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Old 20th April 2012, 09:14 AM   #202
Mr. Scott
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Join Date: Nov 2005
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My Growing Collection of Magic Beans

I've decided to collect magic beans. Aside from the master magic bean of consciousness, we've heard of:

1) The Magic Bean of Smartness.
2) ...of Image Recognition (i.e.enemy hideouts in satellite pics).
3) ...of Creating Fine Art.
4) ...of Understanding (i.e. the Chinese Room experiment)

On #1, it depends on how smartness is defined, but a quick google yields "Characterized by sharp quick thought; bright." That's how I'd describe Watson, though one could argue it doesn't have the Magic Bean of Thought.

On #2, I've worked on many image recognition projects and knew some masters of the craft. Some of the hardest image recognition problems are regularly cracked with neural network simulations. They work!

On #3, I once proposed a program that generated animated cartoons in real time. That's exactly what computer games are doing now, and getting better at it every day. Kids sit and watch self-play mode for hours.

It will be a long time before computers have a shot at achieving the finest of fine art. I don't know how one could argue that they NEVER could (except by invoking the magic bean argument).

On #4, I killed the Chinese Room Experiment in that layman thread and would gladly repost here if anyone's interested.

Last edited by Mr. Scott; 20th April 2012 at 09:20 AM. Reason: #4 missed because of phone call
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