2075 : Artificial Human Brain

 

2075 : Artificial Human Brain

Universe has its own mind, because there are so many cosmic bodies, and all of them obey the laws of the universe, to the extent that even cosmic drilling machines, like black holes, also serve a purpose. To fulfil the laws of the universe. And in this entire cosmic expanse of plurality, there is a singularity that holds it all together, as if like a neural network, that communicates with the universe from all ends. The Dark Matter. Where I believe there are twin particles, if by some means the twin particles get separated, and one of them is taken to the farthest boundary of the universe, billions of light years away. This twin particle that got left out, will always find its trail and unite with this particle, somehow.

Somehow, because defining how, will take a lot of time. It is not that complex, but extremely time consuming. So for now, let us adhere to the main topic i.e. Artificial Human Brain.

Just like the universe has a mind of its own, and if we steal one of the particles that lies in twin or coupled form, it will do everything within its power ( and here we are referring to cosmic power ) to retrieve it or align it at its right position. Similarly human mind that is a cluster of billions of neurons, where sets of neurons are dedicated to fulfil different tasks, it is of utmost importance to fully understand the workings of the human mind, prior to embedding an artificial mind in a humanoid or a robot, that we want to act and behave like a human being.

Here, let us look at the basic flow of human mind and its workings; and it comes with a statutory warning that it is a creation of my own imagination, and any resemblance with any other model proposed in this direction should be treated as nothing more than a coincidence.

Human mind serves two main purposes:

1- Thought

2- Act ( An action influenced by the thought )

( For maintaining the contextual flow of this blog post, I am not touching any of human brain's roles in managing : Movements, Perceptions, Automatic behaviours, such as : Breathing, Sleep, Heart rate, Body temperature etc. Regulation of organ function, Speech and Language functions )

For many reasons, I would like to separate Reaction from Action. Because every action is not a reaction based stimuli, though every reaction is an action too.

So, in order to satisfy this view, let me add 3rd purpose to it as well:

3- Reaction

THOUGHT

Human thought is influenced by:

• Situations

• Senses

• Instincts

• Experience

• Memory

Conscience ( It kicks into action at a later stage of human development. This is why we have a  word like amoral, often used with acts of children. If the same acts are committed by adults, they will not be amoral, but immoral. Anyway, let me move further ) 

Once a child deals with situations, based on his/her instincts, senses. He she gains an experience, which then gets stored in the form of memory. 

At this early stage of development there is no conscience, because the database of his/her memories is too low. Once the database of memories grows, based on his/her experiences in different situations, and the child has mastered the art of engaging his/her senses and at times acted instinctively as well, the child at the age of 15 or maybe 16 has enough experiences and memory, to evolve a conscience. 

Yet a child at an early age, say at age 2, develops an emotion, feeling, sentiment, where the primary actor at this infant stage is nothing, but, NEED.

His/her hunger drives him/her to search for the breast of his/her mother, the baby suckles, and during this process, he/she is using his/her mouth to drink milk, but what we should not ignore to observe, is this fact. During every suckling session he/she breathes with his/her nostrils, and this fills his/her brain with the memory of scent, that obviously belongs to his/her mother, but it triggers into action when he/she is hungry, and this reminds him/her of his/her mother. Who right now exists as a scent in his/her body, because his/her visual sense based memory is still developing.

Something very amazing happens at this stage, when the child is hungry, and he/she does not receive any attention. The child cries. And based on research crying is emotion driven human action. But for the child, it is his/her hunger that initiates crying and this develops the child's emotions, feelings, sentiments. I call it brain performing its workouts to ensure perfect syncing and optimum performance of billions of neurons.

( Now, today when we are mastering AI, ML, and developing Artificial Brains, I wonder how we are embedding these learning experiences in these synthetic minds. Because without this, they will tend to be immoral and never amoral. There is a very fine line between being immoral and amoral, and there is an infinite list of reasons that develop the human mind from being amoral to being moral. While we all think about this together let me move ahead)

Returning to: SITUATIONS

Now this part is a bit complex and here is why:

Situations can be of following types

A- Totally new

B- Partly same partly new

C- 80% same and 20% new ( here % is a variable )

D- 80% new and 20% same  ( here % is a variable )

E- Exactly same

F- Appears same but is not the same ( here too the differential value is a variable )

G- Appears different but is not different ( here too the differential value is a variable )

Now, based on the situation, an infant acts e.g.

• 2 years old

• Situation 1 : 

Infant is Hungry . Mother is around and holding him/her in his/her lap.

Instinct based action

The infant moves his hand towards his mother’s breast, the infant’s sense of touch gets activated, then sense of smell, then via the act of breastfeeding, sense of taste gets activated too. So the infant's brain stores it as an experience.

NOW

• 2 years old

• Situation 2 : 

Infant is Hungry . Mother is not around 

Instinct based action

This time the infant cries and cries incessantly. And his/her mother appears right in front of him/her to feed him/her

Via this situation 2, the infant learned via experience that crying helps to seek attention. At this stage it is not memory, it is acting only based on instinct. It is so by virtue of human design. And that is why I suppose, evolution is such a  slow process. Because it conducts many trials prior to selecting a trait or an attribute as a part of that species.

( Again, in the synthetic mind, how many instincts should we define? How we define these instincts is also important. Because the primal instinct of humans is to kill to survive. Should we seed this instinct via an algorithm in a synthetic mind is also a very serious question to address. It is our slow learning that helps humans to tame this instinct. But in spite of having evolved for millions of years, few humans still cannot tame this instinct. And if we are to create synthetic minds with instincts, I would say, let us run them through rigorous trials, and the only way to do this is by making these synthetic minds interact with a huge array of situations with many variables. Because human life too deals with situations with innumerable variables. Any company that achieves this with perfection ( although that is impossible, because one cannot think of all situation based possibilities) ) will achieve supremacy in General AI.

If you are thinking I am a pessimist, let me share a real example.

I went out with my nephews because they wanted to run on the recently renovated promenade.

Situation 1

• 2 kids

• Me as an adult

• We are running 

We ran, weather was awesome, and we returned

NOW

• Situation 2

• 2 kids

• Me as an adult

• Youngest nephew wants to ride bicycle, so we have his bicycle with us as well

We are running

We ran, on returning, we must have reached halfway, when it started raining cats and dogs. And it got extremely windy.

The youngest nephew who is only 11 years old, started losing control of his bicycle and he was dangling like a small clown on springs placed on the bonnet of a car.

Although I am 40 plus now, for me, with so many memories and experiences, this situation was totally new. And the element of bicycle did the rest.

In this situation here is what I felt happened in my brain:

My previous memory got activated and I consulted it, but it threw a few odd elements back at me: bicycle, heavy rain, and an 11 year old. The elder one would manage given his age.

Now at this stage, my knowledge too turned active. Because

we all had been running for 30 minutes and our bodies were hot, and a cold shower would have been devastating, especially for the kids.

But based on my memory, knowledge, and instinct ( of care towards the kids ) I ran, somehow stopped an auto, and asked the kids to get in, but the auto driver refused to carry the small BMX bicycle. 

So I am stuck again!

What shall I do, what shall I do?

I told the eldest nephew that you sit along with your youngest brother, while I will follow you, but his answer was, he enjoys rain. Please let me ride the bicycle in the rain. 

Tough decision again.

I do not want him to catch cold because his body is extremely hot due to running.

I used my soft skills to convince the auto driver to allow me to sit on the window side while I held the bicycle and dragged it along. His answer: “no sir, you please get down, you are too fussy.”

Word fussy, should summon my primal instinct and I should enter into a fight with him. But I have learned to tame it, so I humbly beg, I implore, but he does not budge. 

Eventually, I asked the eldest one, if he has any friend who lives in this area. He pointed to one of the houses that was nearby. And Ah what a relief!

We placed the bicycle there and now it was three of us happily enjoying the mid summer sudden, down pour. That is without getting wet. All of a sudden, their mother calls, she too needs to be rescued from the heavy downpour , and is waiting at someone's shop, luckily that shop was on the same route, she got in along with my sister, and we squeezed ourselves into the auto and reached home.

And the next day, I went and got the bicycle.

It took me a few minutes to write about this incident, but in that situation, when my skin experienced the first rain drop, my brain had already started assessing the situation, and I instantly stopped the auto. All this information was processed, in a matter of  few seconds. And I also had to counter one odd situation, wherein the auto driver had suggested leaving the bicycle at someone's shop, unlocked, on the main road. But then I knew this is not Sweden!

Oh my God! I even thought about Sweden that time. Haa Haa. Human mind is one of the greatest machines, matchless, priceless and peerless thinking tools gifted to humans. And for this we shall always owe a lot to the universe.

Now my question is how will we teach these scenarios to synthetic minds that will eventually become part of human like robots or machines. And I strongly believe that developing a synthetic brain that is like the human mind, will be a combination of millions of algorithms with trillions of situation based conditionals, and what not. 

All these mini algorithms will eventually contribute towards the development or generation of the central algorithm. But if one of the mini algorithms develops an error, or starts recording experiences erroneously, we cannot even imagine how the master algorithm will then corrupt the core design of the synthetic brain. Let me not even talk about connecting several synthetic brains together to create a super synthetic mind. 

However, there is one more fact, humans have not evolved much in a few centuries, and if we are to evolve into a mind that understands the Universe, while staying moral in our dealings with Universe and Planets that we intend to populate with our species, we better start working on synthetic minds. 

But with a lot of trials and checks, without this we will be only feeding primal instincts into these brains, eventually breeding one instinct: to destroy everything. It has been the case with many human beings, so there shall be no doubt to expect it from ill evolved synthetic brains as well.

Also, the human mind enjoys something we all know as SLEEP. When most of our senses are not inactive, but they are in a way, in relaxed mode, which in turn allows the associated sets of neurons to regenerate. While the brain that actually never sleeps, does like these sessions of rest, because based on daily experiences, it uses this time to sort human memories, then covers them with a layer of conscience and stacks them in the human mind, to refer to them whenever needed. And there are few memory patches which are pushed in the dormant zones. For many reasons:

• Bad past experience

• Bad memory gets invoked while interacting with similar experience/s

• Redundant, because your mind has a memory that has already dealt and stored an experience which is a duplicate of this experience

• To prevent emotional overload

There can be many other reasons. How we will manage them in these synthetic minds is also an important aspect to deal with.

I recently watched a short documentary where Boston Dynamics had developed a Cheetah-like robot that always gains its balance, no matter what one did. Now for a robot of this lineage, it would serve a specific purpose, maybe help ARMY in their combat, maybe guard homes etc. But it will dedicatedly serve a certain role or sets of roles.

And most of the robotics based companies are developing specific role based robots. And I believe, a robot that will perform all roles that humans can accomplish, that in true sense will be the golden age of Robotics and AI. And that is where the main thrill of this technology lies. Now, it remains to be seen who will write this kind of algorithm, because it will be accompanied by trillions of conditionals.

Is ChatGPT the answer? To some extent yes, but when it comes to the larger picture of AI. It still can be evolved. But there is a major roadblock that I see, with all these AI based thinking wonders. Their learning environment, all of them are following the same conventional approach and this has slowed down the growth of AI into a super intelligent and multi dimensional thinking, synthetic mind. My layman’s knowledge of AI tells me if we rethink the learning model, we can revolutionise AI. And whichever company achieves this, will be worthy of coming closer to realising the workings of the cosmic mind.

Even for ChatGPT every human interaction is a learning experience. As it stores it as an experience, its algorithm tries to keep perfecting it, based on subsequent trail of experiences originating from different sources, currently Global users of ChatGPT. But by the time it accrues knowledge and experiences, it will still be a far cry from being a super thinking synthetic mind.

Now, most of you might be thinking, writing a blog is easy, and what is even easier is making tall claims in blog posts. True, and I agree with you. But what if I told you there is a learning model which is different from these conventional complexities; and trains the AI model better and in less time, to evolve into a super thinking AI. The ultimate form of General AI. Which always beats us at chess, but it also knows it is just a game. 

As of now it can beat humans at chess, but it has no conscience that will tell it, “hey take it easy, it is just a game!”

Well that is beautiful, and you might be feeling toned down a bit, now that I have claimed I know a training model, which does not have these redundancies of conventional, obsolete training model ecosystems and approaches.

Ah, you were waiting for me to explain the training model too. I know you were. But take it easy and relax a bit. That might be  a part of my next blog post. Because blogging is a serious task and demands a lot of thinking and research.

But let me build up some curiosity, since I have now referred to it. There is need to first classify:

• All instincts

• Moral values

And define an algorithm for them. Here is the most encouraging part. These are constant values where we might have to consult societies, countries, religious heads, women, men etc. and then write an algorithm with constant values of instincts and morality. For example if Boston Dynamics wants to sell its humanoid in UAE and in France, they cannot have the same conditionals or moral code of conduct. Because the UAE is a Muslim country and the French have a very different culture compared to UAE. So, this is where the universal appeal of this synthetic human mind shall lie and be defined further. 

Once we have defined these constant values, then we should target variables. And this is where I think my learning model, which breaks free from conventional approaches, will beat all existing AI models of synthetic brains. And what helped me realise this flaw in learning models? Ah, one thing: I write a lot, I read almost anything, I passionately love someone very special, and I believe in thinking the unthinkable. ( instead of one thing, I should have said: one sentence!) 

And do you know something? Sometimes when you think the unthinkable, many people will think of you as someone who is a lovelorn or excessively consumed in his/her wanderings across the endless wonders of human mind and science. 

But then, is not God ubiquitous too, doesn't God manage the entire universe, including you and me, and animals too? That is a lot of thinking on part of God. 

I hope these heretics do not define God as lovelorn and excessively consumed in the wanderings across the endless wonders of infinite universe governed by complex laws. I hope they do not.

If they do, a typical Muslim reaction to this would be: “Nauzubillah i min zalik!”

It is an Arabic phrase that means : We seek refuge with Allah from that. 

Here “that” is a variable, and would relate to anything that is against accepted moral code of conduct, human values, scientific reasoning, rational thinking etc. etc. So if someone says, “the Sun was created only for me and in the Universe it did not serve any other purpose. A common reaction from someone who is a Muslim would be : Nauzubillah i min zalik! 

Which is merely his/her reaction to something that he/she believes to be incorrect. It can be a casual conversation or otherwise as well. 

In English it translates as : Oh my God! What are you saying!” 

Disclaimer : 

( please do not try to derive religious substrate from this phrase, which is more of a linguistic reaction in Muslim World, than a religion based reaction. I felt the need to explain it here, because of the tainted image people possess about one of the greatest religions on Earth, that actually teaches peace, harmony, love, amity and respect. 

But like one of my Urdu language teachers used to say ( بد سے بَدنام برا  : baad se baadnaam buraa ) meaning : give a dog a bad name and hang him. 

In simple language it means: a bad man is better than having a bad name. 

And the Global Muslim community has become a victim of this proverb. To the extent that a liberal and science loving blogger like me felt the need to explain the meaning of the Arabic phrase Nauzubillah i min zalik, and then explain its background so that it is not plotted in the reader's mind on a religious epicenter. 

But, if you seek and you show the willingness, you will come across many educated, liberal, modern thinking, and science seeking Muslims. There are a lot of them. But for some reasons we feel that this species of Muslims does not exist. Whereas the fact is they do, and in huge numbers.

But it also should in no way imply that it is cowardice that prompted me to explain it. No. Fear and cowardice should never be confused, fear can also arise because you love someone or something so much that you try to assess it from every angle prior to arriving at a conclusion. Here my fear is due to the fact that I love science, I love humanity, I have utmost regard for values followed by different societies across the globe, and I love my nation, and I do not wish to do anything that will disturb or inadvertently miscommunicate my intention, leading to a situation where I too become the wrong and innocent victim of the proverb my Urdu language teacher used to use so often.  

And when we develop belief or preconceived notions about a society, there is no antidote for it, except one, that we as society enter into a peaceful dialogue and understand each other better. And that takes time and needs the right people. Human beings. At least for now it is human beings, maybe in 2075, we will have outgrown these socially petty thoughts and needs, because we will have developed a universally acceptable moral code of conduct where all religions, cultures and societies will be treated as equals. At that stage we shall be evolved enough to lay our claim on every habitable zone of the Universe.

Urdu language

And for a Christian, the reaction would be : May the Lord save you!

For a Hindu from my country, the reaction would be: Ram Ram!

An exclamation that translates as : Oh my God! What are you saying! 

Now this is where it gets exciting for a thinking mind, all these exclamatory reactions, mean the same. Don’t they! But we have this genetic habit of making a mole of a hill. Whereas in few cases, it should never be the objective.

Anyway, I believe thinking differently in science should be a norm, an expected act, because only then we will know what works and what does not work. But if someone proposes a very different concept, ruling him/her out as an obsessive thinker, will be foolish on part of that person/s. And for them the right answer and the only answer will be to read about the life of Mr. Mandel ( Who was well educated but opted to be a priest ) and proposed the concept of Genetics. 

Perhaps for these heretics he too must have been a wonky person. But look around you and tell me, would we have achieved advancements in bioscience without genetics? I do not think so, and God is so busy, God does not believe in offering lectures or conducting online classes on Genetics. For God the rule is simple, “Observe, then Seek and you shall find.” 

And the Holy Bible approves of it, and so does Muslim literature, and so do Hindu Vedas as well.

Here is an interesting article written by Mr. Bill Gates on how the human brain works.

As for what you wish to seek from this blog post, I would say, observe and maybe you will find an inkling dropped by me in this blog post to create a new learning model, the much needed leap in the development of super thinking synthetic brains.

Wait, wait, please do not rush yourself into seeking mode yet, because I am offering you a lot more to seek, by exploring my science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075. This science fiction novel is quite unique because it seeks to understand how human emotions will evolve in 2075, and if humans will still be able to love and form relationships?

With the current and hasty approach towards developing AI, I am certain humans will struggle to express emotions, because they will be supplanted by synthetic emotions expressed by intelligent machines, that humans will be exposed to in 2075. And given the fact, that these thinking machines will emote and express feelings with a business motive at its core, will definitely interfere with human, organic patterns of emotions, which would gradually evolve synthetic clusters of emotions, submerging the organic aspect of human emotions, where the need to love is not based on some business transaction, but pure emotional requirement and satisfaction.

And if we do not work on constant values of instincts and moral code of conduct for these synthetic machines, we may end up jeopardising the very survival of human race.

Science fiction, They Loved in 2075, seeks to know how humans will experience love in 2075? This science fiction novel navigates through the possibility of men and women falling in love with machines, without knowing they are robots imitating human emotions. Will you still dare to fall in love in 2075 or will you strive to tell the difference between a human lover and a robotic lover?

This Sci-fi novel ( They Loved in 2075 ) tells the story of a man who falls in love with a real woman in 2075. And how he struggles to feel human and keep his emotional composition intact.

This Sci-fi story also aims at revealing why the man chose to love a real woman and not a never aging and always beautiful woman with synthetic feelings. In 2075, this might be a choice we all will have to make. Especially our children!

If you care for the future of the Earth and preservation of domicile expression of human emotions, then you must read this Sci-fi novel, They Loved in 2075.

I will conclude this blog post, by quoting one of the verses from the Holy Bible ( Song of Solomon : 8:6 ) 

“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave.”

The day AI develops the sense to understand the meaning of this verse, humanity will have developed a mind far superior than the human mind itself. 

This is why I strongly believe, the core AI algorithm that will eventually act as General AI of everything, should also have a part of algorithm dedicated to defining moral code of conduct, based on these morality enhancing lessons from holy and knowledge abounding scriptures like : The Holy Bible, The Holy Quran, The Holy Vedas from India, Teachings of Lord Buddha and a lot more, at social, cultural, psychological levels as well. 

Let us teach our General AI the emotion of love, just like in the movie Terminator, Arnold at the final moment learns why we humans cry. If the AI can understand the teardrop, beyond its chemical composition ( saline water ) it will lead the way towards generating, General AI of everything!