(Blogging)Heads In Vats

Fredrik deBoer and I had a discussion last week about artificial intelligence, linguistics, big data, John Searle, Matthew Crawford and education reform.

In a nutshell: deBoer is skeptical that there will ever be a convergence between our current “big data” approach to artificial intelligence and anything that resembles the intelligence exhibited by conscious beings like humans. My own skepticism is qualified – not because I think our machines are likely to start resembling us, but because I suspect our own minds will change, and are already changing, as they adapt to an increasingly cybernetic cognitive environment.

If you want more than a nutshell, give a listen.