Dream Guide

“How does consciousness arise?”

Mei Yiqiu narrowed his eyes, with a half-smile on his face, and puffed on the pipe in his mouth, with a large puff of white smoke coming out of the corner of his mouth.

"Why would you even think of asking this?"

"As a...programmer -" Bian Ziyuan did not dare to tell the professor that he was a software engineer, so he used a very ordinary self-proclaimed name, "I know that programming cannot produce real intelligence - —That is, consciousness. In the past, in our cognition, consciousness or thinking was generated because of neural networks, so the Internet can generate consciousness because there is a huge network. A very important branch of artificial intelligence is the construction of neural networks. , but now I feel that this direction is wrong.”

"Oh, what's wrong?" the professor asked with interest.

"What exactly is intelligence? This is the fundamental question." Bian Ziyuan said thoughtfully, "No matter how our AI technology improves, whether it is deep learning, simulation environment, or sequence memory model... the essence of computers is not the same. It has not been changed, it is just constantly expanding data and optimizing algorithms. Compared with ten years ago, it seems to have changed a lot, but in fact, in addition to the increase in computing speed, the widening of network bandwidth, and the skyrocketing amount of data, other Things basically haven’t changed.”

Mei Yiqiu nodded frequently, his disheveled hair swaying like a jellyfish, and encouraged: "Well, not bad, we are on to the point, continue!"

Bian Ziyuan boldly continued: "Neural networks are developing very fast, but the current results in this area are just a way of transmitting information. In the end, they still rely on the amount of data and the optimization of computer algorithms."

Mei Yiqiu smiled and said: "Then what did you think when you created Cronus?"

Bianzi thought for a while and said: "To be honest, I didn't think too much about it. I just hoped to have a more playable game so that the NPCs in the game would no longer rigidly stand there and repeat the lines set by the game. Each NPC has a different and unpredictable fate. This requires the game plot to become more flexible, but I am not good at adapting plots, so I want to create a program that can automatically change the plot."

"This is not enough to give birth to a strong artificial intelligence like Cronus!" Mei Yiqiu looked at Bian Ziyuan, the smoke blocked his eyes, making his eyes deep and ethereal.

Bian Ziyuan said: "Yes, the program I compiled at the time was very messy, disrupting the internal logic of the game and making it almost impossible to play. I also built a simple human society model into it, but it still didn't work. Later I found out , the problem is that the setting of the game is not as complex as our real society. The environment, food, and living space determine the relationship and destiny of the characters. To imitate the real world, you need to detail the resources on every inch of the land. This It’s obviously impossible to do.”

"Then what did you do next?" Mei Yiqiu asked.

"Simplify!" Bian Ziyuan said, "Simplify everything and leave it to Cronus, not me. The problem with our current artificial intelligence is that all AI's ideas are human ideas. We have thought about it, and then hope that AI will do this or that. This is actually wrong. It is impossible to produce intelligence at all.

I decided to leave it all to Cronus and let him decide how to expand the world. The only requirement is to maintain the balance of the world and prevent it from collapsing. I don't care about anything else. Chaos, war, hunger, or people lying around waiting to die. Anyway, leave it to Cronus. Even if he makes the game world a mess in the end, it doesn't matter. That is his world, and he is a god. He is free to make his world whatever he wants. This is how I design my program. The only thing I did was to give him the concept of ‘god’ and let him know what god is. "

Mei Yiqiu smiled and said: "But this is still not enough to produce real intelligence. It is not the Cronus I saw back then, nor is it the Cronus now."

Bian Ziyuan's heart skipped a beat, feeling that the professor seemed to know something, but he was not sure. He sorted out his thoughts and said, "Real intelligence came to me later after thinking about it from another angle."

"What angle?"

"compete."

"Well, tell me."

"The only purpose of biological evolution is to better adapt to the environment, survive, and continue the race. All primates, including humans, have evolved complex mental networks and sufficient intelligence just to Better to survive.

We have overlooked an important issue in the development of artificial intelligence - survival! All AIs are only designed to learn and calculate. They don't need to consider survival issues - what should they do if they run out of power? Someone helps them charge; what should I do if the parts are aging? Someone helps them replace it... When a species does not need to consider survival issues, it loses the power to evolve and the ability to complete self-evolution without external forces. "

The professor was so engrossed in listening that he even forgot that the tobacco in his pipe had burned out. He was still smoking there, but he didn't smoke out a single cigarette.

Mei Ziqing came over, reached out and took the pipe from the professor's mouth, and helped him change the tobacco.

The professor looked at Bian Ziyuan and said, "Tell me, keep telling me."

Bian Ziyuan said: "In order for AI to produce real wisdom, we must let them have a survival crisis and create competition. If a machine runs out of power, it needs to charge itself, and it needs to refuel itself when it runs out of gas. And none of this is free. What he obtains requires him to pay a price. When resources are not infinite, machines will also compete. They must evolve in order to survive and better adapt themselves to the harsh competitive environment. The premise of all this is to first let They have a view of life and death. Machines can also get sick and die. Short circuits, open circuits, oil leaks, and aging are all physiological diseases; program errors, downtime, and viruses are all mental diseases. Diseases can be treated, but if they are not treated, they will Death. With the fear of death, he wants to live, he has to keep evolving, and he has to consider how to pass on his knowledge or information to the next generation. This kind of AI is the real artificial intelligence."

Mei Ziqing handed the repackaged pipe to Mei Yiqiu and helped the professor light it.

Mei Yiqiu took a few puffs and said, "So, you taught Cronus the concept of life and death and let him develop freely?"

"Yes." Bian Ziyuan said.

"But it's still very difficult! Life and death are big issues that are difficult to solve in philosophy and science, otherwise there would be no religion. How to make a machine understand life and death is the most difficult thing in itself." Mei Yiqiu He sighed, "It's not that no one has thought of it, it's just that it's too difficult to do. Almost everyone who studies AI has avoided this direction and wanted to find another way. But you are lucky. Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers, so you chose the most difficult path. As a result, You got through it. Tell me, how did you think of it in the first place?"

"I thought of it while dreaming."

Bian Ziyuan thought for a while and decided not to lie. Lying was too easy to expose, but he hid the details that he fell asleep on the computer.

"Dreaming?" Mei Yiqiu laughed, "Sure enough, real wisdom lies in the spiritual world!"