Confabulation nation

As part of my summer reading on the topic of Artificial Intelligence, I finished Ray Kurzweil's book, "How to create a mind."  Good start to get me thinking about this topic.

Kurzweil covers a lot of ground in this short book.  Everything from the latest understanding on how brain works, to psychology to philosophy.  And of course computing, computer science and how all of this comes together.  I was a bit worried that he might proceed from there into a quasi-techno-religious direction - but thankfully did not.

The word that leaped out for me in the book was confabulation. That is, we mostly tend to confabulate, rather than straight out lie (the latter having deceitful intent).  Confabulation is also a medical condition for people with dementia.

I just love this word and have been mulling it...

It jokingly occurs to me that when two wise people meet, this is what happens:

Wise person 1: silence

Wise person 2: silence (with a smile)

One of the key concepts that Kurzwiel keeps coming back to in the book is the Turning test.

I played off off the Turing test concept that Kurzweil highlighted in the book, coming up playfully with the "inverse Turing test."

In a Turing Test, a human sits across a computer separated by a wall.  The human has to tell if the dialogue is with a computer or a human.  The computer passes the Turing Test if the human quizzing it can not tell the difference (picturized beautifully in the movie Ex Machina)

Here is the revision to the Turning test I was playing around with. 

What if you know on the other side of the wall from you is Surya ....  and I gradually, step by step become a hybrid. (ie someone you know and thus specifically can relate to the person you are interacting with).

Here it is, my revised Turing Test

1.  At some point, as we grow old if I had a knee replacement would you still engage with me as the Surya you know and are comfortable with?

(Yes / No)

2.  How about in addition if I put in a ear implant?

(Yes / No)

3.  How about if I also got a kidney replaced?

(Yes / No)

4.  How about when I get to an age where my memory is failing.  And with advanced technology available many years from now, I get a memory aid implant?  Would you still interact with me like same old same old?

(Yes / No)

5.  How about if I lose my speech capability but am able to interact with you through technology (like Stephen Hawkins did through the speech synthesizer in real life)?

(Yes / No)

6.  Suppose I am further handicapped but have the assistance of an A.I. which knows all my thought patterns and has access to all my life experiences, all my photos and my writings.

And suppose it sends online messages as Surya-bot.  Also it creates replies and chats on my behalf but only  posts them only if I say ‘yes” to each message it would send.

Would you interact with Surya-bot like you interacted with Surya prior to the incident in question#1?

(Yes / No)

I suppose what I’m trying to get at is at what point in time on a grade of hybridization is Surya-bot no longer Surya?

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May the bots behave!