#1332 - Machine minds
I had a breakthrough conversation with Perry Knoppert, a nonlinear thinker and the founder of The Octopus Movement, "a global mycelial network of atypical thinkers."
The conversation was totally nonlinear, so I don't know how we got where we got. What I know is that we came across a bunch of inspiring thoughts. One of them was about artificial intelligence. It is a fascinating topic that has already triggered some of my morning reflections.
One of the questions that often comes up in conversations around AI is if and when machines will be able to think like human beings. Yet, in this conversation with Perry, I realized we should be more concerned about the opposite: human beings thinking like machines.
Our society rewards linear thinking, starting with schools.
We learn algorithms to go from problems to solutions in the most efficient way. The linear thinking approach is easy to understand, model, replicate and teach. It perfectly suits the industrial age, and it works very well also in the information age. Machines are the perfect students when it comes to linear thinking. Even better than humans who have this annoying tendency, particularly at young ages, to have nonlinear thoughts.
So, indeed, in a linear thinking world, I understand the unease about machines thinking better than us. But to be honest, I am more concerned about too many humans thinking like machines.
The title of this post comes from Charlie Chaplin's final speech from The Great Dictator.