Thinking 1/4 - BBC Horizon 1987 (Artificial Intelligence)

Documentary (BBC 1987) on thinking and the challenges in creating artificial intelligence. Written and directed by James Burge.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Artificial Intelligence
• neural net
• Turing
• Turing Machine
• Turing Test
• Thinking
• Cognition
• mind
• Socrates
• Computer Science
• Singularity
• The Chinese Room
• BBC Horizon
• Edward Fredkin
• Derek Jacobi
• Marvin Minsky
• John Searle
• Hubert Dreyfus
• James Burge
• Cray
• 1987

[Jimburge1]

Nice upload Cromulantable. Please could you credit James Burge and writer and director in your info? Thanks. All the best, James Burge

[Cromulentable]

@Jimburge1 Done! Thanks for your great film - all of these points are still absolutely valid after almost 25 years. Using neural networks has become quite common now in computer science, but they are still light years away from emulating "real" behavior of a human being.

[siskoisgnar]

limitless power!

[Gold3nStat3KiD]

this documentary is so suffocating and exaggerated in fear.

[Jimburge1]

@Steerpike07 Sorry, previous post from Oddnotesful is actually from me JimBurge in a different guise.

[Oddnotesful]

@Steerpike07 Thanks. Glad you like the film. I know what you mean about Horizons but it is a bit too easy just to decry modern rubbish. I have seen some very good ones recently. From the point of view of style both viewers and programme-makers have got used to a much more flexible and exciting style. For example ‘Thinking’ was considered to be very innovative, almost avant-garde when I made it but it looks just about normal now. Best, Jim

[Steerpike07]

Has anyone else seen James May's meeting with Asimo when it showed it could distinguish between a flat-topped four-legged wooden object that was a chair from another that was a small table? Surely that is the start of computers being able to categorise experience?

[Steerpike07]

@Jimburge1 First class work here - very content-rich. I am constantly put down by friends who disagree with my view that today's Horizon does not compare with the 80s-90s. This is a great opportunity to ask you your view. Might today's 24 year-olds (my age in 1987) find today's Horizon as informative as I did then? Is it only because I've watched so many of these that 'new' content in any science programme seems less & less? I'd love to know what you think of Horizon in this century?

[zappa666ful]

Rock 'em sock 'em break dancers at 14:26. I doubt they would be doing the robot to Frankie Goes to Hollywood though.

[Jimburge1]

@Cromulentable Yes, I think Searle was making some good points. Not only has a 'thinking machine' not become a reality but with computers now becoming ubiquitous (how old-fashioned the 'mighty cray' seems now) the question of whether machines will ever 'think like us' has slipped off the agenda. It is obvious to most PC owners that they will not (don't know about Mac users). Thanks for your interest. Best, Jim