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QI: The Quest for Intelligence
Dr. Kevin Warwick is deeply critical of techniques used to measure human intelligence, in particular IQ tests. In this book he outlines a theory that proposes a universal view of intelligence, within which human animal and artificial intelligence are united.
- GenresNonfictionScience
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 7, 2023
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF ‘SUPER-INTELLIGENT ROBOTS’?
Cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick wrote in the Introduction to this 2002 book, “Humans are, without doubt, the dominant species on earth…. What is it about us that makes this dominance possible?... The only sensible answer to this question must be our intelligence. As our intelligence is so critical to our success, surely we should have a clear idea of what being an intelligent individual entails. Amazingly, this is not the case… no universal definition has ever been decided upon… It is now vitally important that a true definition of intelligence should be agreed upon… I have been deeply involved in research into how robots think, and why they behave the ways they do.
“In my previous book… I presented conclusions… that in years to come robots will be more intelligent than our own species. The consequences of this for humans are dire. If we allow the robots of the future to be more intelligent than ourselves it is they, not us, who will dominate the earth. How can we possibly stop this from happening if we cannot agree on what intelligence is in the first place? We must, I feel, fully investigate this subject in order to ensure our own survival. You personally may believe that the idea of super-intelligent robots taking over the world is pure fantasy, but if we continue to ignore present warning signs it WILL happen… In the pages that follow I will describe the astounding future that I believe lies before us, including the possibility of humans communicating by thought alone.” (Pg. 1-3)
He continues, “Because of their huge intellect, machines can actually be far mor creative than humans. For example, they can design new systems or computer programs that humans have little chance of ever comprehending, let alone defending themselves against. This book explores exactly what we mean by intelligence. What is it about human intelligence that differentiates us from animals and machines? It is only by understanding what is REALLY of value in human intelligence that we will have any hope of surviving.” (Pg. 5)
He states, “My own feeling is that applying percentages to intelligence… is just plain silly. It is like trying to say how much of an athlete’s performance is due to the physical body they start with and how much is due to training.” (Pg. 58)
He suggests, “Human mental development can be likened to physical development. Physically, we grow and develop to our peak of performance somewhere in our late teens. After this point we must maintain this level by taking regular exercise. Exactly the same is true from a mental perspective. Children grow physically at different rates, putting on a spurt for a few months and then slowing down. There is a similar process mentally. The brain is, after all, a physical thing, which develops as we learn. It also needs exercising in later life in order to keep it in shape.” (Pg. 87)
He notes, “Robots have the potential to sense the world in a much broader way than humans: to include, for example, ultraviolet, infrared, radar and ultrasonics, as well as vision, touch, and so on. To a robot who is sensing in terms of ultraviolet and infrared, the world appears very different from the world as perceived by a robot with other sensors. One big difference between humans and machines is that all humans are equipped with roughly the same set of sensors…. If one human can achieve a feat, it is straightforward to conclude that other humans will probably be able to achieve the same result. With machines it is impossible to say that because one machine cannot do something, no machine can do that thing.” (Pg. 178)
He adds, “If the robots existed in a more complex environment that humans were not fully aware of, it would be impossible for humans to understand what the robots were saying to each other, particularly if the robots were investigating the word by means of radar, ultraviolet, or other senses… we only understand a small part of what is going on in their lives. We have little idea what they are communicating to each other and why.” (Pg. 181)
He explains, we know that machines are not all simply programmed; some of them do have the ability to learn. Not only that but machines tend to communicate in a language suitable for machines, not a human language… Expecting them to communicate in a human language would be as biased as expecting humans to respond efficiently to parallel infrared!” (Pg. 184)
He states, “Human nervous system signals can be transmitted to, and received from, a computer, via an implant making use of radio signaling… It means that movements, emotions and even thoughts may be transmissible to computers and, via the internet, to other humans with similar implants… These technological developments will also mean that signals can be sent from machine to human brain.” (Pg. 195-196)
He suggests, “The intelligence of the future is certainly the intelligence of networks. Let us hope that human intelligence is deemed by the machines running the network, to be worthy of being included as an important, integral part of the whole.” (Pg. 198)
He predicts, “In twenty to thirty years the inherent intelligence of humans will be roughly similar to what we have at present, while computers will almost certainly have outstripped us. The human brain’s 100 billion highly connected cells will have been surpassed by machines with more cells, more densely connected together and linked directly into a high performance network.” (Pg. 209)
He concludes, “an ability to sense the world in a wider variety of ways and on a much more complex level… all these capabilities give machines of the future a tremendous potential advantage over humans. It is, however, humans who are instigating and initially developing such machines. The sword of life is intelligence. As we have lived by the sword with other creatures, so we will die by the sword in the hands of robots.” (Pg. 213)
This book will appeal to those interested in computers and artificial intelligence.
Cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick wrote in the Introduction to this 2002 book, “Humans are, without doubt, the dominant species on earth…. What is it about us that makes this dominance possible?... The only sensible answer to this question must be our intelligence. As our intelligence is so critical to our success, surely we should have a clear idea of what being an intelligent individual entails. Amazingly, this is not the case… no universal definition has ever been decided upon… It is now vitally important that a true definition of intelligence should be agreed upon… I have been deeply involved in research into how robots think, and why they behave the ways they do.
“In my previous book… I presented conclusions… that in years to come robots will be more intelligent than our own species. The consequences of this for humans are dire. If we allow the robots of the future to be more intelligent than ourselves it is they, not us, who will dominate the earth. How can we possibly stop this from happening if we cannot agree on what intelligence is in the first place? We must, I feel, fully investigate this subject in order to ensure our own survival. You personally may believe that the idea of super-intelligent robots taking over the world is pure fantasy, but if we continue to ignore present warning signs it WILL happen… In the pages that follow I will describe the astounding future that I believe lies before us, including the possibility of humans communicating by thought alone.” (Pg. 1-3)
He continues, “Because of their huge intellect, machines can actually be far mor creative than humans. For example, they can design new systems or computer programs that humans have little chance of ever comprehending, let alone defending themselves against. This book explores exactly what we mean by intelligence. What is it about human intelligence that differentiates us from animals and machines? It is only by understanding what is REALLY of value in human intelligence that we will have any hope of surviving.” (Pg. 5)
He states, “My own feeling is that applying percentages to intelligence… is just plain silly. It is like trying to say how much of an athlete’s performance is due to the physical body they start with and how much is due to training.” (Pg. 58)
He suggests, “Human mental development can be likened to physical development. Physically, we grow and develop to our peak of performance somewhere in our late teens. After this point we must maintain this level by taking regular exercise. Exactly the same is true from a mental perspective. Children grow physically at different rates, putting on a spurt for a few months and then slowing down. There is a similar process mentally. The brain is, after all, a physical thing, which develops as we learn. It also needs exercising in later life in order to keep it in shape.” (Pg. 87)
He notes, “Robots have the potential to sense the world in a much broader way than humans: to include, for example, ultraviolet, infrared, radar and ultrasonics, as well as vision, touch, and so on. To a robot who is sensing in terms of ultraviolet and infrared, the world appears very different from the world as perceived by a robot with other sensors. One big difference between humans and machines is that all humans are equipped with roughly the same set of sensors…. If one human can achieve a feat, it is straightforward to conclude that other humans will probably be able to achieve the same result. With machines it is impossible to say that because one machine cannot do something, no machine can do that thing.” (Pg. 178)
He adds, “If the robots existed in a more complex environment that humans were not fully aware of, it would be impossible for humans to understand what the robots were saying to each other, particularly if the robots were investigating the word by means of radar, ultraviolet, or other senses… we only understand a small part of what is going on in their lives. We have little idea what they are communicating to each other and why.” (Pg. 181)
He explains, we know that machines are not all simply programmed; some of them do have the ability to learn. Not only that but machines tend to communicate in a language suitable for machines, not a human language… Expecting them to communicate in a human language would be as biased as expecting humans to respond efficiently to parallel infrared!” (Pg. 184)
He states, “Human nervous system signals can be transmitted to, and received from, a computer, via an implant making use of radio signaling… It means that movements, emotions and even thoughts may be transmissible to computers and, via the internet, to other humans with similar implants… These technological developments will also mean that signals can be sent from machine to human brain.” (Pg. 195-196)
He suggests, “The intelligence of the future is certainly the intelligence of networks. Let us hope that human intelligence is deemed by the machines running the network, to be worthy of being included as an important, integral part of the whole.” (Pg. 198)
He predicts, “In twenty to thirty years the inherent intelligence of humans will be roughly similar to what we have at present, while computers will almost certainly have outstripped us. The human brain’s 100 billion highly connected cells will have been surpassed by machines with more cells, more densely connected together and linked directly into a high performance network.” (Pg. 209)
He concludes, “an ability to sense the world in a wider variety of ways and on a much more complex level… all these capabilities give machines of the future a tremendous potential advantage over humans. It is, however, humans who are instigating and initially developing such machines. The sword of life is intelligence. As we have lived by the sword with other creatures, so we will die by the sword in the hands of robots.” (Pg. 213)
This book will appeal to those interested in computers and artificial intelligence.
March 6, 2018
Not coherent or engaging in its message. I usually feel bad when I put down a book unfinished but this one really struggled to be interesting despite the inherently interesting subject matter.
September 23, 2010
This book was really so average! Dumbed-down science to the point of pseudo-science. It only gets a third star because the chapters on animal and insect intelligence had so many interesting examples. As throughout, however, the point he chose to make with those examples was boring, repetitive and self-evident, though apparently more so to me than to other people?
I also enjoyed the chapters on artificial intelligence, probably because I don't know enough about it to be insulted by his facile and superficial treatment of the topic. And I'm going to assume it was because of that that this paragraph didn't make sense to me:
"...one of our robots learned how to move around the corral at Reading University while connected, via a radio link, to the internet. Once it had finished learning, without human intervention, it programed [sic] another one of our robots, via the internet, to behave in the same way, the other robot being situated at the State University of New York at Buffalo, USA."
So, great, but either Warwick is being misleading with the way he wrote that or I have a huge misconception about AI. Because what he writes seems to imply that the robot spontaneously programmed another robot via the internet, without being programmed to do it. I'm being unclear. My understanding is that the robot would have been programmed to program the other robot over the internet, in which case I can't see how this is at all significant.
My current understanding of AI (and nothing else in the book contradicted this) is that although robots can do all sorts of cool things, including climbing trees, programming other robots and learning, they have no sense of agency (for want of a better way to put it). They can't do things they haven't been programmed to do, no matter how much liberty their programming might give them. So I guess I'm a little confused. But mostly just annoyed by how disappointing this book was.
I also enjoyed the chapters on artificial intelligence, probably because I don't know enough about it to be insulted by his facile and superficial treatment of the topic. And I'm going to assume it was because of that that this paragraph didn't make sense to me:
"...one of our robots learned how to move around the corral at Reading University while connected, via a radio link, to the internet. Once it had finished learning, without human intervention, it programed [sic] another one of our robots, via the internet, to behave in the same way, the other robot being situated at the State University of New York at Buffalo, USA."
So, great, but either Warwick is being misleading with the way he wrote that or I have a huge misconception about AI. Because what he writes seems to imply that the robot spontaneously programmed another robot via the internet, without being programmed to do it. I'm being unclear. My understanding is that the robot would have been programmed to program the other robot over the internet, in which case I can't see how this is at all significant.
My current understanding of AI (and nothing else in the book contradicted this) is that although robots can do all sorts of cool things, including climbing trees, programming other robots and learning, they have no sense of agency (for want of a better way to put it). They can't do things they haven't been programmed to do, no matter how much liberty their programming might give them. So I guess I'm a little confused. But mostly just annoyed by how disappointing this book was.
August 23, 2018
Mind blowing book which deals with various aspects, factors and dimensions of intelligence. The theory of subjective intelligence, experiments on robots, intelligence in insects are explored in great depth and worth mentioning.
The glory of this book is in the fact that it lets you arrive at an all acceptable broader definition and understanding of intelligence. Topics on IQ tests are eye opening. Language being simplest possible.
Author himself being a researcher never tries to hype his work and provides equal weight-age to all aspects. The contradictory explanation is superb.
Very easily understandable and well organised book.
The glory of this book is in the fact that it lets you arrive at an all acceptable broader definition and understanding of intelligence. Topics on IQ tests are eye opening. Language being simplest possible.
Author himself being a researcher never tries to hype his work and provides equal weight-age to all aspects. The contradictory explanation is superb.
Very easily understandable and well organised book.
May 11, 2012
I read this as a child after watching Kevin Warkwick's Christmas Lecture series on AI in 2000. The book tries to define intelligence and challenge the way we currently test for it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews