2019-03-26, 09:18 PM
Article:
Quote:"....our brains are thought to be effective because they are more computationally powerful than any computer we have today. We see similar claims in the computer science literature. The implication is that if only we could add more computing power, computers could do what people do. That reminds me of an old story:
John bought a truck so he could go into a farm-to-market business. He bought tomatoes from local farmers for two dollars a pound and drove them to market where he sold them for a dollar a pound. Needless to say, he began to lose money hand over fist.
He consulted his accountant who, after a detailed analysis, said, the “The answer is obvious. You need a bigger truck.”
A bigger computer would be like a bigger truck. All a truck can really do is haul things and all computers can really do is calculate. Limitations on computer performance are constrained by algorithmic information theory. According to the Church-Turing Thesis, anything done on the very fast computers of today could have been done—in principle—on Turing’s original 1930’s Turing machine. We can perform tasks faster today but the fundamental limitations of computing remain. Bigger and faster computers are not going to start creating new ideas. Those who believe that bigger computers will lead to superintelligence are asking for—a bigger truck."