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AI AND THE SINGULARITY • Robert K. Logan and Adriana Braga AI AND THE SINGULARITY A FALLACY OR A GREAT OPPORTUNITY? Edited by Robert K. Logan and Adriana Braga Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Information www.mdpi.com/journal/information AI AND THE SINGULARITY AI AND THE SINGULARITY A FALLACY OR A GREAT OPPORTUNITY? Special Issue Editors Robert K. Logan Adriana Braga MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade • Manchester • Tokyo • Cluj • Tianjin Special Issue Editors Robert K. Logan Adriana Braga University of Toronto Pontif´ıcia Universidade Catolica´ Canada do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ) Brazil Editorial Office MDPI St. Alban-Anlage 66 4052 Basel, Switzerland This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Information (ISSN 2078-2489) (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/information/special issues/AI%26Singularity). For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below: LastName, A.A.; LastName, B.B.; LastName, C.C. Article Title. Journal Name Year, Article Number, Page Range. ISBN 978-3-03936-483-1 (Hbk) ISBN 978-3-03936-484-8 (PDF) c 2020 by the authors. Articles in this book are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. The book as a whole is distributed by MDPI under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. Contents About the Special Issue Editors ..................................... vii Preface to ”AI AND THE SINGULARITY” ............................... ix Adriana Braga and Robert K. Logan AI and the Singularity: A Fallacy or a Great Opportunity? Reprinted from: Information 2019, 10, 73, doi:10.3390/info10020073 ................. 1 Adriana Braga and Robert K. Logan The Emperor of Strong AI Has No Clothes: Limits to Artificial Intelligence Reprinted from: Information 2017, 8, 156, doi:10.3390/info8040156 .................. 5 Seth D. Baum Countering Superintelligence Misinformation Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 244, doi:10.3390/info9100244 .................. 27 Seth D. Baum Superintelligence Skepticism as a Political Tool Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 209, doi:10.3390/info9090209 .................. 45 Vic Grout The Singularity Isn’t Simple! (However We Look at It) A Random Walk between Science Fiction and Science Fact Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 99, doi:10.3390/info9040099 ................... 61 Viorel Guliciuc Pareidolic and Uncomplex Technological Singularity Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 309, doi:10.3390/info9120309 .................. 79 Cadell Last Cosmic Evolutionary Philosophy and a Dialectical Approach to Technological Singularity Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 78, doi:0.3390/info9040078 ................... 97 Robert K. Logan Can Computers Become Conscious, an Essential Condition for the Singularity? Reprinted from: Information 2017, 8, 161, doi:10.3390/info8040161 ..................125 Robert K. Logan The Universality of Experiential Consciousness Reprinted from: Information 2019, 10, 31, doi:10.3390/info10010031 .................131 Robert K. Logan and Marlie Tandoc Thinking in Patterns and the Pattern of Human Thought as Contrasted with AI Data Processing Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 83, doi:10.3390/info9040083 ...................137 Brett Lunceford Love, Emotion and the Singularity Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 221, doi:10.3390/info9090221 ..................153 Andrey Miroshnichenko AI to Bypass Creativity. Will Robots Replace Journalists? (The Answer Is “Yes”) Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 183, doi:10.3390/info9070183 ..................163 v Melanie Mitchell Artificial Intelligence Hits the Barrier of Meaning Reprinted from: Information 2019, 10, 51, doi:10.3390/info10020051 .................183 Alexey Potapov Technological Singularity: What Do We Really Know? Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 82, doi:10.3390/info9040082 ...................187 Anat Ringel Raveh and Boaz Tamir From Homo Sapiens to Robo Sapiens: The Evolution of Intelligence Reprinted from: Information 2019, 10, 2, doi:10.3390/info10010002 ..................197 Hugh Trenchard When Robots Get Bored and Invent Team Sports: A More Suitable Test than the Turing Test? Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 118, doi:10.3390/info9050118 ..................217 Paul Walton Artificial Intelligence and the Limitations of Information Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 332, doi:10.3390/info9120332 ..................231 Pei Wang, Kai Liu and Quinn Dougherty Conceptions of Artificial Intelligence and Singularity Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 79, doi:10.3390/info9040079 ...................251 Roman V. Yampolskiy The Singularity May Be Near Reprinted from: Information 2018, 9, 190, doi:10.3390/info9080190 ..................267 vi About the Special Issue Editors Robert K. Logan, Prof., (Ph.D. MIT 1965) is an Emeritus Professor of physics, a fellow of St. Michael’s College, and a member of the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto. He is also the Chief Scientist at OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) University in the Strategic Innovation Lab. He has a variety of experiences as an academic and has engaged in research in a variety of fields, including physics, media ecology, complexity theory, information theory, systems biology, environmental science, linguistics, and industrial design. He has published with and collaborated with Marshall McLuhan and continues his McLuhan studies research. He is also an author or editor of 19 books, 23 book chapters, and over 150 articles in refereed journals. He once taught The Poetry of Physics and the Physics of Poetry course at the U. of Toronto and has published a book with the same title as that of the course. He was the recipient of the Walter J. Ong Award for Career Achievement in Scholarship by the Media Ecology Association. Adriana Braga is an Associate Professor of the Graduate Program of Social Communication at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), researcher of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq/Brazil), coordinator of the Research Group on Digital Interactions (GRID) and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Macau, China. With a Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and BA in Psychology, she is also the author of the books Introdu¸c˜ao a` Ecologia das M´ıdias (Introduction to Media Ecology with Lance Strate and Paul Levinson, 2019); Personas Materno-Eletrˆonicas (Maternal-Electronic Personae, 2008); CMC, Identidades e G´enero (CMC, Identities and Gender, in Portugal, 2005); and Corpo-Ver˜ao (Summer-Body, 2016). Her Ph.D. dissertation won the CAPES Thesis Award (MEC/Brazil) and Harold Innis Award (Media Ecology Association/USA). She serves as Vice President of the Media Ecology Association. She currently coordinates the Digital Media Lab (LabMiD), which develops projects in digital communication, literature, Brazilian culture, mobile telephony, digital literacy, gender, sociolinguistics, and technology. vii Preface to ”AI AND THE SINGULARITY” Dear Readers, The essays that we have collected address the question of whether the technological singularity—the notion that AI-based computers can exceed human intelligence—is a fallacy or a great opportunity. To address this question, we have invited a group of scholars whose positions on the singularity range from advocates to skeptics. No conclusion can be reached, as the development of artificial intelligence is still in its infancy, and there is much wishful thinking and imagination in this issue rather than trustworthy data. The reader will find a cogent summary of the issues faced by researchers who are working to develop the field of artificial intelligence and, in particular, artificial general intelligence. The only conclusion that can be reached is that there exists a variety of well-argued positions as to where AI research is headed. We would be happy to hear from you, and we welcome your opinions. Robert K. Logan, Adriana Braga Special Issue Editors ix information Editorial AI and the Singularity: A Fallacy or a Great Opportunity? Adriana Braga 1 and Robert K. Logan 2,* 1 Department of Social Communication, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rio de Janeiro 22451-900, Brazil; [email protected] 2 Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A7, Canada * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +1-416-361-5928 Received: 18 February 2019; Accepted: 18 February 2019; Published: 21 February 2019 Abstract: We address the question of whether AI, and in particular the Singularity—the notion that AI-based computers can exceed human intelligence—is a fallacy or a great opportunity. We have invited a group of scholars to address this question, whose positions on the Singularity range from advocates to skeptics. No conclusion can be reached as the development of artificial intelligence is still in its infancy, and there is much wishful thinking and imagination in this issue rather than trustworthy data. The reader will find a cogent summary of the issues faced by researchers who are working to develop the field of artificial intelligence and in particular artificial general intelligence. The only conclusion that can be reached is that there exists a variety of well-argued
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