Fascinating article on the creator of ELIZA (which it turns out is pretty much the least interesting thing he did) and the limitations, and the cult, of AI.
"Living well with computers would mean putting them in their proper place: as aides to calculation, never judgment."
"He argued that no computer could ever fully understand a human being. Then he went one step further: no human being could ever fully understand another human being... We can use language to communicate, but ... some things can’t be communicated at all."
I've also been reading up about spiritualism recently and there's a fascinating resonance: at the time, spiritualism was viewed by many "rational" Victorians as a more scientific approach to the question of Heaven. It made Heaven into a place that you could be "in", seancés could "test" it.
Just as modern AI loons view AI as a demonstration of their fascistic worldview that all human thought is mere calculation and that we are nothing more than meat-processors. (If that's true, then compassion is irrelevant, the weak and infirm are "buggy", etc)
I don't see how one follows from the other. Why would an accurate simulation of me deserve less compassion than me?
@robryk because you can fix it