Maybe our brains are not as large as we think?
For computational tasks like performing logic, computation, mathematics, etc… clearly our brains are not the most powerful. We have a plethora of machines to do these tasks for us. Maybe when we realize that our brains are not a magical computational device, we can use the tool (the brain) a bit better. We can stop relying on it so much for tasks of such nature, and offload more to non-human tools. Of course, we all do it implicitly, but I wonder if making the switch explicitly could help us focus more on tasks and goals that can not be off-loaded to a machine. (Although, it would be quite interesting to think about what a machine can not ever do that a human can.)
And given, how good machines are getting at computational, reasoning, mathematical, and programming tasks, I believe it becomes all the more essential for humans to focus on the right kind of ‘humans-only’ tasks.
What humans essetially do is construct various ‘models’ in their brains, and by models I mean, algorithms or Turing Machines to do various actions. And intelligence is most likely being able to construct new turing machines, and be able to identify which TM/algorithm is the right algorithm for a given task, and then being able to apply or execute that turing machine/algorithm efficiently.
So intelligence boils down to:
- Contructing new algorithms or turing machines of the mind a.k.a. Learning.
- Being able to execute those algorithms at the right time efficiently a.k.a. Raw compute.
The things this implies is that ‘learning’ or construction of new turning machines efficiently is the most important skill a person can have.
And this is obvious when we look like it that way, but also somehow beautiful. Neural networks and machine learning is a study of how to make machines ‘learn’, these neural nets as they learn are slowly constructing implicit TMs in their layers [todo: find citation and find out what the research says on this].
The world not abounds with TMs, the more external ones we create the more we are able to offload the work from our mind’s TMs into the world’s TMs. Perhaps this is what happened with the concept of ‘imagination’, it used to be an algorithm, a task purely for the human mind. Then we got televisions, computers, phones that show our brains images that it would previously conjure up itself. But why would the brain do some computation when it knows a fix is nearby? So, indeed, this offloading to the machines does come with some downsides. The machine starts to entrain our TM with the machine’s TM, and soon ours is replaced or gone, although I am not quite sure of the exact mechanisms.
So what happens when machines start truly learning? Perhaps that day we will stop learning too, and perhaps we already have. People are forgetting how to code, they are forgetting how to write in their own unique styles, they are forgetting how to spell. Just like they forgot the virtues of one’s own imagination and the virtues of reading and writing.
In an ideal world, when we have such external TMs/algorithms at our disposal, we should be using our own computing machines (the brain) to construct more interesting TMs of the mind (i.e., spend a majority of our time learning).
We talked (and perhaps agreed) in the premise before our brain’s computational prowess are not the greatest. So… what is it that we really are good at? Because on 16th August 2026 it seems like most things that made human intelligence ‘special’ is going away, everything an avergae human can do, a machine can somehow do better. Of couirse, excluding some exclusively human things that are mostly…. recreation. Have you ever seen a machine enjoy itself?
Does a machine listen to the Moonlight Sonata to feel better? Then, are things like happiness, fulfillment, pleasure cognitive functions as well? I don’t know and I will come back to it.
Are learning and recreation the two most important things to exist?
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