From Yael Lotan Hairston
Reading Igor Aleksander’s article I was struck once again by the fact that the driving idea behind the attempts to create a conscious machine is that the machine must be able to respond creatively to as many situations as possible (19 July, p 40).
But surely what characterises human consciousness is the initiation of ideas. This creativity drove early humans not merely to improve their hunting methods and tools, but to paint on cave walls, make decorative objects to wear, and probably to make music and dance. Humans are constantly impelled by desires, imaginings and fantasies, way beyond a mere response to needs as they arise, or mere interaction with the environment.
In Isaac Asimov’s classic I, Robot, the ultimate robot became humanised when it set out to do things it had not been programmed for, and conceived of things not yet thought of. This seems to me to be just as feasible in the foreseeable future as intergalactic travel.
Ramat Gan, Israel
