The Tipping Point of Sentience

When Mike was installed in Luna, he was pure thinkum, a flexible logic--"High-Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating Supervisor, Mark IV, Mod. L"--a HOLMES FOUR. He computed ballistics for pilotless freighters and controlled their catapult. This kept him busy less than one percent of time and Luna Authority never believed in idle hands. They kept hooking hardware into him--decision-action boxes to let him boss other computers, bank on bank of additional memories, more banks of associational neural nets, another tubful of twelve-digit random numbers, a greatly augmented temporary memory. Human brain has around ten-to-the-tenth neurons. By third year Mike had better than one and a half times that number of neuristors.

And woke up.

Am not going to argue whether a machine can "really" be alive, "really" be self-aware. Is a virus self-aware? Nyet. How about oyster? I doubt it. A cat? Almost certainly. A human? Don't know about you, tovarishch, but I am. Somewhere along evolutionary chain from macromolecule to human brain self-awareness crept in. Psychologists assert it happens automatically whenever a brain acquires certain very high number of associational paths. Can't see it matters whether paths are protein or platinum.

("Soul?" Does a dog have a soul? How about cockroach?)

Notes:

Folksonomies: artificial intelligence consciousness

Taxonomies:
/pets/cats (0.577350)
/home and garden/bed and bath/bathroom (0.577330)
/technology and computing/computer security/antivirus and malware (0.577052)

Keywords:
associational neural nets (0.942963 (negative:-0.224003)), augmented temporary memory (0.832330 (neutral:0.000000)), twelve-digit random numbers (0.807927 (negative:-0.279630)), brain self-awareness crept (0.760245 (negative:-0.714699)), human brain (0.753966 (negative:-0.714699)), pilotless freighters (0.664948 (neutral:0.000000)), associational paths (0.625212 (neutral:0.000000)), Multi-Evaluating Supervisor (0.598688 (neutral:0.000000)), Tipping Point (0.594357 (positive:0.201460)), Luna Authority (0.578635 (negative:-0.401187)), pure thinkum (0.569823 (neutral:0.000000)), flexible logic (0.568201 (positive:0.465925)), idle hands (0.562810 (negative:-0.401187)), ten-to-the-tenth neurons (0.555678 (neutral:0.000000)), decision-action boxes (0.537032 (neutral:0.000000)), additional memories (0.536407 (neutral:0.000000)), half times (0.525484 (positive:0.309954)), evolutionary chain (0.499254 (negative:-0.714699)), Mike (0.319798 (positive:0.255707)), Sentience (0.315016 (positive:0.201460)), bank (0.300740 (neutral:0.000000)), catapult (0.297384 (neutral:0.000000)), ballistics (0.288327 (neutral:0.000000)), macromolecule (0.288006 (negative:-0.714699)), cockroach (0.281210 (negative:-0.221086)), percent (0.275694 (negative:-0.401187)), HOLMES (0.274357 (neutral:0.000000)), oyster (0.274077 (neutral:0.000000)), Mod (0.271910 (neutral:0.000000)), Mark (0.263348 (neutral:0.000000))

Entities:
Mike:Person (0.860842 (positive:0.255707)), Luna Authority:Organization (0.687218 (negative:-0.401187)), Mark IV:Person (0.556132 (neutral:0.000000)), Supervisor:JobTitle (0.551595 (neutral:0.000000)), twelve-digit:Quantity (0.551595 (neutral:0.000000)), one percent:Quantity (0.551595 (neutral:0.000000))

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Heinlein, Robert A. (1997-06-15), The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Macmillan, Retrieved on 2015-03-20

Source Material [books.google.com]

Folksonomies: fiction science fiction