QUESTION6.com
We,The People, are not happy
7 - The human brain
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On the other extreme we have the slime molds. No head, no heart, no brain and very slow movements.
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That does not prevent the slime mold from solving problems faster than powerful computers.
Our answer to the slime challenge could be:
“Slimes don’t talk to each other. They don’t know about writing. They don’t know about music. They ignore everything that is not part of their domain of expertise. They are experts in a certain domain, but their domain is limited. Humans also could be experts in a limited domain. Every plant and every animal could fill a slot in nature’s unlimited domain of expertise. Why does nature make flowers grow on top of a mountain where nobody can see them? The answer is: Because “there was a place for a little domain of possibilities on top of that mountain”.
Slime molds use one of those possibilities and humans use another.
That shows the multiple connections possible between life, sense organs, thinking, movements of the body, beating of the heart, memory and tender loving care.
The human brain
Before we pretend to dominate the universe, we should keep in mind that modern humans are 98.8 % genetically similar to chimpanzees, 75% genetically similar to chickens and 60% genetically similar to banana trees.
Some birds have a brain divided into two and can switch between them. They can use one half while the other half gets some rest. They can keep flying for months without landing.
The human brain is already divided into two halves. With a little help from human evolution, we may be able, in the future, to alternate between one half and the other.
Human thinking is one of the many possible implementations of thinking in the material world. Humans are somewhere between two extremes. We have one brain divided into two halves. We also have grey matter along some nerves. The human brain has at least, 86 billion neurons. In the past 200 years, we made locomotives, TV, computers, planes, satellites, vaccines, atomic bombs, MRI, bulldozers, dams, viaducts, and much more. This is an accomplishment. We can be proud of it, until we compare it with our body that completes about 500 trillion faultless copies of hemoglobin, a protein having 10000 atoms in 574 amino acids. Imagine what we could do with a brain as sophisticated as our body!
Can we rely on human thinking?
The scientists are the first ones to say that our thinking is not dependable. They want everything to be confirmed by experiments. They need the approval of Mother Nature. They want A.I. to amplify human thinking. Is that reasonable? The robots that we are going to make will come from human thinking. Are you sure that this is what we want? You may amplify something good. You may also amplify something really bad.
How can we be sure that we don’t need
Mother Nature’s approval anymore?
Let’s do some test of the human brain.
Here is a simple question:
“If Marie’s daughter has a son, what is the relationship
between Marie and the father of this son?”
No mathematics. This is a simple question about family relationships! There should not be any problem! We can find the answer (mother-in-law), but it takes time.
Here is another test of the human brain:
•We take a series of coins and put them in alignment and number them 1, 2, 3, 4… all heads up.
•We flip the coins 2, 4, 6… and all the multiples of 2.
•We Flip the coins 3, 6, 9, 12… and all the multiples of 3.
What are the coins that are still head up?
No need for complicated calculations. Some simple reasoning should do -)
We made computers. That’s an achievement but could that be used as proof of superior thinking? Maybe not! Computers are made of the association of millions of simple ideas coming from millions of different people. That does not mean that the human brain improved the day we started making computers. It only shows that we need many people to put together many simple ideas.
Our use of computers follows the general direction of human evolution. We started by making tools to go hunting. Those tools were simple objects. The next step was to make machines. That requires ideas using many objects. With computers, we keep moving from the material world to the non-physical world. With A.I. we are taking one more step in the same direction. Humans are distancing themselves from the material world. What could be our next step? The development of the soul?
