"'...if those geneticists are right who think Neanderthal blood is in us too.'" (6, p. 85)
It is.
In 7, we return to Anderson's use of the word "robot" to mean an unconscious mechanism:
"...a robot was moving across the floor to intercept them.
"Robot or sophotect?" (7, p. 93)
In this text, a robot is unconscious whereas a sophotect is conscious. The passage continues:
"The turret could hold a human-capability computer." (ibid.)
"...human-capability..." means conscious and able to think whereas computers as they currently exist are programmed to manipulate symbols but are unconscious and merely simulate thought. A calculator no more "thinks" that 1+1=2 than does a sheet of paper on which this equation is written. Anderson says elsewhere in this series that human personalities are downloaded into artificial neural networks, not into computers. See here.
The passage continues:
"If it didn't, the body could be remote-controlled by an intelligence." (ibid.)
"Intelligence" has become ambiguous. See here.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm pleased to think it is very likely I too have some Neanderthal ancestry! What I've read is that people of Caucasian and east Asian ancestry are esp. likely to some Neanderthal genes.
Here we see Anderson reusing "robot" to mean devices controlled by un-self aware computers.
I'm doubtful of Anderson's "artificial neural networks." WHAT are they if they are not software programs downloaded into computers and machines which they then manipulate?
Intelligence becoming ambiguous, once you mentioned, must have been one of those strange concepts which gave me so much trouble with the HARVEST OF STARS books.
Sean
Sean,
An artificial neural network would be an artifact that duplicates, instead of merely simulating, the functions of neurons. It would not be a computer program.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, but I'm trying to figure out where such an artificial neural network would be located, in a physical sense. Such a network can't just float around in the air like a disembodied spirit. Or can it?
Sean
Sean,
It is a process contained in a physical artifact.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That was what I had been thinking. FUNCTIONALLY, it still looks like the software used four our computers, with the difference, of course, that artificial neural network is conscious.
Sean
Sean,
Two artifacts can look similar but have different processes going on inside them.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree.
Sean
Kaor, Sean and Paul!
I have received a notice from 23andme that they have my saliva sample, and will analyzer, so in six to eight weeks I may obtain an estimate of my percentage of Neanderthal ancestry, along with other information.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
That is way cool interesting! I had my DNS analyzed by Ancestry.com and I was told my ancestry is 75 percent Scots/Irish/Welsh, 8 percent Iberian (Portugal and Spain), and six percent "other" (whatever that means). But that still leaves 11% unaccounted for. If I have any Neanderthal ancestry, it might come from that 11 percent!
Sean
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