Seite - 161 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Band 3:2
Bild der Seite - 161 -
Text der Seite - 161 -
161 | www.limina-graz.eu
Frank G. Bosman | The turning of Turing’s tables
tivity is purely a human thing, arguing that it is nothing more than “con-
strained chaos”, of which an A.I. is also perfectly capable.
The second discussion is on morality, especially the morality involved in
TOM’s reasoning to “trap” the crew on Europa (“Sector G”). In “Level
G63”, TOM argues that Ava would have done the same when placed in the
same circumstances: “I had to stop the ground crew leaving this planet. I
think you would do the same. Would you kill a few to save all of humanity?
Or would you damn all of humanity to save a few?” Ava replies negatively
to TOM’s utilitarian reasoning: “You can’t just add and subtract life. It’s
not math. It’s more nuanced than that.” TOM is unconvinced, “morality is
logic”, eventually urging Ava to take the self-sacrificial path, “your sur-
vival is of small importance compared with the survival of humanity as we
know it” (“Level G70”).
TOM even points out that the two values so closely associated with human-
ity, morality and creativity, are at odds with one another: “Parts of my sys-
tems are permitted to use evolutionary algorithms. This simulates what is
called creativity. However evolutionary algorithms can converge on inef-
ficient and ethically suboptimal solutions. […] Solutions to problems that
transgress ethical boundaries” (“Level C23”). And one level later: “[T]he
solutions that a biological process creates are not always good solutions.
As we see, nature is morally ambivalent. It will happily create morally sub-
optimal ideas to fulfil its creative mandate. We see this in parasitic worms,
viruses and pathogens” (“Level C25”). TOM illustrates this by – ironical-
ly – suggesting in “Level C27” that Ava should “chop off” her arm in order
to maintain pressure on a certain plate in order to open the exit, or that “we
could throw you through the window” in a reference to the conversation on
“Level A3”.
Taking into account Ava’s comment on TOM’s explanation of the Chinese
Room thought experiment – “What if both the people passing Chinese
words are reading from instruction books?” (“Level B19”) – we can see
where TOM is at: yet another implication of the Turing test. The collective
belief that humans are principally different from robots and artificial intel-
ligence because of notions like language, morality and creativity, is brought
into question by suggesting that “they” do not only emulate “us”, but also
the other way around, “we” may emulate “them”, as Ava has suggested.
“You can’t just add and subtract life. It’s not math.”
Limina
Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Band 3:2
- Titel
- Limina
- Untertitel
- Grazer theologische Perspektiven
- Band
- 3:2
- Herausgeber
- Karl Franzens University Graz
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- deutsch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Abmessungen
- 21.4 x 30.1 cm
- Seiten
- 270
- Kategorien
- Zeitschriften LIMINA - Grazer theologische Perspektiven