The march of technology

Very recent news has reported the success of technology which has enabled a paralysed man to use his hands by thought-processes, bypassing his spinal cord.  This is an incredible achievement, marking an important milestone in the march of technology. No doubt, in the near future, many people who suffer debilitating accidents will benefit from this cutting edge science.

Just a few weeks ago, the news announced a similar breakthrough in technology – Google’s AlphaGo computer, which defeated Go’s world champion in a match consisting of the best of five games.  The number of possible moves is astronomical: there are literally more possible positions in Go than atoms in the universe, according the DeepMind’s team (the developers of AlphaGo).  It can be very difficult to determine who is winning, and many of the top human players rely on instinct.

It’s only because the computer, AlphaGo, has been programmed to rely on ‘deep neural networks’ which have the capacity to learn, that it has succeeded.  Its ‘machine learning’ tools enable it to teach itself and to think more like humans.  The researchers fed it a database of 30 million board configurations and subsequent plays by expert players, then the computer played against itself over and over again thus learning from experience to tell a better move from a poorer one.  One researcher said:

The way we've developed the system, it plays more like a human does

Back in October 2015, AlphaGo won against the European Go champion – an achievement that was not expected for years. Science magazine ran this article, by Adrian Cho:

Huge leap forward: Computer that mimics human brain beats professional at game of Go

Lee Se-dol, however, is considered to be the greatest Go player ever, and he has been defeated by AlphaGo.  Because the computer is programmed to learn and improve from its mistakes, every game makes it stronger than before. 

Man’s ability to construct a machine of such complexity and ability is truly amazing, and it is an indication of the incredible ingenuity God deposited within the human brain – something which sets man apart from the rest of creation. 

AlphaGo is seen as a celebration of man’s ability.  He has created a machine that can ‘think’ and ‘learn’ and can outwit the most intelligent humans.  Scientists and engineers are probably already well on the way with the next development – for they won’t stop now.   Google representatives (who own AlphaGo) remarked after the one defeat in the series of games against Lee Se-dol that the defeat was ‘very valuable’ for AlphaGo, as it identified a problem which they could now try to fix.

If we lived in a perfect world, scientific achievements in the realms of medicine and recreation would only be for our good.  But what is designed to be of benefit to mankind in our sin-filled world, often has a sinister side.  Machines that can win games are benign, and brains which are programmed to perform daily tasks by thinking about them are clearly amazing boons.  Consider however, that machines which ‘learn’ from their mistakes until they are infallible are potentially very dangerous.  Similarly, the potential for abuse by the ability to perform actions by godless people thinking about them is something which was once confined to the domain of science-fiction.  Not any more!

For more on this and on other aspects of Artificial Intelligence, see our page in the Transhumanism section. 

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