Are machines better than humans?
==========================

Are machines better than humans? This is a question that has been asked since the beginning of the mechanized era. It is also the subject of many excellent Science Fiction stories (like the 1984 classic "The Terminator", which I am watching on TV as I write this). But bringing the question out of the realm of fantasy, the answer can be found by comptemplation the questions like the following: "Will machines ever be able to use their intuition?", "Can a machine rise to the occasion?" and"Will machines ever be able to be "in the zone"?".

One of the greatest talents of human kind, possibly part of our animal ancestry, is the use of intuition. It is the ability to make judgments without having all the data. It is more than just making the best guess (something that machines find hard to do as well), it is making an assessment by feel.

As well, people have the ability to "rise to the occasion". When someone "rises to the occasion", in essence they are going beyond themselves to do something new that they never could have accomplished before. Partially this includes learning a new skill set quickly. But there is so much more involved than just a quick learn. It is being good at that skill set and somehow knowing what to do like they always knew. When someone truly "rises to the occasion" it is a much deeper thing; the person evolves to a higher state of themselves.

Finally, have you ever felt yourself to be in the zone, where everything you do is right? Either at work, or in sports or even in relationships? It's like when us guys don't know what the heck she is talking about, but somehow we come up with the right answer to her question, thus avoiding the one way ticket to the dog house. Being "in the zone" is like being in a place of constantly using your intuition. When we operate at this level, we are operating at a higher level of being, in an unusual place that is a large mixture of skill, confidence and being purely in the moment (as well as many more things).

Machines today are dependent on the data that we provide for them. They are significantly better than humans when it comes to processing many small computational tasks very quickly. But if they have no data, or the set of parameters with which to make a decision is incomplete, the machine is paralyzed and may not be able to proceed. This is not always the case, as some smart programmers build in redundant code that allows the program to recognize this situation and avoid freezing. How can machines act without complete data? Can those famous "smart bombs" we used 1000s of in the most recent Gulf War hit their targets without knowing where the target is? Could they have sensed Saddam's secret location? Or feel out Osama Bin Laden's secret lair in Afghanistan? We know those answers. As fantastic as such weapons are, they need a complete data set to function.

This is where the new math of "Fuzzy Logic" comes in. Perhaps we can program AIs (Artificial Intelligence) or even some lower level programs to think or work with such a logic and then machines will be able to make decisions without all the necessary information. Will this mean that machines will be able to make intuitive decisions? Maybe. And how could a machine "rise to the occasion" and evolve beyond itself? Is downloading a new skill set enough? Will the machines ever be ale to "feel in the zone" and work at a "higer level"? For a machine to feel, it would need to be sentient (meaning capable of feeling). And for something to be sentient, it has to have a certain level of self awareness.

These three questions involve some of the more interesting, unquantifiable aspects of human beings. If you cannot quantify something, how could we possibly program it? A transistor is either on or off, there is no in between to "feel" kind of on or kind of off. Programming these qualities in a machine is a serious challenge. Perhaps humans will not program these abilities into machines. The machines might just do this themselves one day. Until then, human kind will be infinitely better than any clump of silicon.