It turns out the world’s smartest supercomputer is a pretty good doctor, too.
Five years after dominating geniuses in its debut on Jeopardy!, IBM’s Watson is still putting human intelligence to shame.
The artificial intelligence machine correctly diagnosed a 60-year-old woman’s rare form of leukemia within 10 minutes — a medical mystery that doctors had missed for months at the University of Tokyo.
And how different are we from robots? — TheMadFool
I can't speak for you, but I am as different from a robot as a fish is from an iPhones. — Bitter Crank
The principles we (robots, fish, iPhones, humans) work on e.g. the laws of physics and chemistry are same. The difference I believe is that of degree not of kind. — TheMadFool
There needs to be a bit more discrimination before you can compare life forms to robots. — Marchesk
Am I wrong? — TheMadFool
Of course there's a difference between a robot and living things. Living things are far more complex than the robots of today. However, in the finaly analysis, life is naught but a complex chemical reaction. Am I wrong? — TheMadFool
Yes. Complexity is more than a nothing but. My bed is made of wood, but I do not sleep in a tree. — unenlightened
In order to explain life you need to invoke at least replicators subject to variation and selection, and I don't think these concepts can be reduced to physics. Also a rather detailed history has to be invoked in order to explain present day biodiversity, and a great deal of that history will involve behaviour, which again cannot be expressed in terms of physics. — tom
The principles we (robots, fish, iPhones, humans) work on e.g. the laws of physics and chemistry are same. The difference I believe is that of degree not of kind. — TheMadFool
Robots, iPhones, etc., work on principles known to human beings, and applied by human beings. — Metaphysician Undercover
Living beings work on (as of yet) unknown principles. — Metaphysician Undercover
But, mind you, not made by humans. — TheMadFool
Doesn't science explain all physical phenomena? Why does life get a special status. We've been using science (biology and medicine) to understand life and look how much progress we've made. — TheMadFool
They're made by human beings as well, creative expressions of human language. — Metaphysician Undercover
Our current best theory of life is Neo-Dawinism. It is a theory of replicators subject to variation and selection. Where's the physics in that? — tom
Beyond a certain point, there is a lot of stuff that just isn't explainable--given what we know, and given what we don't know — Bitter Crank
I can't explain how my own mind composes these sentences and sends instructions to my fingers to type these letters. — Bitter Crank
In addition to say life(I'm assuming you have that in mind) is not explicable in terms of science is special pleading. — TheMadFool
It's not special pleading, it's just reality, a statement of fact — Metaphysician Undercover
Perhaps I commit the fallacy of accident. — TheMadFool
why is life and other things you have in mind inexplicable in terms of science? — TheMadFool
But what I was objecting to was waving a physics textbook over the termite mound and saying "This explains everything." It doesn't, it can't. Not because life is beyond science -- but rather, our science isn't quite that capable yet. — Bitter Crank
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