Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3541 to 3545 (7th August to 11th August 2017)
Thrudd:
I would not go so far as saying that being able to walk about without issue is a higher level of learned skill set.
He already has the basics of locomotion and navigation from being in his ipod chassis.
Do you think about how you place your limbs and flex each muscle as you walk?
I like to hearken mack to Macross/Robotech with what was referred to as Reflex technology [muscle memory for the organic types] - that is that each subsystem had built-in dedicated control systems to look after basic repeatable operations with a high level of skill. A master control signal comes in saying "keep upright balance" and so you stand there as the individual subsystems interact, flexing and relaxing to compensate for environmental irregularities and personal shifts in weight due to upper body actions and yet maintain an upright stance. This also explains the old "ow - I just walked into a lamp post" scenario where the reflex system was doing its job just fine propelling you forward but the higher level functions did not do theirs, in this case collision avoidance.
ChipNoir:
--- Quote from: flondrix on 08 Aug 2017, 10:26 ---
--- Quote from: ChipNoir on 08 Aug 2017, 09:24 ---So basically, I think an AI still has to have experiential education, and process it like a human does. They might be better able to organize than a human student, but they'd still have to put in the time and dedication that a human would. So I don't think Winslow can just jump into any field he wants.
--- End quote ---
This overlaps with something I was wondering about...after downloading into the new body, Winslow can stand and walk and safely hug people without staggering about for a while first. Shouldn't he have a learning curve?
If it were possible for AIs to acquire skills simply by downloading them, those skill files would have to have been created somehow, in a format compatible with the AI receiving them, been debugged, etc. (For starters, we know that the PC/Mac/Linux divide extends to Anthro PCs.) So, here is my theory...
Someone has gone to the trouble of creating some instantly downloadable skills and applets of limited scope, such as the "drivers" Winslow would have needed to use his new body fresh out of the stockroom. But more generally, AIs have to learn things the hard way. I do wonder, though, if it is possible to "copy" what one AI has learned to another AI, or if everything they have experienced is tangled up with their personality and self in a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, thinky-winky... stuff. The fact that Corpse Witch was able to excise specific events from Bubbles' memory would imply that AI memory is a bit more organized than that, but the fact she screwed it up may imply that it isn't simple either. The fact that Spookybot thought that those memories might be recoverable, and had to confirm that they were gone implies that such editing is possible for someone more competent than Corpse Witch.
A future plot possibility: Union Robotics becomes popular, and an entrepeneur approaches Bubbles with an offer to open franchises where the mechanics would be using copies of Bubbles' experience and skills. Bubbles is so averse to having anyone poke around in her head again that she refuses...emphatically.
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I think you can protocol autonomic functions, given how for us humans, things like walking aren't really something we have to think too hard about. We just do it. True, as infants we have to get a handle on it, but our intelligence is way more basic as infants as well.
flondrix:
--- Quote from: Thrudd on 08 Aug 2017, 10:45 ---Do you think about how you place your limbs and flex each muscle as you walk?
--- End quote ---
Not anymore. But it took time and practice to learn, many years ago.
--- Quote from: Thrudd on 08 Aug 2017, 10:45 ---I like to hearken mack to Macross/Robotech with what was referred to as Reflex technology [muscle memory for the organic types] - that is that each subsystem had built-in dedicated control systems to look after basic repeatable operations with a high level of skill.
--- End quote ---
What we organic types call "muscle memory" is in fact in the brain. It just feels like your arms and legs know what to do.
So if the routines necessary to use the new arms and legs were already present on the drive in the new body, where did they come from? Maybe some coder wrote them, from scratch, but I doubt it. That doesn't seem to work too well in real life. I think some AI "test pilot" stumbled around in a prototype body and learned the way humans do, and the routines were copied from s/he/it.
But regardless of where the routines to operate the arms and legs came from, basic repeatable actions can only take you so far. You can tell your legs to walk, but not to tapdance or to knee an unwanted suitor in the groin (unless there's a downloadable app for that) or tell your hands to roll out filo dough without tearing it. Practice, practice, practice.
On the gripping hand: Momo was 2.7 years old when she got her new body, and she already had a variety of skills, especially social ones. I guess that is proof that AIs can be "pre-loaded" with skills.
flondrix:
--- Quote from: ChipNoir on 08 Aug 2017, 11:51 ---I think you can protocol autonomic functions, given how for us humans, things like walking aren't really something we have to think too hard about. We just do it. True, as infants we have to get a handle on it, but our intelligence is way more basic as infants as well.
--- End quote ---
We "just do it" after learning the hard way as infants. What we call "intuition" and "muscle memory" and "common sense" are just examples of being unaware of what your brain is actually doing.
As for the intelligence of infants, that is a profound question. Are they less intelligent, or do they just have a lot to learn, starting with the fact that there are things they might want to learn? The original definition of IQ compared a child's ability to do certain tasks with average ability of older and younger children to perform those same tasks; was that test comparing the size of the cup or how full the cup was? Of course any IQ test applicable to adults must work on completely different principles.
NemesisDancer:
Today's comic made me smile - cheery Winslow is adorable ^_^
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