Computer versus human

There is a real possibility that in twenty or thirty years the computers will be real competitors to the human brain

                  
In the first chess match between an IBM computer with "Deep Blue" software and the world champion Garry Kasparov, the computer won. Although Kasparov won the entire tournament, the supercomputer proved that it is a serious contender for the world championship. The thinker Zvi Yanai was quoted as saying about this: "Despite its skills, the computer operates without understanding... The computer remains stupid as it was."
 It is important to understand why many claim that the victory of the computer still leaves man with a considerable advantage and to ask how long this advantage will last us. Back in the early days of computers, fifty years ago, anyone with a common sense understood that in certain battles a person has no chance against a computer. Even the elderly Weitzak, a primitive computer that is now a museum exhibit at the Weizmann Institute, easily defeated the best human brains, and this when it came to, for example, multiplying two ten-digit numbers. On the other hand, even the fastest of today's supercomputers has difficulty choosing a teddy bear from a collection of toys, or recognizing a smiling face - tasks that any baby can perform.
 It will not be surprising that in all the years of existence of computers we were brought up to think that man has an advantage over the computer, and that it lies in intuition, the ability to integrate, the ability to draw conclusions, understanding and of course also in cognition and emotions. It was made clear to us that even the best at computers will always be left behind in these skills, because the computer is nothing more than a sophisticated calculating machine, whose main pride is in performing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division at enormous speed. And here, year after year, computers acquire new skills, and some of them break into areas that were previously the exclusive domain of humans. Thus, for example, today there are computers and robots with the ability of "vision" - recognizing patterns, identifying them and sorting them, as demonstrated for example by a cruise missile that identifies its target. We are on the verge of a breakthrough in computerized understanding of human speech - something that will allow free conversation with a computer in the near future. Computerized "expert systems" store data, create connections between them and help managers make critical decisions. Is there a principled limit to how far a computer can approach the ability of the human brain? The result of the historical battle between "Deep Blue" and Kasparov may suggest that such a limit does not exist. Twenty years ago, chess programs were developed that beat novice chess players. It was then claimed that it was easy to do this, since the playing ability of an amateur player can be translated into a series of "dry" computer commands. But defeating a master, they thought, would require the computer to have intelligence and mental leaps beyond the capabilities of an electronic machine. This barrier has now been breached, with the help of brilliant programming and maximum utilization of hardware development.
  The computer critics claim that the victory was achieved in indirect ways: even now, the computer has no intuition, and all "Deep Blue" does is create a pale imitation of Kasparov's mind while using the computer's ability to mechanically scan billions of game steps. But what is actually the process that takes place in the mind of the Russian master when he plays? What is the process that happens in your mind, the reader, in understanding these lines? Our mind is a sophisticated computer like no other, created over millions of years of evolution. Just like a computer, the brain has "external engineering", recorded in our genetic material - DNA. Our brain also performs billions of reception, comparison and retrieval operations every second of its operation. Reading a written sentence, or planning a brilliant chess move, are also the result of a "calculation", albeit on a different type of computer
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A clear difference between the mind of a person (or that of any evolved animal) and a computer is in their internal architecture. The biological brain evolved from DNA to perform tasks such as identifying prey hiding in the grass or recognizing a mate. It is built in a parallel and associative manner, while unifying the functions of the central processor and the memory functions. This makes it very easy for him to perform tasks that require quick absorption and comparison between models. In man, these abilities have reached a great perfection, which enables text comprehension and also a quick assessment of the situation on a chessboard. Computers, on the other hand, were developed from the beginning to perform calculations in a "serial" manner - step by step - while taking advantage of their great speed. This structure creates considerable difficulties in carrying out integrative tasks and requires considerable sophistication in writing the necessary programs. But it is essential to understand that the architectural advantage of the organic brain is not irreconcilable: it is possible to accomplish complicated processing tasks in each of the architectures, or in a successful combination of them.
This idea is already being implemented in the development of new computers, including "deep blue". On top of that, the human brain still exceeds in complexity by several orders of magnitude the most sophisticated computer. This quantitative difference should not be underestimated: for evidence - the main difference between the computer that beat amateurs and the one that beat Kasparov is in the calculation speed and the number of memory cells. But the quantitative gap between computers and human minds is also closing very quickly.
 There is, therefore, a real possibility that the computers in twenty or thirty years, which are expected to be more than a thousand times faster in speed and memory than the computers of the present, and which will be equipped with parallel architecture and programs that imitate the operation of the human brain, will be real competitors to the human brain. The computers of the 21st century will be equipped with sophisticated senses, will be able to learn from experience as well as communicate freely with humans and among themselves. It is likely that they will be able to get closer and closer to developing qualities such as intuition, generalization and strategic analysis. It is likely that gradually, without the landmarks being announced at the head of the public, we will find ourselves in a generation's time in the company of computer "creatures" that are similar to us in almost every way - intelligent beings of the type of Data, the human robot in the science fiction series "Star Trek". While taking a certain risk, one might even assume that such computer-robots will have the ability to make aesthetic judgments and create social relationships - koshers taken from the human repertoire that we usually call the world of emotions. After all, emotions are also, in the end, a result of the operation of the wonderful computer hidden in our skull, and it is possible, as we know, to influence them with chemical and electrical stimulation of the brain. The history of computing is full of small and gradual developments, and only from time to time breakthroughs come to the attention of the media, as in the case of the current confrontation between man and computer. But in the perspective of a few decades we witness that the invention of the computer brought about a revolution that has no second in the history of the human race. The balanced confrontation between the computer and Kasparov obliges us to recognize that the revolution is not yet over. The development of computers in the future may surprise even the most skeptical among us, and lead to an era of sharing between equals - man and computer.