What Do You Believe But Cannot Prove?

http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_2.html

by jackchristopher • 17 years ago

28 50 17 years ago

edge.org

kvs2• 17 years ago

P != NP

dantheman• 17 years ago

P=NP

Come on, at least be an optimist.

kvs2• 17 years ago

Have a feeling P=NP will implode the allure surrounding algorithms, optimization, and computer science in general. :)

fgimenez• 17 years ago

RSA being broken is not optimistic

falsestprophet• 17 years ago

nickb = paul graham

aswanson• 17 years ago

Do you believe you can assign nickb that value or that they are equivalent?

anigbrowl• 17 years ago

My cash flow projections.

godDLL• 17 years ago

That there's hope for humanity.

jackchristopher• 17 years ago

Note that I submitted Page 2 of the article. Page 1 was too cluttered, but has interesting comments too.

8plot5• 17 years ago

Massive collaborative fiction will produce the next great novel.

olefoo2• 17 years ago

Don't do it; the last time someone tried that they wound up w/ Myspace.

8plot5• 17 years ago

Too late, I've already started, and so far it's working better than I imagined.

speek2• 17 years ago

Computational AI will never get anywhere close to true Intelligence, but Neural Networks might get close.

Even better would be a hardware _and_ software approach, not a brute forcing approach.

liuliu• 17 years ago

I believe complex combination of algorithms can be as intelligent as people other than neural networks.

saurabh• 17 years ago

I have pondered over this for a while. When we say human intelligence or "true intelligence" as you say it, the fact is, it is full of irrationality and errors. I believe that computational AI will go farther than we can imagine for the simple reason that we cannot process information the way a computer can; its relentless.

aristus• 17 years ago

Insisting that computer intelligence resemble human intelligence is probably the characteristic that the future will mock the most, like the way we mock primitive overdecorated Victorian machines.

8plot5• 17 years ago

I too have been pondering this and I think the field is lacking the concept of artificial _imagination_. Maybe intelligence = knowledge + imagination, and since we already have massive artificial knowledge (wikipedia for example), AI is just missing the imagination to comprehend all this data.

endtime3• 17 years ago

What do you mean by "computational AI" and why doesn't it include neural networks?

speek2• 17 years ago

Computational AI in that one tries to compute a top-down model of the mind.

tc• 17 years ago

That unwavering respect for individual liberty and personal sovereignty is superior to all other systems by which man can relate to man.

That no end can be moral if the means to that end require using violence and force against a peaceful individual who has not aggressed against his neighbor.

That a free society is a strong and secure society.

That only freedom can breed sustained innovation and growth.

known• 17 years ago

God

Banzai10• 17 years ago

Swine flu will dissapear soon!

joshu• 17 years ago

I don't know what it is but edge's format has always been difficult for me to read.

Luc2• 17 years ago

Get the book: http://www.amazon.com/What-Believe-but-Cannot-Prove/dp/00608...

10ren2• 17 years ago

"It is by logic we prove, it is by intuition that we invent." - Henri Poincaré http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Poincare.html

Luc2• 17 years ago

That the universe consists of matter, albeit strangely behaving matter, and that everything we see in the universe, no matter how wonderful, can be ultimately reduced to the interactions of this matter.

Angostura• 17 years ago

That this comment will rightfully be voted down.

skorgu• 17 years ago

That intelligence is nearly guaranteed to emerge from sufficiently complex systems.

tdavis• 17 years ago

Perpetual Satori. Trying to prove it only proves I'm not yet allowing myself to understand it. Therein, as the saying goes, lies the rub.

10ren2• 17 years ago

Too many! But I like the second one's (STANISLAS DEHAENE) idea that we can mobilize our old areas [of the brain] in novel ways.

I think so too. It reminds me of a study that showed that when we use tools (eg drive a car), we use the same brain areas as when we move are bodies. We literally use tools as an extension of the body. That's deep sensory and motor flexibility, that seemingly could exist without intelligence.

8plot5• 17 years ago

I too have been thinking about this same phenomenon, and I believe some day (soon), BCI + exoskeleton/ artificial wings will give us the true ability to fly like birds.

endtime3• 17 years ago

I don't really believe anything I can't prove (in the philosophical sense; I believe reasonable things that I haven't personally verified, like for example that the moon is not made of cheese.).

But there are things I'd like to believe but don't know how to "prove"/justify:

-That we have free will (in the sense that requires that the universe is nondeterministic).

-That some things are absolutely morally wrong.

Raplh• 17 years ago

That nothing I believe can be proved.

markbao• 17 years ago

Given how unfathomably large [1][2] our universe is, there is life out there.

We can't be so special, that in all of the universe, we're the only living organisms.

[1] http://content.ytmnd.com/content/c/1/4/c14120ab010cd708c758f...

[2] compare http://screenshots.markbao.com/660e999564918601acab7157bbac8... and http://screenshots.markbao.com/f0698e51086874626454f576b3f99...

rms2• 17 years ago

You ever see this? http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070814150630.ht... http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1367-2630/9/8/263

nradov• 17 years ago

Human intelligence and free will is largely the result quantum interactions that are more complex than most anyone suspects. True artificial intelligence will never be possible on transistor-based computers regardless of Moore's law or software advances.

rms2• 17 years ago

http://www.simulation-argument.com/

Though my understanding of the simulation I am living in is rather different than what Bostrom posits.

philh• 17 years ago

I was actually thinking about this question an hour or so ago, in the shower. I believe this is pure coincidence.

I also believe that, given a certain amount of liberty, motivation is the most important single factor in determining the success of an individual. This depends on the definition of success, but is reasonably robust. In particular, it covers wealth and happiness (commonly used to judge other people's success and our own, respectively).

esonica• 17 years ago

1. Living with a positive attitude attracts positive events and outcomes in your life.

2. I can do anything I put my mind to ; unproven till I have done everything :)

mindhacker• 17 years ago

Intelligence beyond earth.

cabalamat• 17 years ago

God doesn't exist.

pg• 17 years ago

It's worth doing good work.

pclark• 17 years ago

Good work is effort well spent.

riffer• 17 years ago

Trying to disprove things is the best way to get in touch with reality

herval• 17 years ago

that the man never actually landed on the moon? :-)

vicaya• 17 years ago

That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

What Do You Believe But Cannot Prove?

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