[Ar-list] Continuing dialog

[W Isaac Carroll]

Karim Nassar wrote:
> I would say that the machines are particularly interested in the aspects of
> the human mind that actually makes us human for their processing needs...
> after all, it's trivial to produce hardware that out-performs a human brain
> in sheer number-crunching capability, but the non-linear,
> "leap-of-intuition" decision-making that the human mind expresses may be
> particularly useful to them in their particular processing needs.
> 
> Perhaps the Matrix, rather than simply a simulation to keep the mind busy,
> is in fact the result of actual processing of data that the machines have
> the humans computing? The Matrix itself is actually a side-effect of that
> massively-multi-processor computation that functionally resides in the
> subconscious minds of the processors... Remember "Lain"?? ^_^

Interesting idea. However, wouldn't an artificially intelligent program
possess the same capacity for non-linear thought? Or do you see it as a
uniquely human ability?

Perhaps the machines kept the human minds intact because removing them
rendered the brains useless, then found that by studying humans they could
learn non-linear thinking themselves. Or is that too syncretistic?

TTFN