Artificial Intelligence From the Bible!

The most revolutionary scientific advances in this century will come from the Bible.

There is no doubt that the discovery of AI, one of the most coveted holy grails of modern science, will be shocking news in its own right. The notion that the secret of AI was written down in a book nearly two thousand years ago is bound to ruffle many a scientific feather. And that the book in question should turn out to be the Bible (of all things!) will be more than many can bear. Indeed, why not the Koran? Why not the Vedic scriptures? Why did not the secret of AI come from Buddhism or Hinduism or some other religion? Most important of all, why did it not come from the scientific community seeing that they are all so quick to discredit the scientific importance of not just the Bible, but all ancient scriptures? Certainly there will be those who will decide to hang on to their obsolete views at all costs. But to those of us with an honest and rational mind, it is clear that humanity's accumulated body of knowledge, especially its understanding of its origin and place in the universe, is in for a radical if not painful revision. Inevitably, many cherished paradigms will be discredited.

The Age of the Super Intelligent Machine

The brain is a composite network consisting of a number of tightly integrated subnetworks or cell assemblies. As mentioned previously, each of the seven churches represents a cell assembly (subnetwork) in the brain. In turn, each cell assembly has a unique function and architecture and performs a specific signal processing task which is essential to the functioning of the system as a whole. Using this knowledge, it is possible to endow a machine with the ability to learn from its environment and attain sophisticated behavioral and reasoning skills, very much like a human being.

Intelligent machines will run the gamut from self-piloting ground and air vehicles to highly advanced robotic systems. They will become proficient in every human field of knowledge and expertise. There will be robot doctors, nurses, engineers, technicians, scientists, chefs, soldiers, historians, construction workers, farmers, architects, store managers, investment advisors, language interpreters, gardeners, housekeepers, landscapers, factory workers and many more. They will come in all shapes, sizes and specialties. Some will move about on wheels, some will fly, and others will sport multiple legs and arms and various other appendages. Many will interact directly with humans while others will remain hidden from view most of the time, coming out to do their chores quietly when no humans are in sight. Some will not move at all, as their function will be to search the internet and databases for new knowledge. But this is just the tip of the iceberg because, for the first time in recorded history, humanity is in a position to build machines so powerful, that their intelligence will surpass that of the smartest human beings on earth! And contrary to what some experts may suppose, it can be done now, using existing computer technology. Where will this road take us? It is anyone's guess. But this is undoubtedly the dawning of the age of the super intelligent machine.

The Quickening

The impact that the introduction of AI will have on the world will be profound. But does it have to be catastrophic, as so many have predicted? Certainly there are dangers but it all depends on the choices we make. I often come across the assertion that intelligent machines will advance to a point where they will rebel against their human masters. The underlying assumption is that higher intelligence implies a necessity or desire to dominate and enslave others. This assumption confuses intelligence (reason) with motivation (emotions). The truth is that reason is always at the service of emotion. No intelligence can behave in a manner which is inconsistent with its conditioning. That is to say, no intelligent system, artificial or otherwise, can rebel against its own internal motivation. This is always true, regardless of how intelligent the system is. Certainly an intelligent machine may intentionally hurt a human being, but only if it was conditioned to do so. It is up to us to impart the right motivational values to our synthetic intelligences. If properly motivated, they will serve us to the best of their abilities, regardless of how smart they are.

On another tangent, consider that skilled labor and intellectual expertise will become very cheap, very fast, throwing an increasingly vast percentage of humanity into unemployment. It is not just gardeners, housekeepers and factory workers who will lose their jobs but also scientists, engineers, lawyers, accountants, chief executive officers and other professionals. True AI means the end of work as we know it. Will we be ready? Can our current economic systems handle the new laborless economy? Obviously neither capitalism nor communism will do since they are both based on human labor. Will we take the necessary measures to change to a better system? Or will we plunge headlong into a global Orwellian nightmare? Here is a hint: The solutions to all these problems can all be found in the same book where the secret of intelligence came from.

It has been said that AI is the ultimate invention, i.e., the invention to end all inventions. It is easy to envision a golden age in which humanity's every need and desire are met by legions of intelligent and benevolent synthetic servants. And why not? The development of truly intelligent machines can certainly bring about an age of plenty and careless living for all. Furthermore, super-intelligent machines will be hard at work searching for solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems. However, the road to utopia will be filled with potholes and populated with monsters. The warning is loud and clear: proceed with caution, and pay attention to the road signs. We have a simple choice: doomsday or utopia. Will we heed the message?

Science and Intelligence

It cannot be said that the scientific community is clueless with regard to intelligence. Certainly there is a lot of cluelessness out there, especially in the GOFAI (good old-fashioned AI) community, but a few scientists seem to have grasped a number of important aspects of the brain's operation. Psychologists, in particular, have made giant strides in their understanding of human and animal behavior. I recently read a surprisingly insightful paper (PDF format) by Alexander Riegler titled "The Role of Anticipation in Cognition."  Riegler methodically and mercilessly demolishes what he calls "the standard definition of anticipatory systems" according to which "anticipation is based on a predictive model of the system itself and its environment."  He goes on to write about the concept of "operationally closed systems" which he defines thus: "The operational closure of the nervous system means that it is a self-referring system which operates on its own states. Nervous signals are unspecific, e.g., visual stimuli produces the same kind of internal signals as tactile ones." This is right on the money.

Another thing that caught my attention in the same paper, is what Riegler calls the "canalization" of sensory-motor behavior. Essentially, the brain uses a mechanism of action selection whereby, once a particular behavior is selected, all unrelated sensory and perceptual pathways pathways are locked out. This allows an intelligent organism to focus on one task at a time. As Riegler explains, this can lead to odd behaviors in some animals such as snakes and geese. This fits rather well with the symbolic meaning of the key of David mentioned in the message to the church of Philadelphia.

Riegler's stance is in sharp contrast to that of  the AI community. Contrary to what many AI researchers have preached (and continue to preach as I write) over the last fifty years or so, intelligence and reasoning are not the result of symbol processing. Intelligence is strictly a signal-processing phenomenon. It is all about the relative timing of unnamed signals and how this timing is used to block or route signals through specific pathways.

Riegler's work on anticipation and attention, one of the most important aspects of intelligence, is brilliant. But he is not alone. Psychology is a fertile ground where passionate researchers continually create new models with which to explain subtle and not so subtle aspects of human behavior. However, there are so many possible avenues of inquiry that a fully coherent picture that combines all aspects of intelligence is hard to come by.  Even with people like Riegler who are at the vanguard of intelligence research, it could conceivably take scientists many decades if not centuries to solve the entire problem. Fortunately for some (and unfortunately for others), the search is now over. Suddenly, the solution is here. And it has come from a rather unexpected source. Questions is, will it be well received in the scientific community? Will scientists see it as an opportunity to expand their understanding and modify their world view? Will they find excuses to disbelieve? Will they embrace the solution and ignore the source? Only time will tell.

Naked Evolutionists?

Darwinian evolution is by necessity a blind incremental process. In other words, it does not anticipate. Most intelligence researchers (e.g., Rodney Brooks, director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab) base their work on evolutionarily plausible scenarios. In their view, intelligence evolved gradually over the years as new behaviors are built on top of previously evolved behaviors (this is the basis (PDF] of Brooks' subsumption architecture). The end result, we are told, is that the more recent members of a species are smarter than their ancestors. But this overlooks an important consideration. Humans are born with almost no behavioral skills. They must learn a huge number of new behaviors during their lifetimes. Consider the following:

The main conclusion which can be drawn from the above is that no incremental non-anticipatory process could possibly come up with all seven cell assemblies, let alone connect them all together in a meaningful way. But, even supposing that there is a flaw in this argument (there is not), a much bigger problem for evolutionists is that now we see the correct solution to the riddle of intelligence coming, not from the scientific community, but from the Bible! Is this not the same Bible that evolutionists have dismissed as mere superstition? Is it not the same Bible which claims that all living organisms were originally created by powerful intelligent beings, each organism according to its kind. And how do evolutionists explain the fact that advanced knowledge of brain function was known and written down in a book thousands of years ago? Answer: they cannot. Because it does not fit into their understanding of the origin and history of humanity. They have lost their garments and are walking about naked.

Is this to say that there was no evolution? Of course not. We must, however, understand how this evolution came about and what sort of evolution actually took place. It was, without a doubt, an evolution guided by an intelligent agent. By analogous example, one can say that our current computers evolved from the more primitive machines of the previous century. But they did not evolve on their own.

Science and Consciousness

One of the scientific community's unspoken agendas is to dismiss almost anything, regardless of merit, that might give credence to religion, especially to Christianity. It is an agenda with historical precedents dating back to the days of Galileo. The modus operandi adopted by most scientists can be summed up thus: if it cannot be observed or measured, it does not exist. Nowhere is this strict materialism more apparent than in their stance on consciousness. Indeed, as far as most of them are concerned, consciousness is but a by-product of the functioning of the brain. There is no need, in their view, to invoke the existence of anything other than the brain and its network of neurons to explain consciousness. Never mind, of course, that they do not have the tiniest shred of evidence, nor any logical argument, to support their claim.

The painful truth is that scientists, like everyone else, are totally clueless as to the nature of consciousness. Protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, theirs is a purely ideological stance stemming from their anti-religion prejudice. And to their eternal chagrin, the solution to the riddle of intelligence comes from the one place that they told us all to disregard, the Judeo-Christian Bible. Now, is this not the same Bible that speaks of human spirit and divine creation, the very things that scientists have long ago dismissed as mere superstition? To borrow from the scriptures, "the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone."

Deus ex Machina

I argue that intelligence does not imply consciousness any more than consciousness implies intelligence. Consciousness requires two components, a knower and a known. The two are complementary opposites. This means that the knower cannot be known and the known cannot know. Both are needed for consciousness to exist because neither the knower nor the known can know itself. Why? Because no entity or concept can be its own opposite. The known is obviously the electrochemical reactions (signals) in certain parts of the brain. The knower is something else.

Having said that, there is no way to stop people from ascribing conscious feelings to machines. They will do it for the same reason that they now ascribe consciousness to animals and to other human beings. They do it without knowing what consciousness is. They assume (wrongly) that emotional reactions are signs of consciousness. It is both sad and humorous to mention, but the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Machines (SPCM) is in our future. As the world becomes more and more unstable, it will come a time when people will view smart machines as sentient beings and even idolize them as the unexpected saviors of humanity. One of the dangers is that there are many power-hungry people on earth who will not hesitate to use this weakness in our species to dominate the world.