Every material on the planet has the same basic building blocks, atoms, which can be used to characterize those materials. These characterizations come in three forms type, arrangement, and connectedness. The study of materials has led humanity to the silicon age, the construction of ever faster and more powerful computers and eventually to the ultimate coalescence of man and machine and the creation of artificial intelligence. How have computers become so advanced that we can consider things like artificial intelligence?
To delve into the concept of artificial intelligence would be to put the cart before the horse. How have computers come to where they are? What makes them possible? What are they made of? Now there we go, step one the microchip. A microchip is a self-contained electrical circuit on a wafer of silicon. Why silicon? All materials have three characterizations specific to them. All materials are made of atoms, the atoms are arranged in a manner particular to each material and the atoms of each material bond in a definitive manner.
A method of thinking about this is compare a pile of lose carbon atoms also known as coal. It is brittle, highly flammable and black. Now take those exact same carbon atoms and make them line up and bond electron to electron in a perfect grid. Diamonds are one of the hardest substances on earth, so perfectly clear they refract light, and do not burn.
When building circuits scientists look for very unique properties for the substrate of the circuit. In this case a low conductivity to promote proper electron flow along a designed pathway, elemental resistance to prohibit deterioration, and the ability to reproduce the material flawlessly and inexpensively. Enter silicon. Scientists discove...
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...off their type, arrangement and connectedness until we get where we need to be and produce the material perfect for the task at hand.
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The official foundations for "artificial intelligence" were set forth by A. M. Turing, in his 1950 paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" wherein he also coined the term and made predictions about the field. He claimed that by 1960, a computer would be able to formulate and prove complex mathematical theorems, write music and poetry, become world chess champion, and pass his test of artificial intelligences. In his test, a computer is required to carry on a compelling conversation with humans, fooling them into believing they are speaking with another human. All of his predictions require a computer to think and reason in the same manner as a human. Despite 50 years of effort, only the chess championship has come true. By refocusing artificial intelligence research to a more humanlike, cognitive model, the field will create machines that are truly intelligent, capable of meet Turing's goals. Currently, the only "intelligent" programs and computers are not really intelligent at all, but rather they are clever applications of different algorithms lacking expandability and versatility. The human intellect has only been used in limited ways in the artificial intelligence field, however it is the ideal model upon which to base research. Concentrating research on a more cognitive model will allow the artificial intelligence (AI) field to create more intelligent entities and ultimately, once appropriate hardware exists, a true AI.
Artificial intelligence has come a long way since the first robot. In 1950, Alan Turing of Britain publishes, Computer Machinery and Intelligence. This book was proposed to be the birth of artificial intelligence as we know it. The first robot that presents the usage of artificial intelligence was built in 1969. The purpose of this robot was to try out navigation using basic tools such as cameras and bump sensors (Marshall 371). Since then, we have made a million robots way better than this one and we’re going to continue doing so. While the world advances, so is technology. It’s slowly progressing and become better and more reliable. Artificial intelligence is a certain type of technology that is resourceful to our nation. We are using it in the medical field, it’s been helpful to military forces, and it’s helping our world become a better place.
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Strong Artificial Intelligence occurs ultimately when qualities that are accredited to the human brain are demonstrated by machines.
The concepts of the development of artificial intelligence can be traced as far back as ancient Greece. Even something as small as the abacus has in someway led to the idea of artificial intelligence. However, one of the biggest breakthroughs in the area of AI is when computers were invented.
In order to see how artificial intelligence plays a role on today’s society, I believe it is important to dispel any misconceptions about what artificial intelligence is. Artificial intelligence has been defined many different ways, but the commonality between all of them is that artificial intelligence theory and development of computer systems that are able to perform tasks that would normally require a human intelligence such as decision making, visual recognition, or speech recognition. However, human intelligence is a very ambiguous term. I believe there are three main attributes an artificial intelligence system has that makes it representative of human intelligence (Source 1). The first is problem solving, the ability to look ahead several steps in the decision making process and being able to choose the best solution (Source 1). The second is the representation of knowledge (Source 1). While knowledge is usually gained through experience or education, intelligent agents could very well possibly have a different form of knowledge. Access to the internet, the la...
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It’s hard to believe that in this day in age that not many things remain that aren’t being made simpler with the introduction of computers over the last decade or two. But what is a computer, why and how is a computer so powerful, and how does a computer know what to do? Computers are very simple machines once one gets past the programing.
All of the ways that humans gain information are mimicked by computers. Humans then proceed to analyze and store the information accordingly. This is a computer's main function in today's society. Humans then take all of this information and solve problems logically. This is where things get complex.
Artificial intelligence is a concept that has been around for many years. The ancient Greeks had tales of robots, and the Chinese and Egyptian engineers made automations. However, the idea of actually trying to create a machine to perform useful reasoning could have begun with Ramon Llull in 1300 CE. After this came Gottfried Leibniz with his Calculus ratiocinator who extended the idea of the calculating machine. It was made to execute operations on ideas rather than numbers. The study of mathematical logic brought the world to Alan Turing’s theory of computation. In that, Alan stated that a machine, by changing between symbols such as “0” and “1” would be able to imitate any possible act of mathematical
In a sense computers have been around for centuries. The abacus, a counting machine, was invented by the Chinese sometime between 500 and 400 BC. The numeral zero was first recognized and written by Hindu’s in 650 AD, without which written calculations would be impossible. In 1623 the great grandfather of the processor was born, the calculating clock. Wilhelm Schickard of Germany invented this adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing machine based on the principle of algorithms. For the next three hundred years or so various machines were invented which could perform calculations but none were any vast improvement over Shickard’s clock, perhaps with the exception of Babbage’s punch card machine in 1832 (it was never finished).
Artificial intelligence is defined as developing computer programs to solve complex problems by applications of processes that are analogous to human reasoning processes. Roughly speaking, a computer is intelligent
Taylor, Frederick Winslow (1911). The Principles of Scientific Management. New York, NY, US and London, UK: Harper & Brothers. Print. 8 Feb. 2014.
Thousands of years ago calculations were done using people’s fingers and pebbles that were found just lying around. Technology has transformed so much that today the most complicated computations are done within seconds. Human dependency on computers is increasing everyday. Just think how hard it would be to live a week without a computer. We owe the advancements of computers and other such electronic devices to the intelligence of men of the past.