[QuarianRex]

Suicide Junkie:
It was something that was discussed in my neuro-science class Last semester. To get much more specific I would have to dig through my notes to find the relevant data (perhaps I'll get around to doing that later, if I have time).

Kamog:
One way to put it is that consciousness is something that has to have the time to consider itself. If a complex task is performed too quickly it doesn't have enough time to displat the emergent property of consciousness. It may be that computers are finishing their tasks before they have a chance to be more than their task. A lot of our consciousness is a result of the lingering effects (often self-perpetuated) of a stimulus rather than specifically due to any given stimulus. Sort of like with the example I gave of how we encode memory. A stimulus sets up a feedback loop that stimulates the growth of memory. This is further reinforced by dreaming to consolidate the memory. It is from this entire process (and many others) that we derive consciousness. A computer can store data and be done with it, no further actvity needed.

This isn't to say that an actual AI is impossible though. Merely that it would be qualitatively different from ours, if possible at all.

Interesting fact: the brain works in binary. Don't believe me? Ok. Each neuron transmits info through pulses down its axon. At any point on the axon there two possibilities, that it is "spiking" (passing an ion charge) or that it is not. The refractory period of the axon (the minimum time a point takes to "reset" after a burst) is 1 msec. Therefore in 5 msec there are 2^5 possible combinations of 1 and 0. In one sec there are 2^1000. And that is only for a single axon. Multiply that by the number of neurons in the brain and you get and idea of its actual computational power.

The latest generation of computer processors is getting up there. In fact, the tendency of pentiums and higher to randomly(?) take and odd action , or otherwise show the odd unexplainable bug, may be a precursor to something like an AI awakening.

I have often wondered at how (if) humans and AI's would be able to understand each other. It seems as if we would reach consciousness from opposite ends of the spectrum. Our brains (organic animals) developed as a capacity for action and then eventually evolved memory. AI's would have started as pure memory and then developed the capacity for action. What differences would there be between the products of such different origins? Would we be able to reconcile such differences? Sometimes such questions keep me up at night.