Throughout history, advances in knowledge and technology have made things possible that previously seemed impossible. These advances leave us wondering whether there exists a limit to what can be discovered and known.
This quest for the frontier of knowledge gives birth to two schools of thought. The first school maintains that everything is possible and that humans will achieve unimaginable things. This motivates endeavors such as deep freezing dead people for possible resuscitation in the future. The other school limits what can be achieved. Lord Kelvin for example maintained in 1902 that flying will never be a practical success.
Against such a background, Professor Michel Bezy had us debate the future of artificial intelligence in the class Strategic Use of Digital Information. He wanted to know whether we thought it possible that machines would be more intelligent than human beings.
 |
| Entrance to CMU Africa campus, Kigali, Rwanda |
This was an issue I had thought about extensively. I had an opinion I considered concrete. It had never occurred to me to define it in a concrete form because I had never imagined I would encounter such an opportunity to express it so soon.
Aware that my argument was subtle; I chose to use an analogy. My argument was that discovering the secret of human intelligence is possible. As a result of that, it would be possible to make intelligent machines. It was possible to discover this secret because the process of discovering it would not destroy the people who are making that discovery or destroy the intelligence that is sought.
In other words, the journey that cannot be made is that journey that either destroys those that undertake it by the mere fact of them undertaking such a journey or destroys the goal for which it is being undertaken. If you want to, you can say, I was deriving a formula for impossible.
So I lifted my hand and luck befell me to speak. I said, “yes I think that computers will be more intelligent than people because making intelligent computers would not destroy people” and to drive my point home I started my analogy.
“So imagine I want to go to Musanze. If every step I take towards Musanze means that I have to lose part of my body. Let's start with hands, and then the next step, my legs, and then maybe my ears and then…”. I can’t remember exactly how I concluded this argument. I only remember that everyone looked at me with questioning eyes. The more I tried to explain, the more people got confused. Eventually, I gave up as I could not put myself together enough to explain my point.
 |
| Musanze, Northern Rwanda |
And then later out of the class, I just can't forget how it became the #1 source of laughter. It still makes me laugh imagining how my classmates later described my attempts to explain myself.
And now, when you going to Musanze…, and your legs are cut off…
It was a grim reminder for me to improve how I communicate my ideas to people.
I believe that we shall never be able to make computers that can make choices. To make such computers would require us to discover the secret of human freedom. I think that such a discovery will bring an end to that freedom. In my formula of the impossible, this journey destroys the goal which it seeks to achieve.
If such a secret is known, we will wake up to find Taliban fighters murmuring in sweet melodic tones #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #MAGA #MAGA. One passing by a church might hear people chanting Allahu --hh kBar and somewhere in a Mosque some Moslems will be singing Amazing Grace.., I don’t think leaders would hesitate to use such means to "bring peace".
Just as an example, the other category of impossibles, journeys that destroy the persons who seek to accomplish it; would be to visit the sun. You would never succeed as you would burn up before you reached anywhere close. Outside these two categories of problems, I maintain that everything else is up for grabs.
