Jung-Chun Liu 劉容均

Chapter 1: What is the Mind? What is Randomness?

Originally a student of electrical engineering, one aspect of psychology I found most challenging to accept was the discussion of the mind in computers and artificial intelligence. How could the programs I wrote overnight possess a mind? Anticipating such confusion, the author delves into this issue. Engineers may deny machines have minds because they understand the mechanisms they have built, including algorithms, parameters, databases, allowing machines to mimic human behavior. However, in our conception, a mind should be independent and capable of generating its own thoughts. The author ingeniously suggests that the essence of intelligence lies in the ability to 'adapt,' which is often accompanied by 'randomness.' The world's most sophisticated random systems are 'evolution' and the 'mind,' both of which possess random traits that enable their adaptability.

We must also reflect on what randomness entails. The stark contrast in views between engineers and psychologists on artificial intelligence is because, for engineers, knowing how a program operates means its behavior is predictable. Randomness implies that events occur probabilistically and are full of uncertainty. However, fundamentally, these events are outcomes of deterministic processes; our ignorance of the world renders us unable to predict their results. For instance, if we knew the material and physical properties of a coin and the surface it strikes, the outcome of a coin toss could be calculated. Further, if we understood external stimuli at a biological level, the structure of brain neurons, or an individual's past experiences, beliefs, and attitudes at a cognitive level, their behavior could be computable.

Our beliefs change daily, and we constantly generate new thoughts. The random crossing and mutation of genetic material in populations enable us to handle unpredictable challenges, to devise solutions to previously unseen difficulties. In contrast, programmed machines falter in situations beyond the designer's anticipation. However, we must also ask ourselves: if one day we unravel all mysteries of the brain and nervous system, and randomness is no longer random, and the mind becomes an automatic machine to us, can we still consider humans autonomous?

Next: Chapter 2: Symbolism and Connectionism

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