RE: (SteemSTEM) Machine Learning and Learning Machines: Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology is Indistinguishable from a Brain
@edumurphy First of all fantastic content and write-up!
I am reading a book that I believe you should check out if you have not already done so, it's called "Life 3.0 - Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" by Max Tegmark.
You have fundamentally analyzed the core of deep learning and it's interesting because its a subject that is at the juncture of psychology, neuroscience, computer science, computer engineering, physics and mathematics.
AI and ML are going to be game changers, they already are -like you rightly pointed out - but they are going to do things that we can't even imagine 10 or 20 years from now that are going to have much more impact than in a game of Go or Jeopardy.
I am curious as to if you view these developments in AI and ML as a positive or a negative? From my perspective, I view these developments quite pessimistically, especially in the near term. I believe that centralized capitalism will lead to widespread automation in nearly every industry and profession as AI networks and robots will be able to do blue or white collar jobs better than any human can do it much cheaper resulting in lower payroll costs and a higher ROI. This will result in mass workforce disruption in the coming 2 decades and we are already seeing how it is starting to slowly creep up into many different industries. Long-term it is interesting and exciting because it can also create a lot of solutions such as space exploration, colonization and solving global warming as well as human needs, but i believe short-term, humanity is due for a wake up call that it is not paying close attention to.
You are right about pretty much Everything you wrote up there. I suspect the deeper revelation that all that unemployment and transformation is going to show us is that ... well, the heliocentric model dethroned Earth (and therefore us) from being the center of the universe. The evolution and natural selection models dethroned us from being fundamentally different beings from the rest of the animals. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are, bit by bit, dethroning us from our intellect being uniquely possible even here on Earth.
Basically, at this point, I now firmly believe that there is no human faculty, no human capability or skill or talent, that cannot be automated. Literally, none. I think a lot of the shape the world takes over the next thirty years will be decided by that insight.
Also, thank you for your kind words.