Is Google Smarter Than Your Pet?

Last updated on: October 8, 2020 at 5:22 am by James F. McGrath

Is Google Smarter Than Your Pet? 2020-10-06T09:00:43-04:00 James F. McGrath

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I don’t know exactly where a conversation in class may go. Only old-fashioned professors who lecture with little room for question or discussion might claim to know precisely how a given time slot of 50 minutes or an hour and a quarter will unfold. Unpredictable conversations, I would argue, make more significant learning possible not only for students but the professor as well. Not that they are completely unforeseen (at least most of the time). The most interesting conversations and discoveries occur at the place where extensive preparation and familiarity with the known meets openness to the unknown.

Given that the class conversation I want to talk about was on the topic of artificial intelligence and personhood, mentioning this by way of introduction is especially relevant. AI can now mimic conversation with some modicum of success. But to what extent can it go in genuinely unexpected directions the way human conversations can?

This post has the title “Is Google Smarter Than Your Pet?“ That is a question I posed to my Religion and Science Fiction class recently. I didn’t anticipate doing so, even though I had planned for us to compare machines and animals and their respective intelligences and rights. The answers students gave to that question were pretty consistently “yes, in some ways; no, in others.” This raises the interesting question of when a machine might cross the threshold to the point where it might deserve some rights. Science fiction tends to fixate on when a machine might be considered a person deserving “human” rights. But there are limits to ways the law permits you to mistreat a dog or cat. Ants, on the other hand, you may stomp on to your heart’s desire. If it is just the capacity to experience suffering in particular ways that is the basis for the distinction, then we may be able to withhold that from our machine creations. However, we might also theoretically custom create human clones modified to lack that same capacity to experience suffering existentially. Why not do so and have an army of disposable soldiers, as in Star Wars: The Clone Wars?

I asked students which machines from fictional stories they know seem to them to be persons or close to it, and which seem to be merely emulating person-like behavior to provide a convenient interface for humans. I was glad that classics like Short Circuit and Transformers were brought up. I introduced KITT from Knight Rider into the discussion, briefly playing the opening credits sequence to show the car and recall the series.

That brings us to the amusing and/or instructive conclusion of this post. YouTube copyright blocked my unlisted video of the session, uploaded to be available to students who missed the class. A human person might have recognized that my brief use of that scene was within fair use for educational purposes. An animal would presumably not have grasped that there was an issue of possible copyright violation. But just as some dogs can be trained to sniff out drugs and explosives, YouTube has been trained to sniff out infringement of rights of ownership. Doesn’t this suggest that our software has entered the realm of animal intelligence if not surpassed it, and that its legal status might in at least some respects deserve to fall in the same realm?

My class explores a different and very timely question about AI in our next class meeting. I will share that in a separate post. In the meantime, here are some items of related interest:

A robot wrote this entire article. Are you scared yet, human?

How close are computers to automating mathematical reasoning?

How long until you fall in love with a robot?

Since I discuss animal intelligence in this post I should share this recent piece about a cat imitating human behavior (for what it can get out of doing so, obviously.)

The future of autonomous transportation

On creating a bit of software to emulate biological evolution:

http://theappleandthefinch.com/2016/05/22/finding-dawkins-weasels/

A brave new world to live and work in

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/10-awesome-ar-apps-for-the-classroom/

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/how-new-technology-can-boost-student-creativity-in-the-classroom/

Darwin on Design, Doubt and suffering

The next level of BS

Machine learning and hurricane prediction

Measuring quantum gravity

Physics and Theories of Everything

Finally, here’s a video I came across recently related to a Star Trek episode that may have come to mind at one point as you were reading this post:

If you don’t know the episode from The Next Generation “The Measure of a Man” you should definitely watch it. Here is an excerpt from the trial in which Cmd. Data’s right to choose as a Starfleet officer, or status as a piece of Starfleet property, is the matter at stake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjCytqku18M

artificial intelligence

Google

YouTube

Previous Post

October 7, 2020

Bullying Presidents and Pastors

Next Post

October 9, 2020 Should a Computer Choose (or be) the President?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Peter 1 Samuel 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Corinthians 2 Kings 2 Peter 2 Samuel 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy academia Acts of the Apostles afterlife Akhaten Alcatraz American Academy of Religion Amos Anglican Arabic Aramaic archaeology art artificial intelligence astronomy atheism atonement Babylon 5 Baptists Battlestar Galactica Bible Biblical Studies Carnival biblioblogging Black Mirror Blade Runner Book of Job book review Buddhism Call for Papers China Christianity Christmas Christology Chronicles Coptic creation Daniel Deuteronomy Doctor Who Dune Easter Ecclesiastes economics education Eldad Keynan Enoch Seminar Ephesians eschatology Esther Evangelicals evolution Exodus Expanse Ezekiel Ezra fantasy Fringe fundamentalism Galatians games Ge'ez genealogy Genesis Gnosticism Gospel of Jesus' Wife Gospel of John Gospel of Judas Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Peter Gospel of Thomas Greek Harry Potter Hebrew Hebrews Hinduism historical Jesus history Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Holidays horror Hosea humor incarnation India inerrancy information literacy inspirational Intelligent Design Ireland Isaiah Islam Israel Italy James Jeremiah John the Baptist Jonah Joshua Judaism Jude Judges Judith Lamentations languages Latin Leviticus libraries literature Lord of the Rings LOST Mandaeans Mandaic memes Methodism Micah monotheism morality Mormons movies music mythicism NASSCAL Nehemiah new perspective New Testament news Numbers Orthodox paganism panentheism pantheism Patheos Paul and his letters Pentecostals Philippians Philippians 2:6-11 philosophy physics Planet of the Apes podcast politics Progressive Christianity Protestantism Proverbs Psalms pseudoscience racism religion Revelation Roman Catholicism Romania Romans Ruth scams science science fiction Secret Gospel of Mark Society of Biblical Literature Song of Songs Star Trek Star Wars Stargate Swahili Syriac Taoism technology Terminator The Handmaid's Tale The Hobbit The Matrix theodicy theology theory Timeless Titus tomb Torchwood travel TRON Uncategorized United Kingdom Westworld X-Files young-earth creationism Zechariah

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 February 2007 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz