With transferring intelligence for example
The human mind solves the program as to how to capture a mouse and we create a mouse trap. We wouldn't give praises to the mouse trap because it is just a device that illustrates a concept in the human mind that we have pulled out of our mind and put into reality.
Now I do agree that sometimes with the complexities of computers these days that they can come up with answers for problems that we never even imagined. I agree with that, which is pretty cool. But they are only able to because they are running on a foundational platform that is an extension of the human mind.
A light switch, the mechanical concept is just transfer of human intelligence and at the heart of the computer is basically binary, 1s and 0s operating on basic logical circuits
AND gates
Or gates
NAND gates
NoR gates
Of course we built upon these primitive logical processes to bring about the illusion of intelligence but it is really a way of have the laws of physics respond in a way to mimi logic.
I know it is very very very very very very difficult to see that from the high level of abstract when you see the end product. But at the mid and lower level its just the laws of physics and electricity flowing through circuity. In a sense it's like we have found a way to transfer our intelligence into a electrical container that can "think" as some put it based on how we have designed it to.
I now religion and God makes people feel uneasy but it reminds me in a sense of How God created man in His own image (we can think like God can think) and man is creating computers in his image(computers can process and solve problems like we can).
God transferred life to us, He transfer a sense of a conscience and morality and the sense of justice to every person. That is why even the evil people will have some type of sense of right and wrong of feel upset when they are mistreated because their inner core of justice is deep within every person. God also transferred the concept of love to us, which is why we all want relationships. Whether you are straight or gay or bisexual, everyone wants to love someone which is a quality of God (God is love) transferred to us.
Likewise I see something very similar in how we are doing the same with trasnferring a part of us to computers and creating them in our image. And when mankind acts up God can call your number any time, and if we don't like the computer program we can always erase it and delete it or pull the plug on them, loll. Of course many people fail to see that many of the signs that are possible example of God's judgment on this earth, but keep living, things will get worth before Jesus returns.
Ummh, from chess, to computers, to God, to Jesus.
I guess I did make that lept huh? lol.
" Put another way, is a steam engine just a "transfer of human strength"? Is an atomic bomb? "
No a steam engine is not a transfer of human strength. A better example would be a bicycle is a transfer of human strength but using gears to maximize that strength.
Your analogy is flawed because the analogy I proposed dealt with transferring intelligence in the context of solving a problem.
With the steam engine you are not transferring human strength, you are using human intelligence to create something that is stronger than humans.
So a more appropriate analogy would be if you used a bicycle.
So with analogies the context is to understand the relationship between the two items.
So for example Hand is to Humans as Wings are to birds.
The relationship between Hand and human can be summed up in a sentence. An appropriate sentence showing the relationship could be, "Humans use their hands to do work" just as "Birds use their hands to do work(fly)".
Now let us ask ourselves, what is the relationship that I wanted trying to make between the human mind and the computer. We could say
"Humans transfer their mental abilities to computers to make a complex task easier"
We can say "Humans transfer their physical abilities to a bicycle to make the complex task(of traveling a long distance) easier"
With the bicycle we gain mechanical advantage with the computers we gain a processing advantage of speed.
However the relationship doe not work with the steam engine because we cannot say, "Humans transfer their physical abilities to steam engines"
We don't, the steam engine is not a transfer of human physical ability, the steam engine gets its power not by the person shoveling coal into the engine(even though that is human exertion) but by the burning of the goals to boil the water and the pressure of the steam.
So if you find a more appropriate analogy that maintians the relationship that I'm trying to communicate, than a fair comparasion can be made to critique it.
A computer program is only capable of doing what it was programmed to do." --That's not a helpful way of thinking about it either.
I think we are one the same page overall and just emphasizing different areas. I know how computer work as I'm a programmer myself. Not by profession but as a hobby you can say. I have a minor in computer science as when I was in high school I was programming video games c++. Later taught myself php, sql, and flash and javascript and AJAX. Learned c++ from my younger brother in high school than self thought from books and online communities(mainly allegro.cc) . I've programmed games like mortal kombat. Here are some pictures from the game, did this back in like 2004
I understand that computers can be very complex and adapt based on
how they have been programmed. Heck, I had to program an AI(aritificial intelligence) engine for that fighting game above to have the computer think and respond appropriately to the human fighter. Of course my AI wasn't complex enough to actually learn and improve overtime, but if I had the time I could have programmed it. Yea I'm definitely impressed by what we have been able to do with computer programs.
I'm just emphasizing that fact that we are their creator and whatever doors that they open for us it because that we have set the foundation from which they are able to even chart that path.
Look at cancer for example. The human mind thinks about mapping the human geonome. Then we think what if we had computers analyze the gene sequences to look for patterns to help us cure diseases, etc. So we write a computer program to properly analzye that data and when the computer finds something we act all surprised. We, it was basically like a messenger that we sent to do our work. Mission accomplish and I get the human mind the credit that thought of the idea and programmed the software.
But like I said, I don't think we are arguing, I think you are just emphasizing the complexities and adaptive nature of computers, in programming language we sometimes call this polymorphim, and I'm just emphasizing the beauty of the human mind and that we can transfer our intelligence.
Respectfully
-WNL