computing machine. The theory was proposed in 1961 but came into development in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. For any input to be admissible, algorithms have to terminate in a fixed number of steps (Ravenscroft 81). Accordingly, the computational theory of mind claims the mind is a computation of the brain and it stems output illustrations of the world from internal memory and input representations in a way consistent with the theory of computation. Strong artificial intelligence is a field that explores computational models of solving problems where the problems to be tackled are of complexity only human beings can solve (Ravenscroft 81).
Possibility of Creating Strong Artificial Intelligence
Furthermore, it is possible to create strong artificial intelligence despite limits by modern technology provided software and hardware requirements are met. The brain of a human being is still very complex and not very well understood but it is likely to be simulated by modern technology such as computers. Computers have perfect recall unlike the human brain and therefore can simulate the brain perfectly (Ravenscroft 83). Computers have the ability to achieve mental feats in microseconds something that the human brain cannot do. Modern technology when interfaced with the internet acquires knowledge at a very fast rate that the human brain is not able to (Ravenscroft 83). Additionally, there is nothing special, non-physical and supernatural about the brain of human beings. The human brain is complex but with time it can be reproduced just the same way human organs are cloned and simple objects are printed on 3D. The human brain can be simulated down to its atoms to eventually distil the algorithms that form part of the intelligence (Ravenscroft 84).
Existing Non-Biological Intelligence
Besides, intelligence is denoted as the ability to decipher problems, therefore, it is evident that non-biological intelligence is by now existing and growing. People can use modern technology such as computers to solve many problems. Therefore, the computer contributes artificial intelligence to the human-laptop system (Ravenscroft 84). Computers give us a chance to solve complex problems that could qualitatively only be solved by humans (Ravenscroft 83). Artificial intelligence continues to improve with every passing generation. On the other hand, human intelligence doesn't improve. There is no barrier that will prevent artificial intelligence from exceeding and supplanting human contributions to solving problems. In the near future, not far from now strong artificial intelligence will be fully adopted to solve world problems, as it is inevitable (Ravenscroft 84). Also, it is possible to automate the human voice using technology because it is clearly defined. Voice recognition and speech/text recognition have always been restricted to human beings but with technology such as voice search engines, machines are able to operate without human involvement. This is an example of a complex algorithm also known as strong artificial intelligence (Ravenscroft 83).
Concerns about the Possibility of Strong Artificial Intelligence
Nonetheless, there have been concerns that strong artificial intelligence is not possible at all. First of all, artificial intelligence is restricted by human programming. In simpler terms, strong artificial intelligence is because of human being creation and therefore it is limited to what human beings are able to create (Ravenscroft 89). If human beings cannot be able to create technology with super artificial intelligence abilities, then super artificial intelligence will not exist. In as much as technology is bound to advance in the near future, it is very unlikely that there will ever be a robot that has qualities that are greater or equal to human beings in regards to choice-making and thinking (Ravenscroft 89). Furthermore, strong artificial intelligence undergoes programming to respond according to statistics and probabilities and to complete physical tasks. Strong artificial intelligence can't apply morality or feel emotion past its programming. Human beings have a non-physical, spirit aspect in their being that is the core of their faith, morality, love, conscience among many other essential attributes. There is no advancement in technology that will ever create a spirit. Human beings are the unique species with genuine intelligence and no such entity as artificial intelligence can replace it. There are unique human attributes that cannot be duplicated (Ravenscroft 89).
Limits in Research and Technology
Moreover, strong artificial intelligence research is unsuccessful at approximating the creation of the human person. Human beings have the ability to create technology, music, and art but do not have the ability to create self-consciousness or life. In the world, there exist particulars and universals. Particulars are things that are tangible e.g. objects such as laptops, desks, pencils, etc. while universals are abstract but they do exist e.g. justice, love, and mercy (Ravenscroft 117). Intellectualism is the contemplation of universals and perception of particulars. For intelligence to be strong, something has to have an aspect of both particulars and universals which in innate only in human beings alone. That concept explains why as much as human beings come up with advanced innovations, strong artificial intelligence is out of reach and almost practically impossible. Additionally, it is impossible to have strong artificial intelligence, for now, is because of lack of a suitable philosophy of mind to definitively and sufficiently assist researchers to get a theoretical understanding of the reason behind the human brain's intelligence. As a result of not having a clear understanding of the reason behind the human brain intelligence, researchers/innovators cannot create programs to emulate the vital relevant properties of human brains (Ravenscroft 94).
Lack of Adequate Hardware and Funding
Furthermore, another reason as to why strong artificial intelligence is not possible is because the current hardware being used is far weaker compared to the human brain. There is actually a possibility of creating human-level artificial intelligence from the current hardware but the experimenting process with different proto artificial generating intelligence approaches is very slow (Ravenscroft 94). The programs run slowly because the present software tools that handle hardware limitations are very complex to use. Also, strong artificial intelligence is not possible at the moment because there is very poor funding and inadequate resources. A lot of resources are used in supporting weak artificial intelligence like operating systems, computer chip companies, or word processors but the strong artificial intelligence sector gets a tiny fraction of the support yet it is more complicated. Besides, strong artificial intelligence also requires dynamics and high-level structures and no discovery has been made yet on the approach or algorithm that will yield the structures (Ravenscroft 94).
Conclusion
Strong artificial intelligence is not possible in this current world. However, strong artificial intelligence is not reasonably impossible considering anything can happen in the technology world but the idea is utterly farfetched. The reason is that people do not even have the slightest idea of how to engineer strong artificial intelligence given there is very little understanding of how intelligence and the human brain work (Ravenscroft 81). There is ever an increasing emergence of smart technology that affects how human beings perceive the world and themselves. However, these machines are not strongly intelligent, conscious, or know what human beings do know. Plenty of research has shown that computation has limits and it is impossible to construct algorithms that work like the human brain. Intelligence is innate in animals and humans. Computers rely on programming to perform logical works and take decisions and cannot learn new things until it is loaded with instructions (Ravenscroft 81). As human beings, we should be cautious about the advancement technology makes in terms of intelligence as it may likely be catastrophic.
Works cited
Ravenscroft, Ian. "Philosophy of mind: A beginner's guide." (2005). Print.
